How to Use Instagram's New Slideshow Feature | Of Leather and Lace - A Fashion Blog by Tina Lee
Photography by Austin Donohue

We need to talk about Instagram’s new slideshow feature. Two days ago Instagram just announced its newest feature: allowing users to publish up to 10 photos and/or videos in one post. And my mind was blown. I believe it could be a game changer particularly for content creators, content curators and brands.

 


HOW TO USE INSTAGRAM’S NEW SLIDESHOW FEATURE

Follow me on Instagram @ofleatherandlace

First you want to start a post as usual. At the bottom rightmost is a multiple photo/video icon. Tap on that to start choosing the photos you want to include in your slideshow!

You can choose up to 10 videos and/or photos. It can be all videos or all photos or a combination of both. Right now this feature only allows for square photos/videos. My guess is this probably won’t change so that Instagram won’t have to adjust the differing height with each slide.This also makes for a more unified user experience.

Once you’ve selected your desired photos/videos you can start applying filters as well as drag and drop to reorder the photos. You can first apply the same filter to all photos.

You can also tap into each photo and manually apply filters and edit individually.

Once you’re done editing the photos you can start drafting your caption, adding a location and tagging people!

You can go into each photo to tag the respective brands/friends involved:

And voila! You have mastered Instagram’s new slideshow feature!

Here is my first Instagram slideshow post:


WHAT THIS FEATURE MEANS FOR FASHION BLOGGERS

MY INITIAL CONCERNS

When I first saw this feature on Wednesday I thought:

  1. Would this lower the overall quality of images?
  2. Would this detract from people’s usage of Insta stories (because now you can post all the ‘residual’ content within a slideshow without affecting the overall appearance of your profile)?
  3. If you are posting one curated slideshow per day rather than multiple photos/videos per day does this mean less eye balls per post?

But the more I thought about it the more it became clear that this would become a very useful and important feature for Instagram. Here’s Why:

WHY INSTAGRAM SLIDESHOWS WILL BOOST YOUR INSTA GAME

ORGANIZATION & CONCENTRATED REACH: Top influencers and budding influencers are already very conscious of the content they put out there. So the quality of content shouldn’t change much. But now they can publish multiple posts on one subject or story (E.g. promote a new post). You can better capture the reader’s interest by providing multiple angles to one story, instead of being limited to just one photo. Or you can curate themed content with each album (E.g. an all shoes slideshow or an all red slideshow).

LONGER ATTENTION SPAN: Now that you have multiple photos, readers will spend more time per post on your content by swiping through your slideshow. This is a great opportunity to place a slide that’s a call to action at the end or in the middle of the slideshow.

CLEARER DISTINCTION BETWEEN FUNCTIONS: Now you can do all the behind-the-scenes, casual and conversational content through stories, showcase the amazing awe-inspiring photo through a single post and promote a story/event/product with multiple related images through a slideshow. Each type of published content has its specific purpose and level of importance.

LONG TERM IMPLICATIONS

Now that we can post mini multimedia albums, Instagram is becoming more and more of a micro-blogging platform, much like Weibo. Could this hasten the decline of blog popularity/usage because the content is richer on Instagram particularly for blogs dependent on visual media? I think this topic deserves a post of its own in due time, once we’ve experimented with the new feature and seen results.

 


HOW INFLUENCERS ARE USING INSTAGRAM SLIDESHOWS

So far (2 days after the release of this new feature) not that many fashion influencers are using it just yet, but I’m sure that’s going to change very soon. A few good examples of how it’s been used so far include @songofstyle‘s home tour:

My dogs like it here. Swipe right for more photos of the house ??

A post shared by Aimee Song (@songofstyle) on

@chrisellelim can now showcase her daughter and their interactions without spamming her readers with crazy-obsessed-mum photos:

@weworewhat posted a travel diary slideshow from Paris:

Paris on Monday ???

A post shared by by Danielle (@weworewhat) on

@whowhatwear used it as a showcase of accessories worn in the Who What Wear office:

One of the first fashion retailers to adopt Instagram’s new slideshow feature is @Shopbop:

6 closet game-changers, wardrobe picker-uppers–whatever you call them, swipe ? to see all 6.

A post shared by Shopbop (@shopbop) on

WHAT NOT TO DO WITH SLIDESHOWS

Post a ton of selfies in the same setting from the same angle. Look, just don’t.

If they don’t have a story these days they’ll make one // #swiperight

A post shared by Alissa Violet (@alissaviolet) on


So what do you think? Will you use Instagram’s new slideshow feature?

Comment below and tell me your thoughts!

 

xoxo Tina