According to themarketinghelpline.com1 billion people use Instagram every month. This makes Instagram the second-most popular social media site, only behind Facebook.

If you’re a photographer, designer, or small-business owner, you know that Instagram can be an important tool to gain customers. But, it can also be incredibly hard to gain a following and stand out against all the other profiles. But one surefire way to stand out from the crowd is by diversifying your content.

A collage is a great way to display multiple photos at once, increasing the odds that a follower will stop scrolling and view your work? Keep reading to learn how to make an Instagram collage.

Choose the Perfect Photos

The first step in how to make a photo collage is to choose the perfect photos. To do this, you want to first know the purpose of your post.

For example, if you’re wanting to promote a new product, a collage may be the perfect solution. Use several supporting photos to show all the angles of the product. Then, chose one focal image of the product in use.

Keep your collage to a maximum of 8 photos. Any more and the viewer will have a hard time seeing the individual images.

Edit the Pictures Similarly 

Before you actually make a photo collage, you want to make sure the photos you chose work together aesthetically. Even though you chose photos of a similar theme or subject, their unique editing styles may cause the photos to clash.

Instead, it’s best to choose your raw images for a collage. Then, use presets to edit all of the photos in a similar fashion. Make sure the exposure, contrast, and saturation are similar throughout all your photos.

There are times when you can break this rule of thumb. For instance, you can have one focal image in color while all the supporting images are in black and white. Just remember to have intent in all the choices you make.

Use a Collage Template

Now you’ll want to use a collage template to bring all the photos together in an attractive layout. Adobe Spark offers some of the best free collage templates around, but a simple Google search will reveal many more options.

Because of Instagram’s layout, you’ll want to choose a template that is either square or has a vertical orientation. Then, look through your template options until you find one with the appropriate number of empty spaces based on how many photos you chose. If you find an attractive template with the wrong number of empty spaces, you may want to edit your photo choices so you can use that layout.

Once the template is complete, finalize and save your collage. From there, you can then upload it to Instagram as you normally would. Don’t forget an insightful caption and a few hashtags!

Now You Know How to Make an Instagram Collage

Now that you know how to make an Instagram collage, it’s time to play around with these steps to improve your social media presence.

Start by creating one collage of your choice and see how many likes and comments it receives. If your followers seem to enjoy that type of content, add more collages into your normal feed. Just remember to keep publishing the types of photos your followers like best so you can retain your audience.

Looking for inspiration to change the look and feel of your social media pages? If so, browse the rest of this site to find examples from the best artists around the world.