Since its introduction by Instagram in 2021, this collaborative tool has become very popular among content creators, influencers, and brands. This is because it enables you to co-create a post with another user. Therefore,you can increase engagement with a collaborative Instagram post.

Whether it's a brand using an influencer to market its products or two creators wanting to leverage each other's audiences, this feature has made collaboration easy. This article will guide you on how to use collaborative Instagram posts to grow your profile and reach an untapped audience.

Definition of an Instagram Collaborative Post

As the name suggests, Instagram collaborative posts are feed posts or reels created in collaboration with other users. It features both parties as the post's creator, even though one party creates the post and invites the other to collaborate. Simply put, the same post will be published in two different feeds. If the post receives engagements such as likes, shares, and comments, all will appear in both accounts.

What Is the Difference Between an Instagram Collab Post and a Tag?

So, how is an Instagram collaborative post different from post tagging? Isn't it the same as creating a post and tagging the brand or creator you are collaborating with? First, note that an Instagram collab post is different from tagging. A tag involves adding a user tag to your post. That means the creator of a post in a tag is one. When someone tags you in a post, it still belongs to them, and you may struggle to receive a higher engagement on your wall.

On the other hand, a collaborative post involves co-authoring a post with another user so that it appears on both user's feeds. This brings mutual gains to both parties and allows you to leverage each other's followers. With a collab post, it becomes easier for followers of both accounts to keep moving from one account to another. Every view, like, and comment benefits both accounts.

Remember that collaborative posts aren't supposed to replace branded content. If you qualify for a branded content tag, you will still need to use it for paid partnerships.

How to Create an Instagram Collaborative Post

Creating an Instagram collaborative post is easy. The process is very similar to creating an Instagram feed post or reel. However, before clicking on Share, you must request a collaboration with a creator. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Go to your Instagram profile and click on Create. In the right corner of your profile, choose Post.
2. Choose the kind of content you would like to create. This may be in the form of a picture, video, or multiple photos.
3. Add the caption and relevant hashtags to increase its discoverability. You can learn from these top ten Instagram hashtags.
4. Click on Tag People.
5. Tap on Collab Request. 
6. Enter the username of the person you want to collaborate with. From the list of accounts, choose it and tap on it.
7. To adjust the collab tag, move it around the photo, and finally click on done.
8. You can now complete setting up the post before clicking done.

When collaborating to create a top-performing reel, you will follow the same process. However, instead of creating a post in the second step, you will need to choose Create Reel. The collaborator will receive your request when your post or reel goes live. If they accept it, the post will also appear in their feed. Their username will appear next to yours. You may need to check out this guide on how to make your reel go viral.

When collaborating with other creators, you should remember that:

• Your profile needs to be public to be able to invite collaborators
• Instagram users are also allowed to restrict collaborations. You cannot invite a restricted account to collaborate with you.

Benefits of Using Instagram Collabo Requests

While there are many benefits of Instagram collaborative posts, here are the top benefits:

Increase your reach

A key benefit of the Instagram collab feature is discoverability. With a single post, you can tap into another user's audience and ensure your post reaches more eyes. If you are a brand collaborating with a creator or even multiple creators, this can be a great opportunity to introduce your products to a bigger community.

If you are a creator collaborating with another creator, a collaboration request will enable you to reach and interact with a new audience. This makes it a win-win situation for both creators.

Increased engagement

As noted in our first point, a collaborative Instagram post increases the reach. A benefit that comes with this is an increase in engagement level. The more likes, comments, and shares your post receives, the higher it will rank on Instagram. Remember that Instagram interprets a higher engagement as a sign that your followers are enjoying your posts and will reward you with a higher ranking.

Increased brand credibility

When an Instagram creator invites you to collaborate on a post or even accepts your invitation, this acts as a seal of approval from the creator. They will tell their fans they approve of your brand and recommend it to them. While Instagram users understand that businesses use Instagram for marketing, a collaboration post will gain your approval for an audience you didn’t have.

Great for community building

Collaborative Instagram posts can be an invaluable tool for building communication. This lets you get creative and build relationships with other creators and brands. In the process of doing that, you get connected with more people. This can help you increase and maintain your digital presence in the long run.

Better insights 

The good thing about collaborative posts is that they will also provide you with merged statistics. If you are collaborating with a major brand, every “like” that goes to their account will also appear on yours. This can be a great way of exchanging audiences without being too pushy.

Reduce duplicate content

Instagram doesn't like duplicate content. If an influencer or fellow content creator duplicates your posts or reel, they will compete for the same audience. On the other hand, a collaboration post provides equal gains to both parties.

How to Leverage Collaborative Instagram Posts

Instagram’s collaborative posts makes you get creative with your social media marketing strategy and covers different marketing goals. If you are a beginner in creating collaborative posts, here are a few ideas to help you get started.

Collaborate with other brands in your niche

If a brand has products or services in your niche, you can create a collaborative post to help both parties reach their respective audience. Such posts can promote brand credibility in each other's community.

When you collaborate with the right brand, you can push your products to another market and get engagement from genuinely interested people. You can get a more diverse audience and generate more qualified leads. For instance, if your brand sells sports shoes, you can collaborate with another brand that sells balls to leverage each other's audiences. If you are an artist, you can collaborate with paint companies.

Influencer collaborations

It is common for influencers to partner with brands to create content that features the brand’s products. The influencer mentions the brand in their tag. On the other hand, the brand shares the influencer's posts while tagging them. While this approach may work, it may not have cohesion.

Using an Instagram collab post can make the whole process easier as the influencer needs to create a post to invite the brand for a collaboration post. Since the same post will be shared on both platforms, there will be more cohesion in the collaboration. You can collaborate with an influencer to spotlight your products and provide brand or event updates.

When collaborating with an influencer to market your products or services, ensure it's someone genuinely interested in them. This will ensure that you have a more authentic relationship and increase engagement. However, ensure that you collaborate with an influencer in your niche. For instance, if you have a home decor store, you can partner with an influencer in the home makeover niche to reach a wider audience.

New product launches or events

If you are launching a new product, creating a buzz around it is important. One of the tools you can use to do that is an Instagram collaborative post. Since people are usually skeptical about trying a new product, partnering with a trusted brand name can help to give credibility to your new product.

If you have an upcoming event, you can use collaborative posts to announce it. This will help build excitement around it and increase ticket sales.

Adding fresh content to your wall

Adding fresh content is one way to increase your post's engagement level. However, there are times when you may run out of ideas on how to add fresh content to your account. You can give your audience fresh content by collaborating with another content creator. This can help you maintain the audience’s interest.

Promote contests giveaways 

Instagram giveaways are a great way of driving engagement and growing your Instagram account. Not only do they excite your audience, but they promote loyalty from your fans. They also help to create a sense of community. This is because they incentivize your audience to engage with and create hype around your content.

If you have giveaways, you can create a collaborative post with other users to create hype around the contests. This will enable you to reach an audience you wouldn't have reached and increase your engagement.

Support a cause

Today, consumers are becoming more socially conscious; therefore, showing that you care about a cause can help build your brand's image. If you have an active cause you support, Instagram giveaways are a great way of bringing attention to the campaign. 

This will help to create a positive brand image and enhance the bond with your audience. You can encourage your audience to participate. For instance, you can pledge to give more if you reach a certain number of shares in your posts.

Promote a discount code

A discount code can be a powerful way of driving sales. However, users may not know about its existence if you don't promote it prominently. To take the word out there concerning a discount code, you can collaborate with an influencer who will help you amplify the message. However, when doing that, remember to include a disclaimer that it is a sponsored post.

Show how your product works

Another great way to leverage collaborative posts is by showcasing your brand in action. If you sell physical products, you can collaborate with an influencer to show their followers how your products work in real life. They can create a short video tutorial showcasing how to use the products. They can post pictures showing the results or showing the before and after images.

Cross-promoting your other accounts

The Instagram collab post feature can be a great choice for cross-promoting your other social media accounts to your users. This is especially true when you have a personal and a professional account. You can also use the feature if you have different Instagram accounts for product lines.

Leverage-generated content

UGC was one of the Instagram trends of 2023. This was driven by the audience's desire to see authentic content such as real behind-the-scenes pictures of users of the products. UGC content has many benefits and can help build your audience’s trust, resulting in the long-term success of your brand. It is always a good idea to credit your Instagram UGC creators. The collaborative post feature is a great tool that enables you to do that. You can add user-generated content to your stories to grow your Instagram account.

How Can I Become an Instagram Collaborator

Whether you are a brand, content creator, or a private account, you can become an Instagram collaborator. Remember that even if you have a private account, if you collaborate with another content creator, this is one of the posts that will not be private. You should also note that you can only collaborate with one account for every post.

After the collaborator gets the invite to collaborate on the post in their inbox, they can accept or reject it. If they accept the collaboration, the post will appear in their profile. But if they reject it, it will appear like any other post on your profile. Remember that inviting a collaborator after publishing a post is impossible. Therefore, you should invite the collaborator before you tap on the share button,

A collaborator can also stop sharing a post on their profile anytime. To do that, they should open the collaborative post, choose its settings, and select Stop Sharing. While it will be deleted from the collaborator's profile, it won't affect the original post.

How to Allow Collab Instagram Posts

For a collaborative post to be posted, there should be a consensus between both parties. If you are requesting a collaboration with another party, we advise that you contact them and discuss the collaboration before you can even create the post.

Sometimes, you may notice that the account you want to collaborate with is having problems sending the collaboration request. Fortunately, you can fix the problem in several steps. These are:

1. Visit your Instagram profile and tap the menu icon. At the top right, you will see three horizontal dots. Tap on them and choose Settings and Privacy.
2. Choose Tags & Mentions. When considering privacy, Instagram categorizes tagged accounts and collaborators as being the same.
3. Under the Who Can Tag You, you will be given three options. One of these is to allow tags from everyone. When you select this option, you allow any Instagram account to invite you to collaborate with them. You can also allow tags from people you follow; only such accounts can send collab requests. This also means that it's important to follow your collaborator's accounts. Not only will it make your partnership easier, but it will also add to the authenticity of the collaboration. Finally, there is also the Don't Allow tag option, which means you cannot collaborate with any account.

Impact of Account and Post Settings 

Before you collaborate with a creator, you should note how different account settings will likely affect your collaboration. These are:

Private settings

If the post's original creator makes their account private, it will only be visible to their followers. The followers of the other account will no longer see the post. The collaborator will only see the post if they have followed the account.

Deleting the post

If the original creator of the post deletes it, it will also be removed from the collaborator’s profile. Only the person who created the post can delete it.

Partnership misunderstanding

If there is a misunderstanding between the creators and one blocks the other, the collaborative post will only appear in the original creator’s post. If the collaborator ends, the post will only be visible on the original creator's account.

Account deactivation

When the post creator deactivates their account, the post will cease to appear on either account. However, if they reactivate their accounts, all the collab posts will also be activated. If the collaborator deactivates their account, the post will not appear in the original creator's account.

Violation of community guidelines

When the collaborative post is found to violate the community guidelines, it will be removed from both accounts. Both accounts, the original creator of the collaborator's account or the collaborator, may also be penalized by Instagram. These accounts may even lose the opportunity to collaborate on future posts.

Tips for Getting the Best Results In an Instagram Collaborative Post

To ensure successful collaboration on Instagram posts, here are tips to follow:

Maintain relevant collabos

Ensure that all collaborations remain relevant to both creator’s audiences. To achieve that, only collaborate with creators in your niche. This will enable you to maintain a consistent voice and branding according to what your followers expect of you. 

You don't want to collaborate with accounts brands whose content will surprise your followers. Instead, the content should fit in your overall content goal and align with what your followers are used to.

Be creative

Collabs shouldn't be a way of merely advertising products or services to your followers. When you become too salesy, people will smell it from a mile away. Instead, you should focus on creating content that adds value to your audience. A good collaboration should be intriguing, attractive, and entertaining. This is why people follow you.

Consider the value the collaboration will bring to your account that you wouldn't have gotten without it. Ensure that the post from the collaborator adds value to your audience.

Invest in choosing the right collaborator

One of the key steps in working with an Instagram collaborator is selecting the right one. Here are a few tips for selecting one:

• Choose an Instagram collaborator who is genuinely interested in your products or services.
• Ensure that the influencer will help you work toward achieving your goal.
• Consider their reach and resonance. How many people will the collaborator help you to reach? What is the potential of engagement you will get from the collaborator?

Engage with your audience

Just because it's a collaborative post does not mean you shouldn't engage with your audience just like you do with your other posts. If they comment on your posts, take the time to reply. Provide answers to questions they may have.

Conclusion

When most people hear the word “collaboration,” they often think of a collaboration between two musicians. However, the social media world, particularly Instagram, has borrowed the concept of growing each other's content. The idea is similar to that of the music world: leverage each other's audience to grow your brand.

With Instagram adding the collab post feature, collaborating with other creators has never been easier. But with each creator looking to receive more than they receive, you must understand how to gain more from the collaborative posts. With the help of our guide, you can leverage the power of a collaborative Instagram post to reach a larger audience and grow your brand. We also recommend you read our guide on how to add multiple images to an Instagram story.