Summary of "everything I know about creating viral carousels in 29 minutes"
Viral Instagram Carousel Strategy Overview
The video presents a detailed strategy for creating viral Instagram carousel posts that drove the creator’s growth from 180K to nearly 250K followers in 2025. It emphasizes simplicity, design quality, and content format to maximize engagement and reach.
Main Financial and Business Strategies
Why Carousel Posts Outperform Reels for Follower Engagement
- Carousels reach actual followers directly without Instagram’s restrictive “test” algorithm applied to reels.
- High-performing carousels get pushed to Instagram’s Reels page, gaining reel-like exposure without posting a reel.
- Carousels tend to get more shares and saves due to their low-impact, easy-to-consume format (no audio needed).
- Carousels and photo posts are more frequently shared to the Explore page, increasing organic reach beyond followers.
- Instagram gives carousels a second chance to appear in followers’ feeds if initially skipped, unlike reels.
Content Types
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Informative Carousels: Teach or build authority on a topic with connected tips or steps.
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Revelational (Inspirational) Carousels: Each slide is a standalone thought, easily shareable individually or as a series, increasing multiple engagement points per post.
Growth Metrics
- Posting only carousels from February to March 2025 resulted in over 11 million views and 54,000 new followers in one month.
- Carousels generate multiple engagement opportunities per post, as each slide can engage or be shared.
Business Offering
The presenter offers a program for creators to build a clear brand strategy, content system, and premium offer to convert followers into clients and revenue.
Step-by-Step Methodology for Creating Viral Carousels (Using Photoshop)
1. File Setup
- Use Photoshop with artboards enabled.
- Set dimensions to 2160 x 2700 pixels (4:5 aspect ratio) for high-quality images.
- Create multiple artboards for each carousel slide within one file.
2. Design Principles
- Use minimal text, focusing on easy-to-digest, relatable content.
- Use personal hooks rather than generic “how-to” formats (e.g., “How I lost 10 pounds” vs. “How to lose weight”).
- Include a human face or person on the first slide to increase relatability and engagement.
- Maintain consistent text placement—typically three boxes in from the side, five boxes down from the top or up from the bottom on the Photoshop grid.
3. Image Editing
- Use black and white images with a slight box blur (radius 2-4) and noise filter (~15%) to create a film-like texture.
- Adjust exposure and brightness to ensure text stands out.
- Use Photoshop’s content-aware fill tool to remove distracting elements from images.
- Add a “paper” texture effect at the end to give the design a unique, tactile feel.
4. Text Formatting
- Use modern, minimal fonts.
- Adjust line spacing (~18) and kerning (letter spacing) to negative values (-80 to -100) for a trendy look.
- Capitalize “I” and keep other letters lowercase for a casual, relatable style.
5. Image Sourcing
- Use Pinterest to find mood-aligned images.
- Copy-paste images directly from Pinterest into Photoshop to save time.
6. Workflow Efficiency
- Duplicate artboards with all layers intact to quickly create new slides.
- Lock image layers to avoid accidental dragging.
- Save templates and manage file size to avoid heavy RAM usage.
7. Final Tips
- Customize fonts and branding to avoid looking like a copy of the presenter’s style.
- Experiment with formats but keep designs minimal and clean.
- Use the provided Photoshop template file (linked in the description) to follow along.
Presenters and Sources
- The video is presented by a content creator who shares their personal Instagram growth strategy using carousels in 2025.
- The presenter references their previous videos and offers a coaching program for content creators on Instagram.
- No other external sources or co-presenters are mentioned.
Category
Business and Finance
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