Instagram Collabs: Everything You Need to Know

If you are looking at your content calendar and racking your brain for new ideas, stop. We’ve got a new one for you. Although riding solo can be rewarding, it can also be challenging to always be “on”. Sometimes influencer marketing is more effective when powerful forces combine.

With the new Instagram Collab feature, you can benefit from the skills, expertise, experience, and following of other influencers and brands. In this article, we’ll explain what it is, why you should be using it, and how to create an Instagram Collab post.

What Is An Instagram Collab?

An Instagram Collab is an Instagram post that is co-authored with another individual, influencer, or brand. It shows up in the Instagram Feed posts or Reels of two different users. These two users can share the comments, likes, and shares of the post. 

So how does it work? When two users collaborate on a post, one of them will create the post and then invite the other to also appear as a collaborator. When the second user accepts the invitation, the post’s header will be attributed to both accounts. 

Unfortunately, this new feature isn’t available for Instagram Stories or livestreams.

Why Collaborate on Instagram?

To promote your partnerships, you’ve probably been tagging your collaborators till now. What exactly makes Instagram Collabs a better way to do it? Now we will explain a few benefits of using Instagram Collabs instead.

More Users Will Discover You

Instagram Collabs increase your discoverability. In this fast world, users scroll through their Feeds and Reels so quickly, that many tagged posts often go unseen. This can be a missed opportunity for a potential new user base.

But with both collaborators’ names now appearing in the post header, they can’t miss it! When you join forces with another content creator, you are expanding your reach to their audience as well as yours. This increases your overall brand awareness and gets more people talking about you. 

Use this opportunity to show off your skills, products, services, or sparkling personality! When you catch their attention, you could gain new loyal followers. 

Higher Engagement

If your content is getting in front of more eyeballs, you are probably seeing the post’s likes and comments explode. These likes, shares, and comments appear on the same post on both accounts. This means you can interact with these new audience members in your post! All this contributes to higher engagement rates.  

And the algorithm, which takes a liking to content with high user interaction, is more likely to make your post visible to other Instagram users. Exponential growth, baby.

More $$$

More eyeballs also mean more potential customers. When a new user base is exposed to what you’re selling, you are likely to make more money. On top of that, why not do a Collab on shoppable posts? If you partner up with another influencer or brand, they will have their own set of shoppers who may be interested in your offering.

Then after just a few quick clicks, they can buy the product from your Instagram Store and you can rake in the money with Tappie.  

More Efficient Than Tagging 

Usually, to create a collaboration, you’d tag your partners in your Feed post. Then they would probably also share it on their profile for their followers to see it. Users viewing the post would have to tap the photo to see who is tagged.

Then, if they are curious enough, they would have to tap your name to get to your profile. Collabs make it simple. All a curious user needs to do is tap one time on your name, which is prominently posted up top in the header. 

Reduces Duplicate Content

If your fellow collaborator is always reposting your content, level up with a Collab to help reduce the double posting. When your content is repeated in someone’s Feed, the posts are competing with each other. This skews the analytics data, making it difficult to understand how your post is doing. 

Not only that, but a user who follows both collaborators may see duplicate posts and quickly get bored. And boredom can lead to an unfollow, which is the last thing you want!

Saves Content Production Time

We’ve all got busy content calendars. So if you’re sharing the content creation workload with someone else, you are saving yourself some valuable time. And you’re still benefiting from the same amount of content while posting on schedule. Use the extra time to brainstorm new creative content ideas, or give the ol’ noggin a well-deserved rest!

How to Create Instagram Collab Posts and Reels

1. Create a new post for your Instagram Reels or Feed posts as you normally would, by tapping the plus icon in the top-right corner. 
2. When you get to the caption step, then tap Tag People option.
3. Tap Invite Collaborator. 
4. Type in the Instagram account you want to tag as your collaborator, then select their account when it pops up. You can tag either a private or public account as a collaborator.
5. Post!

Once you’ve posted, your co-author will receive an invitation to accept the collaboration. When they’ve accepted the collab request, the post will show up in their Feed as well. But if they decline the invitation or if they completely ignore it, it will be posted to your account only. 

You can add or remove the collaborator at any time. As the original author of the post, your account settings will determine the post’s settings. If you delete the post or deactivate your account, the post will be removed from both collaborators’ profile grids. 

How to Accept An Instagram Collab Invite

If you are on the receiving end of the Collab invite, you will need to respond for it to show up in your Feed or Reels. Here is how to do it:

1. When you open the invite, click Review.
2. Then either tap Accept or Reject. If you accept, it will show up in your posts. Congrats on your first successful Instagram Collab! However, if you reject the invite, it won’t show up at all. In that case, it will only be attributed to the original author.

Tips on Making the Most out of Your Instagram Collabs

Want more visibility and engagement with your collaborative posts? Here are a few tips on achieving this.

Showcase Your Products

The best way to sell something is to show it in action. So if you sell a physical product, why not show it off? Reach out to an influencer to test out your product. You can gift them the product, or consider entering into a paid partnership for a more long-term commitment. 

Even better, find an influencer that already uses your product and loves it. When an influencer tries out the product and captures their authentic reaction, you couldn’t ask for better advertising. Followers already know and trust them, which makes it an easy sell. 

You can incentivize influencers by offering a commission for each referral and sale of your product. When everybody is earning money, everybody wins! Your information will be readily available for potential customers within a Collab. Not only are you sure to get potential sales, but you can also gain a new following. 

Promote a Collaboration

If you have a collaboration going on outside of Instagram, you can still promote it with Collabs. For instance, if you have a podcast, an upcoming event, or you are partnering up on a new retail product line, you can announce it with an Instagram Collab! 

If you are collaborating on another social media platform, tell your followers about it. For instance, if you’ve started a new YouTube podcast, post a clip of your first episode. In Collabs, you can add your first guest as your collaborator.

Not only will it get their followers’ attention, but you could also see a boost in your followers and overall podcast views. Tease your audience with an upcoming collaboration event. Whether it be a rock concert, arts and crafts show, or store opening, posting about it in Collabs can hype it up.

Add some trendy hashtags, build suspense, give plenty of details, and invite your collective audiences to show up. If you sell products online, team up with similar brands to host virtual markets. Announce the Collab, making sure to highlight any sales or discounts that will be taking place. 

Shoutouts

A shoutout is when an influencer uses their platform to namedrop your brand, helping to promote your product or service. This is like a recommendation that will draw more followers to you and your brand, and possibly buy from you.

There are a few kinds of shoutouts you can try: 

• Paid shoutouts: Probably the most common, this classic influencer marketing tactic is when you pay an influencer to promote your brand. However, the payment doesn’t necessarily need to be money; you can offer to give them your product or service for free. After all, who doesn’t appreciate free stuff?

• S4S (shoutout for shoutout): As the name suggests, this means you both agree to give shoutouts to each other on your respective channels.

• Voluntary shoutout: This is what we all hope and strive for. As mentioned before, the best salesperson is a happy customer. If an influencer loves your product, ask them to shout you out for free. This signals to their audience just how great they think your product is without being compensated for it. 

Giveaways

Partner up with an influencer or brand to throw a giveaway. For instance, you can donate your product in the giveaway and allow the influencer to promote it. If you Collab a giveaway with another influencer or brand, you are also accessing their audience in addition to yours.

Giveaways get users engaged with posts, plus they are certain to grab the algorithm’s attention as well. Instead of posting the collaborative giveaway on two different accounts, you can now just post from one and add the collaborator.

You will be collecting all the engagement for the giveaway in one place, which makes it easier for the algo to promote your post to even more users. 

Create Challenges

Challenge posts spread quickly on the ‘gram. Who doesn’t like to take part in interactive activities and pass it on to their friends? Co-host a fun challenge for your audiences to effectively open doors of engagement.

Come up with a trend involving your product or service that is sure to get some attention. Make sure to include a special hashtag for the challenge. If your challenge is fun and entertaining, you will have flocks of users engaging with your post.

Make sure to be clear about the rules and restrictions of the challenge. Keep it simple and ideally centered around your product or service. Think along the lines of something that people can do within an hour at most. 

If you prefer to run a contest instead, you can up the stakes with a prize for the winner. The better the prize, the more likely you will have a ton of entries. Be sure to mention that all entries should be shared with the original post with the contest hashtag. 

Takeovers

Content can start to seem predictable and repetitive to users over time. Why not shake it up with a takeover? Use Collabs to execute a takeover of another influencer/brand’s account for a short period. In return, they will take over your account. 

Make the content fun, creative, and authentic to keep their audience entertained while adding a bit of your brand personality. This is an excellent way to cross-promote content and gain a new following. 

Better Together

Instagram Collabs can be a powerful tool when it comes to increasing the discoverability, engagement, and reach of your brand. Collaborate with other influencers and brands with paid partnerships, shoutouts, giveaways, challenges, contests, takeovers, and other promotions. 

This new Instagram feature will open doors to audiences you previously were unable to reach. You can also benefit from your collaborator’s expertise; most likely learning something and developing incredible content in the process. After all, sometimes we are just better together.