8 NEW Instagram Carousel Ideas To Get More Followers

Here are eight brand new viral,

trending, hot offthe- press Instagram

carousel ideas. Number one, the

stopmotion carousel. In order to achieve

this stopotion carousel effect,

basically what you need is the first

slide to be a video. You want this video

to be pretty stationary. So, set up your

camera on a tripod and then have the

subject of the video just kind of rock

back and forth like a video game

character standing in one location. Then

on top of that video, add a piece of

text that says, "Hold the dots and

scroll." This encourages your audience

to quickly scrub through the middle of

the carousel, jumping right from the

beginning to the end. When they do this,

they will quickly flip through all of

the photos in the middle of the carousel

and end up on the last slide. Of course,

like I just mentioned, between the first

slide and the last slide, we need a

bunch of photos. And ideally, these

photos are going to be very, very

similar from one to the next with only a

minor amount of movement, a minor change

or a minor animation on each slide. And

then the last slide of the carousel is

another video, but this one is going to

be kind of like the after or the grand

reveal. I've seen some college football

teams using this to announce their new

uniforms. I've seen fashion creators

using this to show off a new outfit. And

in general, it's just a dynamic and

interactive way to get people engaged

and show them some sort of a change.

Before we get into the next carousel

idea, let me just say that carousels are

one of the best ways to grow on

Instagram right now. They're not one of,

they are the highest, most engaged with

kind of content on Instagram. In fact,

more people on average engage with

carousels than reals. And with there

being 34% more reels posted in 2025 than

2024, now is the time to jump on the

carousel trend. And hopefully by the end

of this video, you can see that

carousels are actually a lot easier to

make and you can have a lot more fun and

expressiveness with your carousels than

what we've been used to for the last 5

years. But I'm going to quit my yapping

because the last time I did one of these

carousel idea videos, the top comment

was fast forward to the 4-minute mark

because that's when his intro is done.

So intro done. Let's get into the second

carousel idea, which is what I like to

call the this versus that carousel.

Basically, each of the slides in this

carousel are following the same pattern.

They can exist in and of themselves.

They don't necessarily talk to each

other in any way. You could view slide

seven or slide four or slide one in any

order and it wouldn't really matter

because they're all revolving around the

same topic, but they're not necessarily

building off each other. It's not a

story. Visually, each slide of this

carousel is going to be split in half

with a top half and a bottom half. And

essentially, you want to use the top and

bottom half of each image to put two

things next to each other that really

contrast with each other, that really

conflict with each other. One example of

this that I've done personally is I put

a video of myself in the top half and

the bottom half. Exact same video

playing in unison, but then I change up

the text on the top half versus the

bottom half. So on the top half it might

say if my video goes viral, and on the

bottom half it'll say if my video

doesn't go viral. And so the comparison

that I'm making here is that my life

isn't going to change or be all that

different whether my video goes viral or

it doesn't. I've also seen a ton of

examples of this style of carousel where

the top image represents like a

self-doubt or a negative self-belief or

a common complaint or question that

people have and then the bottom image or

video is immediately disproving that

with an example of maybe a celebrity,

someone who's famous in your niche, a

popular influencer who does what you do

who kind of disputes or contradicts what

the claim on the top half of the image

is saying. Carousel idea number three is

what I call the gamified carousel. And

essentially these carousels use their

first slide as a way to present the game

or to challenge their viewers and then

each subsequent slide is whatever that

game is. One example that I've seen of

these that has become quite popular is

spot the AI image. I think a lot of

photographers were using this early on

as a way to say look how much better my

photography is than the AI generated

image. But I've now seen people in other

industries, including myself, use this

style of carousel just to get people to

look at a bunch of different photos,

maybe photos that you've taken, photos

that show you doing something related to

your niche, kind of giving people a

little bit of a background or behind the

scenes into your life, and then one of

the images is very clearly, very

obviously AI generated. Now, I guess you

could use an AI generated image that

does look hyper realistic and arguably

that would probably get even more

engagement because people are truly

trying to figure out which of these

images is AI generated. But if you're

someone like a photographer or you're

someone who would be easily offended by

getting your real photographs, your real

art called out as if they are AI, then I

wouldn't recommend doing that. But

another example of the gamified trend

that I've seen people doing is if you

make it to slide four, you're my people.

Or if you make it to slide seven, you're

the type of person I would hang out

with. And then each slide can stand on

its own. It's not like it's necessarily

a story or you're giving tips slide

after slide. Basically, each slide is a

new photo that you've taken, a new video

you've created, maybe a new outfit that

you're wearing if you're a fashion

creator, maybe it's a new workout that

you're doing if you're a fitness

creator. And then if people make it to X

slide, basically what you're saying is

they have invested enough, they care

enough about your work that you would be

friends or that you would be uh hanging

out together or something like that.

Carousel idea number four is what I like

to call the crossframe carousel. And

this one is somewhat similar to the this

or that carousel where each individual

slide is going to be broken up into a

top half and a bottom half. But the

difference is with this one, you're

going to have the top image kind of

bleeding into the bottom image. This one

looks super cool and would be a great

way to show off maybe your vacation if

you're a travel creator or an exercise

in the gym if you're a fitness creator

or any other sort of photography or or

still images that you have that relate

to your brand. And I'll hop into Canva

right now to show you how easy this is

to do because it looks super complex. It

looks like you're going to need to be a

graphic designer, but honestly, it's

just like three or four clicks. All

right, so here we are in Canva. All

you're going to do is press create and

then select Instagram post

and then go down to the uploads button

and find two images that you want to

use. I'm going to use this random photo

shoot that I did with a pumpkin 7 years

ago because it's funny and it's cringe

and whatever, who cares, why not? Then

just move one image so that it's kind of

in the upper half of the screen. and

we'll drag this bottom bar to crop it so

it's cropped right at the midline right

there.

Then I'll select this random other image

and I'll enlarge it so that it covers

the bottom half.

And again I'll drag the top part to crop

it so that they meet at the bottom. What

I'm going to do is I'm going to have the

pumpkin from this top image be on this

bottom image as well. So, all I have to

do to achieve this effect is copy the

top image and then paste it. Then I'm

going to move it so that it's perfectly

in line with the original image. Then

I'm going to drag it down so that it

covers the bottom image right where I

want it to. Right there. Then all you

have to do is press background remover

and Canva will automatically remove the

background from the image. Now, as you

can see, it looks a little wonky because

my entire body is bleeding onto the

second image. So, all I'm going to do is

select that top image again, select

background remover again, and then I'm

going to erase the part of the image

where my body extends. And it's okay if

you erase a little bit higher.

We'll make this bigger. So, I can just

erase erase erase.

And then the only part that you have to

be careful not to erase is the part that

you want bleeding into the lower image.

So, I'm just going to do a quick rough

erase around the edge of the pumpkin.

And then when you hit the X and you're

all done, you'll be able to see that the

top image is now kind of passing an

object down into the bottom image.

Carousel idea number five is probably

the easiest out of all of these to

create, and it's what I like to call the

surprise proposal carousel. All you need

in order to do the surprise proposal

carousel is to take your phone or your

camera or whatever you're going to shoot

the image on and make sure that it's

horizontal. Instead of vertical, make

sure that it is, you know, wideways.

It's on its side, so to speak. And then

what you want to do is stand on the left

hand side of the frame and get on one

knee, preferably holding a ring box as

if you are proposing. Then you ideally

don't want anything on the right side of

the screen or if you do have anything on

the right side of the screen, it should

not be a person necessarily because the

whole point of the surprise proposal

carousel is that what we're going to do

is we're going to take this horizontal

image and we're going to split it down

the middle so that the image of you on a

knee with the ring box is the first

image and then people get all excited

and they swipe to see what or who you're

proposing to. But then when they swipe

there's either some text on the screen

on the second image or there is an

object that you are getting married to.

I've seen one example of this where

someone on the second image it just said

the game. So what they were saying is

they were getting married to the game. I

could imagine a fitness creator doing

this where the image on the right is

maybe a squat rack or whatever their

favorite uh piece of exercise equipment

is at the gym. If you're a recipe

creator or a food blogger, maybe the

thing on the second image is going to be

the refrigerator or your favorite piece

of kitchen equipment or your oven or

something like that. Basically, this is

just having a little bit of fun with

people's expectations. Posts about

people getting engaged are some of the

most engaging, pun not intended, posts

on all of Instagram. And so, playing

around with that, but saying that you're

getting engaged to something related to

your niche would just be a fun, funny

way to get people to engage. Carousel

idea number six is what I'm going to

call the surrealist carousel. And

basically, there's a few different

versions of what this surrealist

carousel might look like. One version

that I've seen is popular in the fashion

industry where fashion creators will

make their head like super super big,

like disproportionately 40 times bigger

than it's supposed to be. And because

it's surreal, because it breaks the norm

of what, you know, fashion selfies,

outfit pics look like, it grabs our

attention. Another version of surrealist

carousels often use mixed media. So they

might use a screenshot from their notes

app and then they might cut out a photo

of themselves and put it on top. Or they

might use a reminder that popped up on

their phone's notifications and they

might add that on top of the image but

then have their hand reaching up to that

popup as if the popup was actually

existing in the real world. One of my

favorite carousel content creators,

which that's a tongue twister, who is

doing a great job of making these

surrealist carousels right now, is

Victoria Bogodist. And I'm sure I'm

butchering her last name, but check her

out, especially if you're someone who's

in the fashion or the apparel industry,

because she's doing just an amazing job

at creating super unique, super engaging

carousels that aren't just boring fit

pickics one after the other. Carousel

idea number seven is what I like to call

the chat GBT stereotypes carousel.

Essentially, all you have to do to

create this carousel is go into chat GBT

and ask it to create an image of a

stereotypical blank in your industry.

I've seen an example of this where

someone did it with real estate agents.

So, they asked ChatGpt to come up with

what it thinks the stereotypical real

estate agent is who works for X company.

and then they insert a bunch of

different companies and had ChatGpt

create a bunch of different images. Now,

if you are going to do this trend, of

course, you're using stereotypes. So, I

want you to be careful and not lump any

group of people into a certain, you

know, defamatory or negative spotlight.

But, as long as it's all in good fun and

as long as nothing is is too negative or

mean or bullying or hurtful or anything

like that, this can be a really fun

trend to take advantage of. And my pro

tip is that when you are using ChachiBT

to create these images, encourage it to

be funny. Encourage it to be over the

top. Encourage it to include elements

that you might know are the

stereotypical included elements that

that person might have. And then all you

have to do is put all of those images

together into one slideshow carousel

collection and put some text on the

first image that says, "I asked chat GPT

what blank blank blank stereotypically

looks like or something like that." And

then eighth, last but not least, this

one seems super confusing to make, but

it's actually really fun and it's a

really interactive way to get your

audience to comment a specific keyword

or to just engage with your carousel.

Essentially, this style of carousel is

going to take advantage of the hack, if

you will, that we've talked about a few

times, which is where when someone holds

their finger down on those buttons at

the bottom and they scroll quickly, it

will flip through the images very fast,

kind of in a stop motion style. And so,

the eighth carousel idea is what I like

to call the hidden object or hidden word

carousel. And on the screen right now,

you can see some examples of what this

carousel looks like. And like I said, it

looks confusing to make. It looks like

it's going to be very challenging, but

it's actually relatively simple to

create right in Canva. For this one,

again, all you have to do is go to

Canva, press create, and then create a

new Instagram post. Then, what I like to

do is go to Google and find a random

photo of static or a gray blur.

Perfect. This one right here is totally

fine to use. I'll just save this image,

go back to Canva, and then pull that

into my uploads.

Then I'm just going to make sure that

this image covers up the entire screen.

And because I don't want those pixelated

squares to become too big, I'll just

stack a few of these pixelated images on

top of each other.

Okay. And then last but not least, all

you have to do is click elements and

then type in the shape or the element

that you want to add. So let's say I

wanted it to be a t-shirt. I could just

type in t-shirt. And then what you want

to do is you want to find the one that's

called frames. You want a frame of

whatever the thing is going to be. Just

select that frame, then go back to

uploads, go back to your pixelated blur,

and drag it into the frame. So now, as

you're looking at this image, you can't

really see what it is, but what we're

going to do is we're going to duplicate

this page. And then we're going to move

that object ever so slightly, maybe just

up a couple pixels and to the right by a

couple pixels. Then we're going to

duplicate this frame again. Select the

object and move it just ever so slightly

to the right, maybe down. duplicate it

again. And you can continue this

process. I think it's good to do it at

least for eight to nine different

slides, but whenever I use this

carousel, I usually do it at least 15

times. And again, I'm just moving it

ever so slightly so that when you

quickly flip through all of the slides,

it creates this effect where you

suddenly can see the shape or the word

that's in the background.

If you wanted to do this with a word,

all you would have to do is again go to

elements and then type in each letter of

the word individually. So if we were

typing in the word 'the', we would just

start with T, search for the word T. And

then we have all these different

versions of it. And then we can move it

down here. Okay, now we're going to do

H. And again, you can just repeat this

process for whatever word that you're

trying to spell out or whatever word

you're trying to have hidden. I will say

the smaller the object or the more

letters in the word, the tougher it's

going to be for your viewers to figure

out what that hidden word or object is.

You could use this carousel idea in

conjunction with DM automation so that

when people figure out what that hidden

object or that hidden word is, and then

they comment that word, they

automatically receive a direct message

through many chat that then can be used

to promote your email list, a course, a

product, whatever it is that you're

selling or anything like that. If you

want eight more carousel ideas, I did a

video just a few months ago with a bunch

of other interactive, fun, dynamic

carousels that aren't just the boring

three tips for blah blah blah style of

carousels. So, we'll link that up in the

show notes and it's probably on the

screen somewhere right now as well so

that you can click on and go back to

watch that episode. And I want to end

this episode by giving a shout out to

one of my favorite carousel creators

right now who I have no way to describe

what their carousels are like. And I

don't want to lump them into one

specific category, but they are Bube B Y

O O B. I'll link them up in the show

notes as well below. Every time I see

their carousels, I am so impressed. They

are so graphic designheavy. And I'm not

necessarily encouraging you to create

carousels like them, but I am

encouraging you to express yourself

using carousels. Get creative, try new

things, use mixed media, use photos and

videos and cutouts and clip art all in

the same carousel. And ultimately, just

have fun with it. Thank you so much for

watching today. Don't forget to hit that

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I'll see you next time. And as always,

happy listening.