With These Tips & Tools You Can Create Successful Instagram Graphics

Instagram has evolved from a purely photo platform to a colourful social media network where informative content is also shared and consumed. An important part of this are infographics.

What Instagram graphics are, why they are becoming increasingly important and what you should consider when creating them, you learn from our guest author Viktoria Kux in this article.

What are Instagram infographics?

Instagram infographics are posts that not only consist of photographs and associated posting texts, but summarise the most important information about a topic or question clearly in a single image or carousel. In theory, a user would not even have to read the copy text to understand the message of the post.

Tip: In this post you can read about how to create a Instagram post.

Why are Instagram graphics important for companies?

Companies that are active on Instagram should establish a successful content mix in their Social Media Strategy that includes various types of posts such as single images, carousels, Reels, videos and stories, but also consists of various content formats such as infographics, infotainment videos, behind-the-scenes snapshots, high-quality photographs and more. This ensures that your followers always see fresh content from you, interact diligently with the content interact and thus become a loyal community.

Many companies find it difficult to produce new content, photos and videos on a regular basis - especially if they do not have their own internal social media department or are supported by an agency. There are usually plenty of topics and ideas, but implementation often fails. Employees are not always present at exciting appointments or events to take photos or want to present themselves in front of the camera and be published on Instagram.

The most important Social Media Tips for Companies for those who want to start on social media can be found here.

When are social media graphics used?

Instagram graphics on company-specific topics help out here, because they can be easily created and planned over a longer period via Social Media Tools. Infographics are also a nice solution to present complex content, especially in the B2B area, simply and understandably for followers and customers.

Don't you have any idea what you could include in your content mix? Here you will find 30 good Instagram Content Ideas.

7 steps to create Instagram graphics

Choose the right format

For an Instagram infographic, a single image in the sizes 1:1 (1080x1080 px) or 4:5 (1080x 1350 px) is suitable. The 4:5 format is slightly larger, thus offering more space for information, but is cut to square in your feed overview. However, when scrolling or clicking, the complete infographic is readable. If the infographic is more complex, a carousel post with up to ten individual slides is a good option. Carousels can also be displayed in 1:1 or 4:5. Further down in the article you will read how to best create infographics in the carousel format and how to manage to let photos or other elements run across several pages.

What is the theme of the infographic?

To create an infographic for Instagram, you need a fixed topic or a specific question per graphic. Since there is not too much space on a single image, no more than one topic should ever be covered here. The infographic would otherwise become too extensive and confusing and would be better placed in a carousel post.

What information must be clearly visible at a glance?

Now it's about the content. Collect all the information on your topic that absolutely needs to go into the graphic. Then check once again finally: What has first priority and which points can possibly be left out or placed in the copy of the post?

The right text for Instagram graphics

Users don't want to read novels on an Instagram infographic. So keep it short: What is the question or headline? How do you package the most important information into keywords or sentences?

Pay attention to the corporate design

It is very important to create professional graphics, especially if you are doing them yourself and do not have graphic designers at hand, to stick to the rules of your corporate design (short: CD). Which elements and colours can or may you use? Are there perhaps even templates in the company that can be used? Does the company logo always have to be used? Especially with purchased templates or templates that you find in tools like Canva, you should always ensure that all components must be adapted to your CD.

The image composition

Now it's time to build. Here it is important that the infographic remains nicely clear at the end. It's quite interesting how our brain works and where we (usually) read first, as you can see in this example:

Think carefully about which information is placed where and how large. What is so important that it must be seen and understood at the beginning?

Try to avoid using more than two different fonts and no more than three different font sizes to keep it readable.

This is how we read infographics with different font sizes

Indicate sources correctly

If you use external sources, figures, data and facts in your infographic, these must always be marked in the infographic. Some examples can be found further down in the article. It is always important to indicate where your data comes from - by the way, also if you have collected it yourself in your company. Infographics are often critically questioned by users for their correctness.

Which tools are suitable for creating Instagram graphics?

In addition to the well-known graphic design tools from the Adobe Creative Suite (e.g. Photoshop, Indesign or Illustrator), I can especially recommend the online tool Canva Pro for all non-graphic designers. Although Canva also exists as an app, I prefer the desktop version because it still offers more functions and works more reliably. Detailed infographics can best be created on a large screen - working on the smartphone app quickly becomes somewhat confusing.

On the software evaluation platform OMR-Reviews you can find useful tools at a glance.

Canva offers you templates for all social media platforms in the correct dimensions, of course also for an Instagram feed post or an Instagram story. You also get a wide selection of design templates. This is very helpful when you are just starting out with Instagram graphics and are not yet confident in dealing with infographic designs. Based on the templates, you can learn the composition of text and image and get the best out of your graphics. Important: Always adapt the templates to your corporate design! This means that you should change all fonts and colours into your brand fonts and colours.

Dimensions for different social networks and other projects,
Source: www.canva.com

Here you can find design templates for infographics, Source:
www.canva.com

In the "Templates" area, you can work with any search terms to find professional templates that can then be easily edited and changed.

Useful search terms for templates in Canva:

• Infographic
• Timeline
• Diagram
• Tips
• Instagram
• News
• Reminder

You can also enter any other topic here to receive visual suggestions for your designs.

Design tips for carousel infographics

In an Instagram Carousel post, you have ten pages available. You should make use of this space for your infographics and preferably consider this structure:

• Page 1: Title
• Page 2-9: Content
• Page 10: CTA

The first page contains a striking title matching your theme and an image or motif. Some people also like to work with an arrow at the bottom right to indicate that there is more to see or read about the topic on the other pages.

Then comes the actual preparation of the information. It is important here not to overload the individual slides. The principle is: one idea or question per page.

If you want the user to swipe to the end, you should not reveal all the details on the second page. At the same time, you should ensure that useful information is still available on each page and that the user does not jump off. The longer the user interacts with your post, the better for the performance of your post (keyword: dwell time and algorithm).

But this also means that no one wants to read only half sentences on one page, just so that they have to swipe to the end and the dwell time is as high as possible.

On the last page there is then room for a call to action to the users, also called Call-to-Action (CTA). Here, you can tell your followers what they could do next or what you wish them to do.

Examples for CTAs on the last page of the Instagram Carousels:

• Write in the comments
• Save the post for later
• Download XY now
• Visit my website
• Write me a message
• Listen to the new podcast episode now
• Watch the video now

You can find the Instagram channel of Viktoria Kux here.

Examples of Instagram Infographics

Here are some examples of what infographics can look like on Instagram. I explain to you what format it is and what the essential features of the graphic are.

First aid position simply explained by funk

There is a large headline that names the topic. The infographic consists of two pages in square format and is supported by illustrative graphics or drawings. The three steps are highlighted with numbers, important text with a red box, visually. The reader's eye is thus guided through the graphic as best as possible. Further information such as "For Saving" or the arrow at the bottom right show the users how they should handle the infographic. The source is properly named.

Source: funk

A top-10 list from the Tagesschau

This infographic is a single-sided list in 4:5 format. Tagesschau always uses the same visual design in the background and only changes the information in the graphic. The logo is located at the bottom right. The source is properly named. The listing is visually structured by graphics, in this case the country flags.

Source: tagesschau

A list of important entry regulations by Urlaubsguru

This infographic is a single-sided list in 4:5 format. Suitable for the topic there is a atmospheric photo in the background which contains mainly the corporate color of Urlaubsguru (turquoise). The logo is located in the bottom middle. The graphic works with two different fonts and different font cuts and sizes. Important information is thus highlighted.

Source: Urlaubsguru

An infographic about the 9-euro ticket as a carousel from news_wg

This infographic is a carousel post in 4:5 format. In the upper section, there is the logo and the category to which the post belongs. There is a clear title page with the title and a graphic and no further information. The points at the bottom in the middle and the numbers at the bottom right indicate on which page the user is currently (The arrows are a presentation of Instagram and not part of the infographic). All pages are set up in the same look. The information on the individual questions is answered on the further pages of the carousel.

Source: news_wg

How to create carousels with photos or elements that run across several pages? 

You have probably seen it before - cool Instagram carousels where photos or elements run across several pages, making you automatically want to swipe further. It's not so difficult to create these without having an optical offset on the different pages.

Here's an example of what it could look like. However, I advise against just writing half sentences on one page to artificially increase the dwell time - it's annoying!

Source: diepinatasde

This is how it works:

You need a template in Canva that is 7560 px wide. Depending on whether your posting should later be square (1080 px) or in 4:5 format (1350 px), you change the value in height. There you can then add guide lines that mark your later pages in the carousel.

Screenshot of a Canva template in 4:5 for carousels, Source: Canva

Now you can design the infographic and let photos or other elements run over the guide lines. Later the pages will be cut - but nothing is visually lost and there is no offset. Important: Text should always be easily readable within the guide lines and not be cut off.

Once the design is complete, you can now download it as usual as .png. The guide lines disappear. Via Pinetools you can now crop the picture, so in this case seven individual pages are created.

This is how it works:

• Upload picture
• At "How to split the image” choose “horizontally"
• Then select "split by width of blocks" and enter 1080 at "width of blocks (px)"
• Then click on "split image" and then either download individually or as a zip file

You now have seven individual pictures that you can upload to Instagram as a carousel. To get to ten pages, just create a second page in Canva and proceed as described above. If you need less than seven pages, you can either reduce the template accordingly in width or leave the unnecessary pages white in the design and delete them after downloading and cropping with Pinetools.

Conclusion

Instagram graphics are a great way to present important information in an easy and clear way, making it quickly consumable. They are usually well prepared and planned in advance, but need a little time and graphic experience in their creation. Ideally, you have some templates at hand that correspond to your corporate design and can be used again and again. This makes the work a lot easier. These templates you can either use directly in Canva, have created by professional graphic designers or buy at various template providers. But it is always important: Let yourself be inspired by other infographics - but never copy them 1:1, but become creative yourself!