For many of 2024, I used to be obsessive about the band Shinedown. I listened to their music every single day, fell in love with deep cuts, and went down an Instagram rabbit gap pics and movies from outdated live shows.
That’s how I discovered their live performance photographer, Sanjay Parikh. Shinedown and Parikh collaborated on some posts — and it seems Parikh is a musician too!
Parikh’s band, Reckless Eden, makes precisely the form of music I really like. And I’ll not have simply discovered them with out these Instagram collab posts.
Because the title suggests, Instagram collab posts allow you to share content material in collaboration with as much as 5 different Instagram accounts. Your content material — whether or not an Instagram Reel, picture, or carousel — shall be shared from all these accounts reasonably than simply your individual.
This implies it’ll attain customers who observe all these accounts too, making it a superb technique to attain a wider viewers and develop your account. Neat, proper?
Right here’s every thing you might want to find out about easy methods to collaborate on Instagram, plus some concepts that can assist you take advantage of this highly effective function.
⚡
Buffer makes Instagram progress so a lot simpler with content material planning, scheduling, and engagement instruments. Get began totally free →
What’s an Instagram collab put up?
An Instagram collab put up is a function that lets two or extra customers group up and share the identical put up throughout their profiles.
One account creates the put up and invitations different accounts on the social media platform to share it too. If the collaborators settle for, it goes dwell on everybody’s feeds.
You may create collab posts for something shared to the feed — reels, single photos, or carousels — however not Instagram Tales.
Instagram launched the nifty function in late 2021 for as much as two accounts, updating it in 2023 to permit as much as six accounts to collaborate on a put up (the unique poster plus 5 collaborators).
Collab posts may be extra highly effective than simply tagging or mentioning one other account for a giant motive — they spotlight a real connection between the manufacturers, small companies, or content material creators instantly.
👀
Interested in when to share your Instagram posts for max engagement? We analyzed hundreds of thousands of posts to uncover the perfect time to put up on Instagram on this information →
How do Instagram Collab posts work?
Once you create a collab put up on Instagram, it will get revealed to the platform from a number of accounts.
Based on Instagram, this implies:
- All account names present up within the put up header, so followers can see who created the content material collectively.
- The put up is shared with followers of all collaborators.
- The put up seems on each collaborator’s profile grid.
- The engagement will get shared too — views, likes, and feedback rely for all of the accounts concerned within the collaboration.
Right here’s an instance of how collab posts look on the Instagram feed. Buffer “and others” seem as creators of the reel, and collaborator Kirstie Wang’s Instagram profiles seem when tapping on ‘different.’ Kirstie’s deal with would have appeared there if we would solely collaborated with one profile.
The reel seems on all of the collaborators’ feeds in the identical method, although Buffer was the unique poster.
Deleting an Instagram collaboration put up
Instagram considers the unique writer the first creator or main writer, and this account decides whether or not the put up stays revealed. In the event that they delete the put up or deactivate their account, it disappears from all feeds and profiles — even the collaborators’.
The first creator may take away a collaborator at any level.
This doesn’t imply collaborators don’t have any say. They will’t delete the put up, however they’ll take away themselves from it at any time.
Collab posts and privateness settings
Each private and non-private profiles can create a put up or be collaborators. Who can see the put up — and who can be a part of as collaborator — is determined by the privateness settings of all of the accounts concerned.
Collaborator: Non-public
Collaborator: Public
Authentic poster: Non-public
The collaborator should observe the unique poster so as to be invited to the collab.
Authentic poster: Public
The put up shall be seen publicly.
The put up shall be seen publicly.
This modifications a bit if the unique poster has a public account after which switches to a non-public account. After the change, solely their followers will be capable to see the put up, even when different collaborators have public accounts.
The advantages of Instagram collab posts
Collab posts work a little bit otherwise from common Instagram content material — and that distinction can open up some fairly cool alternatives you won’t get when you at all times put up solo.
Attain new audiences
As an alternative of reaching solely your followers’ feeds, a collab put up means that you can additionally attain new Instagram customers who observe your co-authors. This implies extra eyes in your posts, which might increase metrics like impressions and attain, and helps extra individuals find out about your model.
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri shared some perception on bettering your attain with collab posts: they have a tendency to achieve extra individuals when the Instagram account with a bigger following kicks off the collaboration or creates the put up.
This may occasionally not give you the results you want in each state of affairs (extra on this to return), but when it really works together with your Instagram technique, have the larger account provoke the collab put up.
Improve your followers
Reaching extra individuals provides you an opportunity to develop your Instagram account. Collab posts may be seen as an endorsement from the model or creator that you simply co-author content material with — and if their followers like your shared content material, they could be inspired to observe your account too.
To enhance your possibilities of reaching not only a new viewers, however the proper viewers in your account, attempt to collab with Instagram accounts which have comparable targets or audiences. These customers usually tend to observe your account in case your common content material appeals to them too.
Enhance engagement
A daily put up on Instagram will attain simply your followers. However collab posts attain followers of yet another account at minimal, and as much as 5 if it’s a much bigger partnership.
This implies collab posts can deliver in additional likes, feedback, and shares than a put up or reel that solely your followers get an opportunity to see — one thing the Instagram algorithm loves!
The way to create an Instagram collab put up
To create a collab put up with one other account, you might want to invite that consumer to be a collaborator. As soon as they settle for the invite, the put up shall be shared from their account in addition to yours.
When you’re a model partnering with a creator, it might be extra genuine to let the creator share and personal the content material, even when you have the larger following. It feels extra private when creators put up in their very own voice and magnificence, and it could possibly land extra naturally with their viewers
When you’re a creator partnering with one other creator or influencer, it’s actually as much as you who kicks off the put up. Based mostly on Mosseri’s perception, it might be value creating the put up from the profile with extra followers to extend attain.
There are a couple of other ways to create a collaboration put up:
- From the Instagram cellular or internet apps when creating or scheduling the put up.
- By modifying posts which are already revealed so as to add collaborators.
- Whereas scheduling an Instagram feed put up utilizing a instrument like Buffer.
Right here’s a step-by-step information for every technique.
Put up from the Instagram platform
Right here’s easy methods to create a collab put up from the cellular app.
- To start, click on the + signal to create a brand new put up and add your picture or reel. Fill out the caption, and add a location, hashtags, or another options you need to use with this put up.
- Faucet on Tag individuals.
- When you’re importing a photograph, you’ll see a button that claims Invite Collaborators. When you’re importing a reel, you’ll see two buttons: Add Tag and Invite Collaborators. Select Invite Collaborators. (Make sure to not go along with Add Tag — the put up will not seem within the different account’s feed this fashion!)
- Seek for the account and click on on their profile. Repeat this step so as to add as much as 5 different accounts to the put up. Faucet Completed.
- Once you’re prepared, faucet Share.
Your collaborators will get a notification inviting them to collaborate with you on the put up. Your content material will seem to return simply from you till they settle for. As soon as they’ve accepted the invitation, the put up will dwell on their grids too.
Right here’s easy methods to share Instagram collabs from the online app.
- Click on the + signal within the left sidebar to create a brand new put up and add your picture or reel. Similar to the cellular app, fill out the caption, and add another options you need to use with this put up.
- Click on on Add collaborators and begin typing within the collaborator’s profile title.
- Once you’re prepared, faucet Share.
Invite a collaborator to a broadcast put up
- Go to the put up in your profile, faucet on the menu, after which click on on Edit.
- Faucet on + Tag, then Tag individuals, and Invite Collaborators.
On the Instagram internet app, you possibly can click on on the menu, then Edit, and Add collaborators.
Use a scheduling instrument
It’s also possible to create an Instagram collab utilizing a instrument that means that you can schedule posts upfront, like Buffer.
- Add your picture or reel as a feed put up and add a caption to the Buffer scheduler.
- Faucet on Automated, and alter the posting settings to Notify Me.
- Schedule the put up utilizing your most well-liked possibility: Add to Queue, Schedule, Share Subsequent, or Share Now.
- On the scheduled time, the Buffer cellular app will ship a notification and immediate you to open Instagram. (Don’t overlook to copy the caption so you possibly can simply add it to your put up!)
- Choose Feed, then observe the steps shared above to share the put up from the Instagram app.
🥳
Buffer will help you put up on Instagram at your individual schedule whereas collaborating with different accounts. Begin now totally free →
The way to settle for an Instagram collab put up invite
When you’ve been invited to collaborate on a put up, you will obtain a notification within the app’s messages and the notifications tab. Here is easy methods to settle for the request:
- Faucet on the messages icon within the prime proper of the feed in your Instagram app.
- Faucet the dialog together with your collab accomplice to see the request.
- Faucet the collaboration invite.
- Faucet Evaluation.
- Faucet Settle for.
To reject a collab request, observe the method above and faucet Decline.
How are Instagram collabs totally different from tagging?
Collaborations on Instagram are totally different from tags in a couple of methods.
Collab posts
Tags
The place the put up seems
Seems on the profile grids of all collaborators.
Seems on the unique poster’s profile grid. For the particular person tagged, it might seem of their tagged feed (to the best of their profile grid, subsequent to the reels view), relying on their privateness settings.
Viewers attain
Shared with followers of all collaborators.
Solely shared with the unique poster’s followers. When you tag somebody, they should manually reshare it to their very own tales for his or her followers to see it.
Creator credit score
All collaborators are proven as authors within the put up header.
Solely the unique poster is listed because the writer.
Out there codecs
Solely out there for feed posts (images, carousels, reels). You may’t add collaborators to tales.
You may tag different accounts in each tales and feed posts.
8 concepts to take advantage of Instagram’s collab options
Instagram collab posts have opened up all types of inventive potentialities. Right here’s how small companies and creators are placing them to work.
1. Model partnerships
Instagram collab posts are good for 2 manufacturers which are collaborating on particular promotions and need to get the phrase out to each of their communities — a social media advertising tactic the place the advantages go each methods.
Right here, forged iron cookware model Smithey Ironware shares a collaboration with soul meals restaurant Burdell Oak that celebrates the late chef Edna Lewis.
2. Working with influencers and content material creators
It is no shock Instagram collaboration posts are an incredible influencer advertising tactic. Collab posts are perfect for manufacturers working with content material creators (or vice versa) as a result of they permit each events to share the posts collectively. In a method, it showcases the energy of the partnership.
Having each names featured on the prime of an Instagram reel or feed put up is a weightier endorsement than a easy tag or point out (or a number of names, if there’s multiple collaborator).
Content material creator Victor Fellbrink collaborated with the Rock im Park Competition for a t-shirt to commemorate the three-day music pageant’s thirtieth anniversary. Fellbrink teamed up with tattoo artist Marcel Ustowski to design the t-shirt, and he introduced the collaboration with a put up co-authored by all three accounts.
When you’re a creator who’s partnering with a model, mark your collab put up as branded content material with a “paid partnership” label, like content material creator Erin McGoff did on this collab with Adobe Acrobat.
It’s best to use the paid partnership label even when the model lent or gifted you the services or products. Instagram considers this an “change of worth” beneath its branded content material insurance policies, even when you did not receives a commission for the collaboration.
Influencers or content material creators who’re working collectively can use Instagram collab posts as properly.
Cooks and associates Minoli DeSilva and Justin Narayan typically share Instagram collabs. They teamed as much as promote her pop-up at his former restaurant in October 2024, and once more in April 2025 to advertise his cookbook.
3. Giveaways
When you’re posting a giveaway alongside one other model or creator, a collab put up is an effective way to get the phrase out.
Right here, content material creator Meghan Yuri Younger shares her giveaway with the nonprofit Twentytwenty Arts to help a fundraiser for Toronto youth psychological well being packages.
4. Product launches
Once you’re launching one thing new with one other model, a collab put up helps inform a extra full story. It places each the unique writer and the collaborator on the put up, displaying that each manufacturers are equally concerned in creating one thing new.
The Pastry Undertaking used a collab put up to announce their partnership with Kola Goodies — a pastry equipment with the substances to bake Sri Lankan milk tea-glazed tea scones.
5. Put up-launch promotions
A collab put up isn’t only for launch day. It could additionally assist preserve the vitality going after one thing goes dwell.
Creator Taylor Jenkins Reid used one to advertise her novel Environment after its launch, teaming up with Random Home and Ballantine Books to share a reel from all three accounts.
You don’t want a e book deal (or a e book tour) to do the identical. A podcaster may collab with a visitor after an episode drops to share a clip or behind-the-scenes second. An enamel pin store may group up with the artist who illustrated the design to speak about how the concept got here collectively.
It is an opportunity to maintain the dialog going and convey new eyes to what you’ve launched.
6. Elevate your group
Collab posts aid you highlight your group and their experience. When your group shares firm information or content material by a collab put up, it helps Instagram customers join with different individuals, not firm logos.
The Buffer group usually shares content material from their very own profiles, and it’s typically posted as a collaboration with the Buffer Instagram account.
Amanda Marochko, Martin García, Maya Uribe, and Kirsti Lang are only a few of the group members who shared behind-the-scenes posts from Buffer’s 2025 retreat in Antalya, Türkiye.
In additional “official” posts round new options or releases, product supervisor Nathan Nannenga shared the story behind the template library, whereas senior content material author Tami Oladipo kicked off Creator Camp for the neighborhood.
Sharing content material together with your group does two issues: it helps construct group members’ private manufacturers and it places a face to your corporation.
7. Promote your different initiatives or manufacturers
Creators typically juggle a great deal of initiatives, and a few manufacturers run sub-brands with separate social media methods however overlapping audiences. Phew!
When you’re operating a number of Instagram accounts for these totally different initiatives or sub-brands, collab posts are a easy technique to join the dots in your viewers.
Thursday Boot Firm takes this strategy with their product traces. They’ve devoted Instagram profiles for his or her boots, jackets, and sneakers, they usually typically create collab posts that function merchandise from two or three of those profiles without delay.
This lets followers of 1 model uncover their different product traces with out feeling like they’re being pushed into following a number of accounts.
Collab posts will help you construct neighborhood and preserve your content material contemporary, particularly while you spotlight the individuals who already love what you do.
Barre studio Physique 57 India typically shares collab posts with their members, giving followers an actual take a look at what it is wish to work out with them. It’s extra private than polished advertising supplies and extra relatable than a brand-only put up.
If this strategy matches your model, let your neighborhood know you’d like to collab to share their content material, and inform them easy methods to make that doable.
- Add a line to your Instagram bio or pinned put up that claims you’re completely satisfied to be tagged as a collaborator.
- Point out it in your tales or e-newsletter the place you function buyer content material.
- Spotlight a couple of examples of previous collaborations to indicate individuals what sort of posts you’re keen on.
- If somebody tags you in one thing that matches, ship a fast message encouraging them to ask you as a collaborator.
These small prompts make it straightforward to indicate your neighborhood that you simply’re open to Instagram collabs.
When you’re prepared to provide collab posts a spin, Buffer will help. You may plan your content material upfront and schedule it to publish by yourself feed — then invite collaborators to affix in earlier than it goes dwell.
Regularly requested questions
Are you able to add a collaborator on Instagram after posting?
Sure! To ask a collaborator to a put up that’s already been revealed, faucet on the menu within the prime proper nook of the put up on Instagram. Faucet on edit, tag individuals, and invite collaborators.
What number of followers do you might want to use Instagram’s collab function?
There’s no minimal follower rely required from any of the collaborating accounts. You may share collab posts whether or not you will have one follower or hundreds of thousands.
Are you able to schedule an Instagram collab put up?
Sure, it is simple to schedule a collab put up utilizing a instrument like Buffer. Set the posting technique to “notify me” when scheduling the feed put up, and the Buffer cellular app will ship you a notification and stroll you thru the method with clear directions.
What number of collaborators can you will have on an Instagram put up?
A single put up (whether or not that’s a photograph, reel, or carousel) can have as much as six collaborators. This implies the unique poster plus as much as 5 different accounts that they’ll add as collaborators to the put up.
Are you able to share collab posts when you have a non-public account?
Sure, each private and non-private Instagram profiles can create collab posts or be added as collaborators. Who can see the put up will rely upon the privateness settings of the totally different profiles within the collaboration.
