Instagram continues to evolve and provide new tools. The latest shift came in the form of allowing multiple full photos to be used in a single post. Your followers can now simply swipe the initial photo to see the rest in that post’s collection. With any new social media tool, this creates new possibilities on the platform. Once I updated my Instagram app and started playing around with the new feature, I wrote down a few ways multiple picture posts could be used.
Case Studies
In one single Instagram post, you can take your followers on a journey from inception to final product. If you are a logo designer, your followers can swipe their way through your logo design process. You can use photos, videos, or a combination of both. These mobile slideshows can give your audience an educational peek behind the veil of your process. This allows you to provide a more complex and contextually rich Instagram post.
Speaking of context…
Brand Presentations
You can now use a single Instagram post to showcase multiple parts of an overall visual brand identity project. For example, imagine the first part being the logo, the next being the brand marketing collateral (brochures, letterheads, banners, etc.), the next being the website and/or mobile app mockup, and the rest being various applications of the brand’s look and feel.
Album/Mixtape Art
A single Instagram post for a music artist may be a multi-part promotion for the latest album or mixtape. You can post your front album cover and your back album cover with the tracklist. You could include multiple previews/snippets of the project. If you’re making a multimedia release available, you can present each element offered and explain how each part contributes to the whole.
Short Stories
This Instagram update is giving you the ability to basically post in Instagram Stories format on a single post. Makers of video content can create short multi-part sketches, short (really short) films, and even use a single post to introduce multiple characters for a longer form project. Comic artists and illustrators can use a single post to tell a multi-part short story showcasing their skills in sequential art. The swiping motion acts as a page turn.
Instagram has become an even more powerful storytelling tool for many different types of brands and creatives. Figure out how to best use it for your benefit and the benefit of your audience.
~b.