Instagram carousels should be the center of your 2022 social media strategy

Brands are investing a lot of time and money in promoting themselves online, and with this many resources put into it, you gotta make sure the results are paying off.

Now, among all the social platforms out there, there’s one that rules them all when it comes to engagement, and that’s the almighty Instagram.

And because of such a huge interest, the team from Socialinsider, together with Sked Social, conducted an Instagram engagement study, by analyzing 102 million posts, where they compared Instagram’s engagement in 2021 and its values in 2022.

By examining 2021’s trends for Instagram marketing, social media managers can predict what type of content will perform best in 2022 and adapt their strategies accordingly. We have to remember data never lies and it’s any digital marketer’s most important ally.

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Apparently, these days Instagram’s engagement tendency is to decrease, for now having an average of 2.02%, going back to its values from 2019.

There were plenty of changes along the way, but with all these ups and downs, you gotta make sure your social media strategy is aligned with the trends to generate the effects you want.

So, here are five reasons to use carousels (and how) to maximize your social media efforts on Instagram, according to the study’s findings.

1. Carousels lead to a higher average engagement rate

When it comes to top-performing posts on Instagram, things aren’t as easy as they may seem, because actually, best practices will be considered depending on the account’s size.

To all Instagram marketers, this is something you should know:

• Profiles under 5K have the potential of reaching an average engagement rate of 4.90% when choosing to post more carousels
• In the case of medium-sized accounts (between 10K-100K followers) the best option for higher engagement rates is video, with values up to 2.90%
• Large accounts (with more than 100K followers) will benefit more from using carousels

2. Using more carousels can help you increase your engagement per impression rate and make you gain more likes

The carousel post wins when it comes to engagement per impression across all profile sizes. This can actually reveal one of Instagram’s strategies, of pushing this type of content into the user’s feeds more.

With this in mind, think about prioritizing this type of content when choosing what to boost on Instagram.

Among the many benefits of choosing to place your bet on carousels is that this kind of post is the one that increases the median number of likes on Instagram.

3. Carousels lead to more comments on Instagram

Having an audience that presents interest in your topics, that’s open to communication and shows involvement is every brand’s dream and every social media manager’s objective.

But this ain’t an easy job, so, just in case you need a bit of help, check out these insights meant to give you a hand to improve your strategy:

• For an account under 10K followers choose to post a carousel
• In the case of medium-sized accounts (10K-50K), a mix between carousels and videos is the magic combo
• When it comes to accounts between 50K-100K, it would be preferable to start pushing videos more
• For large accounts (up to 50K followers), an approach of relying more on videos is what you should take into consideration

4. Carousels are more likely to be saved by Instagram users

Depending on your business objectives, there may be better to choose one type of post format to make your followers do what you want.

Let’s talk about generating more saves, for example. In order for you to get as close as possible to this objective, when creating your social media strategy you should consider using more carousels because this is what triggers people to press that save button most of the time.

But of course, there are some exceptions, large profiles (those with more than 100K followers) being the ones here. In this case, relying more on images would be a wiser choice.

5. Carousels increase the chances of a higher reach rate

Each type of post has its advantages and possible gains for your business, so what’s left to be done is to establish your goals and start working towards them, with the right tactics and actions.

Among the multiple benefits of integrating carousels more into your content calendar is that they also generate twice higher reach rates than videos, at least in the case of small profiles (under 5K).

The highest reach rates for carousels are 1.27% for small accounts, but also for middle-sized accounts (1.20%), those between 50K-100K followers.

TIP: Embrace captions with a maximum length of ten words for amplified results

When it comes to the optimal caption length of a post, there are a lot of good debates. But let’s not forget there’s strength in numbers, so data is the most trustworthy source.

What the analysis of 102 million posts showed is that captions of up to 10 words, combined with carousels are users’ favorite type of content to interact with. And that driving away from this formula proved to cause a decrease in engagement with about 0.70%.

Still, for those cases in which you consider a longer copy is needed, to properly deliver your message to your audience, you should take into consideration this formula: pair captions longer than 30 words with videos.

Conclusion

Now, with Instagram being the platform that has won people’s hearts, a closer analysis of what works and what it doesn’t is a gold mine.

Instagram’s engagement can go on mysterious roads, but the good thing is that data helps you be prepared and adapt to whatever may come.

Seeing how Instagram carousels become more and more important in Instagram marketing, and the many benefits they can bring to a brand’s social media presence, it becomes undeniably that in 2022, every business that hopes to be successful on Instagram should for sure become a heavy user of Instagram carousels.