• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ⭐ FREE Web3 Course
  • 💡 Society
  • 🗓️ Our Events
    • Social Media Marketing World 2024
    • Other Industry Events
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Web3 Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🎯 Partner With Us
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
      • Email Newsletter
      • Dedicated Email Blast
    • Event Sponsorship
      • Social Media Marketing World
    • Tools Sponsorship
  • 👋 About Us
    • Our Story
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Facebook Marketing
      • YouTube Marketing
      • LinkedIn Marketing
      • TikTok Marketing
      • Expert Interviews
  • Search
  • How to Create and Use Instagram Collections

    by Robert Katai / September 28, 2017

    social media how toDo you save Instagram posts?

    Looking for a way to organize your saved posts?

    In this article, you'll learn how to create private Instagram collections to organize saved posts you want to refer to later.

    How to Create and Use Instagram Collections by Robert Katai on Social Media Examiner.
    How to Create and Use Instagram Collections by Robert Katai on Social Media Examiner.

    Why Instagram Collections?

    When you save Instagram posts you want to refer to later on, they're added to a private section of your profile. Instagram lets you organize your saved posts into individual collections to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

    Here are some ways that Instagram collections can be a useful tool for social media marketers.

    Analyze Competitors

    Instagram collections can help you research competitors without using up your marketing budget. Look for great brands or local businesses in your niche and save relevant posts to a collection.

    Analyzing these collections will help you stay up to date on what your competitors are sharing and how they communicate with their community. You can also see whether your Instagram posts match your competitors' level of visual attractiveness.

    Streamline Engagement

    Collections can be helpful for streamlining engagement with your Instagram followers. Save brand and product mentions you get on Instagram to a collection. Having all of your mentions in one place makes it easier to monitor people who follow you and engage with them when you have time.

    Create collections that help you streamline marketing tasks on Instagram.
    Create collections that help you streamline marketing tasks on Instagram.

    Manage User-Generated Content

    A collection of mentions is a handy way to manage user-generated content (UGC). You might also create a separate collection of UGC that you have permission to use so you're in compliance with Instagram's terms of service.

    Let's say, for example, that you're in the sunglasses business and promoting a specific design. You notice somebody has tagged you in a photo, sharing a personal moment wearing your particular sunglasses design. By saving this share in a collection, you can easily engage with the user and find their content later to use as marketing material.

    3 Days of World-Class Training—Zero Travel!

    Social Media Marketing World

    Travel to Social Media Marketing World off the table? Get all of the great content at a fraction of the price with an On-Demand ticket.

    That’s full access to recordings of every keynote, workshop, and session—the ones people travel thousands of miles to see. Don't wait. Get your On-Demand ticket and enjoy actionable content that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

    GET YOUR ON-DEMAND TICKET NOW

    Get Inspiration

    Last but not least, save Instagram images to a private collection for inspiration. Look for pictures and videos that are compatible with the brand image you want to project. Use the images in this collection to spark visual marketing ideas for your campaigns.

    Here's how to start creating and using Instagram collections:

    #1: Set Up Standard Category Collections

    You can create Instagram private collections in two ways: before you ever find a post you want to save in a collection, or at the same time you find a photo or video that might be useful to you later. If you already know the categories of photos and videos that you want to save, go ahead and create your collections now. To begin, go to your profile and tap the bookmark icon.

    To create a collection, go to your Instagram profile and tap the Bookmark icon.
    To create a collection, go to your Instagram profile and tap the Bookmark icon.

    On the Saved screen that appears, tap the + sign that appears in the upper-right corner.

    Tap the + sign in the upper right of the Instagram Saved screen.
    Tap the + sign in the upper right of the Instagram Saved screen.

    On the New Collection screen, give your collection a name that will help you decide which saved posts belong there. For example, you might name a collection Competitors, User Content, or Inspiration. When you're done, tap Next.

    Tools Resource Guide

    Looking for something to make your life easier?

    Discover the tools we recommend to drive engagement, save you time, and boost sales across your entire marketing funnel or business.

    Whether you need help planning content, organizing social posts, or developing your strategy, you’ll find something for every situation.

    FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL
    Give your Instagram collection a meaningful name.
    Give your Instagram collection a meaningful name.

    On the next screen, Instagram shows all of the posts you've saved with the bookmark feature. Tap any post to add it to your new collection.

    Select any saved posts you want to add to your Instagram collection and then tap Done.
    Select any saved posts you want to add to your Instagram collection and then tap Done.

    When you're finished, just tap Done. You'll then see a screen that shows all of your Instagram collections.

    #2: Create a Collection as You Save an Instagram Post

    If you find an Instagram post you want to save but don't have a collection already created for it, you can create the collection on the fly.

    To do this, tap and hold the bookmark icon for the post you want to save. On the screen that appears, type in a name for the collection and tap Done.

    Type in a name for your private Instagram collection and tap Done.
    Type in a name for your private Instagram collection and tap Done.

    The Instagram app will then display a notification that reads “Saved to [collection]” to confirm that the image was saved to your new collection.

    Instagram will briefly show a notification with the
    Instagram will briefly show a notification with the “Saved to [Collection Name]” message.

    #3: Save an Instagram Post to an Existing Collection

    To save an Instagram video or photo post to a collection you've already created, tap and hold the bookmark icon on the post. On the Save To screen that appears, tap the collection where you want to save the post. A notification confirms that you saved the post and where.

    If you tap (rather than tap and hold) the bookmark icon on a post, the post is still saved to a private section of your Instagram profile. However, you'll need to take an extra step to add the post to a collection. To find the saved post, open your profile screen and tap the bookmark icon to display your saved posts. Make sure the All tab is selected.

    If you save an Instagram post without adding it to a collection, you'll find the post on the All tab of your saved posts.
    If you save an Instagram post without adding it to a collection, you'll find the post on the All tab of your saved posts.

    On this tab, tap the post you want to add to a collection. Instagram then opens the post. Tap and hold the post's bookmark icon to organize it into a collection. Note that you can save posts to multiple collections.

    Alternatively, open the collection via the bookmark icon on your profile. If you tap the three dots in the upper right, you see the option to add to or edit your collection. Tap Add to Collection to see all of your saved posts that aren't already part of this collection.

    To add saved posts to your Instagram collection, tap the three dots at the top right and tap Add to Collection.
    To add saved posts to your Instagram collection, tap the three dots at the top right and tap Add to Collection.

    Now select the posts you want to add to this collection and tap Done.

    If you accidentally add a post to the wrong collection, open the post in the collection. The post's bookmark icon is black, which indicates you've already saved the post. Tap and hold the icon, and the Save To screen displays a checkbox on every collection where the post appears. Tap a checked collection to remove the post from that collection.

    Tap a checked collection to remove an Instagram post from the collection.
    Tap a checked collection to remove the Instagram post from the collection.

    Conclusion

    On Instagram, creating private collections is fast and easy, and organizing saved posts can help you do competitive analysis and monitor your brand mentions and followers (all without spending a dime from your marketing budget).

    What do you think? Do you use collections on Instagram? How do you use them to streamline your social media marketing tasks? Please add your thoughts and insights in the comments.

    Get Your FREE Course: Web3 for Beginners

    Web 3 for Beginners

    Curious about Web3, but don't know where to start or who to trust?

    Introducing Web3 for Beginners, a course taught by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

    Learn the basics of Web3 and apply it to your business with this FREE comprehensive course.


    CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS

    Tags: Instagram

    About the authorRobert Katai

    Robert is a visual marketer, blogger, and brand evangelist at Bannersnack, a professional banner creation app for designers & marketers. Passionate about visual marketing, Instagram, content marketing.
    Other posts by Robert Katai »

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Web3

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 400,000 marketers!

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2023 Social Media Examiner®
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS
    • Accessibility