Reaching a wide audience on Instagram takes a lot of time, patience and skill. You need to create a lot of content, remain consistent and stick with it for months or years before you experience substantial follower growth.
And if you don’t know how to collab post on Instagram, it’s the one form of posting that acts as a cheat code to help you:
- Reach a wider audience
- Grow your following faster
- Collaborate to make great content
For those who don’t know, collabs are co-author posts with other users. For example, you can collab with another person in your niche and your post will be shared on their account, too.
If you don’t know how to create a collab post, we’ll walk you through it step-by-step for Android and iPhone.
Step-by-Step Guide on How To Add Collaborator on Instagram 🤝
Collabs are powerful tools when trying to grow an Instagram account, and you can only make a collab on the Android or iPhone app at this time. Desktop users will need to download the app and use it if they want to make collabs.
How to Collab Post on Instagram Using Android 📱
Android users will want to open their app and make a post but don’t publish the post just yet. Instead, tap tag people and:
- Invite collaborator
- Add the collaborator using the search function
- Tap the green checkmark
How to Collab Post on Instagram Using iPhone 📱
iPhone users will want to follow the same exact steps as above. But on the last step, you’ll tap Done instead of a checkmark.
Note: Public accounts can invite other public and private accounts to do a collab. Private accounts can also invite both public and private accounts, but the invited account must follow your account.
Also, just because you ask for someone to collab with you, doesn’t mean that they will. A person can accept or decline a collab post. You can also remove someone that you asked to collab with you after publishing:
Step #1: Going to the post you want to remove the person from
Step #2: Tapping the … on the top right
Step #3: Tap Edit > Tag people
Step #4: Hit the X to the right of the person’s name
Step #5: Tap Done
And don’t forget – you can add multiple collaborators to your posts. If they all agree to collab with you, your reach will expand significantly.
3 Benefits of Creating Collab Posts on Instagram
Why spend all of this time and reasons creating collab posts? It’s simple. Collabs do three things really well:
1. Gain Followers
Any successful Instagram account needs followers. Period. If you want to be discovered or land brand deals, it all starts with followers. Your collabs will be shared with all of the co-author’s followers, too.
Imagine if your co-author has 20k followers.
Your post will be seen by all of these followers, leading to massive exposure for you. Add more than one account to your collabs and watch your exposure and total followers soar in the process.
2. Boost Your Exposure
When you create collab posts, your content is seen by more than just your followers. The collaborator’s audience will also see the post, increasing your exposure exponentially.
With more eyes on your content, you’ll build brand awareness and one other important thing: your engagement rate.
3. Increase Engagement Rate
Collab posts tend to get more engagement simply because your reach is so much greater. And we all know that Instagram’s algorithm loves posts with large reaches.
The more people who see your post, the more likely you are to get likes, comments and shares. If you choose the right collaborator, you could increase your engagement rate significantly because their audience is similar to yours.
How to Get the Most Out of Instagram Collaborations
Collaborations offer a great opportunity to expand your reach and network. But if you want to maximize the benefits of collabs, follow the tips below. 👇
1. Choose Your Collaborators Carefully
Collaborations can greatly expand your reach, but you want to make sure that you’re reaching the right people. To do that, you’ll need to select your collaborators carefully.
Collaborating with someone just because they have tons of followers isn’t reason enough. Look for creators or brands that:
- Share a similar audience to yours, so your content will actually appeal to them.
- Have values that align with yours.
- Have high engagement rates.
A high engagement rate indicates that the creator or brand has an active follower base, which will benefit the performance of your collaborative posts. Review their content before you reach out to see if their content consistently generates likes, shares and comments.
You may also want to consider the quality of their content, their authenticity and past collaborations.
All of these factors will help you determine whether a partner will be a good fit for a collaboration.
2. Focus on Creating Engaging Content
As a creator, it should always be your objective to create engaging content your audience loves. But when you’re collaborating with others, it becomes even more important to focus on quality and engagement. Why? Because you have an even bigger audience to consider.
Make sure that the visuals and messaging are aligned and consistent across both of your channels. Use a color palette, style and tone that matches both of your brands.
3. Promote Across Other Channels
One huge advantage of collaborative posts is that they appear on both of your profiles, which already expands your reach significantly (especially if they have a huge following).
But if you want to take it a step further, you can extend your reach even more by promoting collab posts across all of your social media channels.
Try posting teasers or exclusive behind-the-scenes content on your Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn accounts to get your audience excited and drive more views to these posts.
Promoting across multiple channels is also a way to engage and connect with followers who may not use Instagram but are still interested in your content.
4. Set Clear Objectives for Your Collabs
All of your collab posts should have clear objectives, and these goals should be aligned with both parties.
If you share a common objective, you can greatly increase your partnership’s impact.
First, work together to determine what you want to achieve with your collaborative content:
- Brand awareness?
- Website traffic?
- More sales?
- Higher engagement rates?
Be specific about what you want to achieve and identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to track. KPIs can help you measure the success of your collaborations.
Following these tips can help you make the most of your collaborative posts. But what if you want to add a collaborator to a post you’ve already published?
Can You Add A Collaborator on Instagram After Posting?
What if you create a post, publish it, and then decide that you want to collaborate with others on it? Can you add collaborators after you’ve posted?
Yes! You can add collaborators to published posts.
Here’s how:
Step #1: First, navigate to the post you want to update.
Step #2: Tap the three dots on the post.
Step #3: Select Edit
Step #4: Choose Tag People.
Step #5: Next, Tap on the photo to tag people.
Step #6: Search for the person’s username.
Step #7: Tap on Done.
Your invited collaborator will receive a notification to accept. If they accept your invite, your post will appear on both profiles.
But what happens if you want to collaborate with more than one person? Is that possible?
How Many Collaborators Can You Have on a Single Instagram Post?
When the collab feature was first introduced by Instagram, they only allowed up to two accounts to work together on a single post.
In 2023, Instagram updated this feature to allow up to six accounts to collaborate on a single post (the original post + five other collaborators). Having the option to collaborate with up to five other people on a post opens the door to so many creative opportunities.
