ICYMI: 7 Brand Carousels to Inspire You
Plus more tools + tips from Social Media Week
Scroll all the way down to get some suggestions of tools, social-first brands and your next marketing book mentioned at Social Media Week.
⏩️ Carousel Posts Are Taking Over
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Carousels are one of the hottest formats on social right now.
We know TikTok is encouraging users to post more photo carousels (they claim photos can get 2.9x more comments than videos) and Instagram’s launched several carousel tests and updates in the last few months.
It seems more creators and brands are jumping on carousels while they’re hot — which I’m here for.
Friend and fellow social media expert Rachel Karten recently pointed out how some brands are nearing 50% photo content on TikTok, which we know is traditionally a video-first platform.
While we’ve seen carousels used for photo dumps and product roundups for years, recently brands are using carousels as a means for creative storytelling through listicles, swipe and choose, inspirational posts, and seamless panoramas.
My guess on why brands are posting more carousels?
They are relatively easy to produce and create several engagement opportunities — on both Instagram and TikTok. Plus, there are so many different ways you can use carousels. They’re a super versatile content type.
Here are seven brands killing the carousel game you can take inspiration from.
Note: this is part of a monthly series of social and influencer marketing trends I send out to paid subscribers.
#1: Aerie
Aerie always crushes it on social across the board. They use TikTok photo carousels for product catalogs, showcasing UGC, GRWMs, and choose-one swipe-throughs.
#2: Gymshark
Gymshark mainly shares photo carousels on TikTok vs. video content — and they generate a ton of engagement. They use carousels to share relatable and inspirational content:
#3: J.Crew
Instead of only focusing on short-form video content, J.Crew mixes in TikTok Carousels to showcase curated themes and their latest collections:
#4: Olay
Olay has creatively taken advantage of Instagram’s new carousel stop-motion feature:
Disneyland and Target are a few other brands experimenting with the fun feature.
PS: If you’re testing this out, try it early to stand out before audiences get tired of seeing the CTA “hold and scroll.” Use it for a product demonstration, to feature a person or place from multiple angles, or for the passage of time (eg. a disappearing slice of pizza).
#5: Chipotle
Chipotle often uses carousels as an engagement tactic, encouraging their audience to say which one they are through a “choose-one” swipe through:
This is an easy way to encourage engagement. With these carousel posts, brands typically see an influx of shares and comments.
#6: Infatuation LA
Infatuation LA uses Instagram Carousels for restaurant and bar location guides. It’s a tried-and-true carousel approach that isn’t going anywhere!
#7: Glow Recipe
Glow Recipe uses Instagram Carousels for panoramic images or graphics:
This is a subtle yet fun way to play around with carousel content. The small design element keeps your content fresh, interesting, and highly swipeable.
» Here’s an easy tutorial on how to create panoramic graphics for your brand.
What are your thoughts on Carousels? Are you using them on TikTok or Instagram? Sound off below or in the Slack channel 📲
💡 More Tips + Tools from Social Media Week
There was so much to unpack from Social Media Week — it feels like I’ll be rolling out the learnings for weeks. Here are some of the helpful tools, a book and social-first brands that were mentioned during the panels…
Tools that got a mention during Social Media Week:
Kaveat - an AI app that redlines contracts
Suzy - AI for brand awareness surveys
Brandwatch - Community+ Vetting service for researching influencer backgrounds
Meltwater - social listening and media monitoring
Pulsar - social listening and media monitoring
Sprout Social - social media management
Dash Hudson - social media management
*Creator.co - this was actually recommended on the ICYMI Slack channel for influencer campaign management/measurement/reporting but seemed useful to share.
Book recommendation:
Follow the Feeling: Brand Building in a Noisy World by Kai D. Wright
Brands that got a shout-out to follow on TikTok + Instagram:
Hot Take:
Adweek’s Sami Lambert was asked to fill in the blank:
“The thing that's ruining social platforms is …”
Her response: “Social commerce.”
Given the insights she has from working at Adweek, it seemed worth sharing her whole answer:
“They put the Instagram shopping button on and they took it off. Everybody hated it. With TikTok Shop, people just don't like to see ads. We have ad fatigue really hardcore.
I think the creator economy has to change the way we use social media and sell things on social media. People are already starting to get ad fatigue from creators… the Get Ready With Me structure is almost starting to get old, things move so quickly. So creators and brands will have to work together to make content that's educational, or informative or funny in order to sell products.
But I do think working with creators is the best way to sell products right now. I also think people underestimate that if people want a product or even a service or a piece of clothing, you don't necessarily need to even say it or sell it in video. It just needs to appear in some sort of way and the people will go find it. Products have been sold out immediately just for being in the background of a video.”
🚨 New App Alert
I got access to Airchat this weekend. It’s an audio social app that also offers instant transcription. You post a voice update and people respond by commenting verbally. But you can also read along.
They seem to have paused invites as of Sunday afternoon but if you want to send me your mobile number via LinkedIn DM or ICYMI Slack, I’ll try to send out as many invites as I can once they resume onboarding.