The TikTok Feature Every Brand Is Using

"Photo Mode" is trending on the popular video app.

Last week I was scrolling on TikTok and came across Gymshark’s account. The workout clothing company has a whopping 5M followers with over 84.6M post likes. Here’s what’s interesting though: their last 50 posts are exclusively photo carousels—with one of the posts reaching 5.6M views. When I compare the views and engagement back when the brand was posting primarily videos, it looks to be the same if not higher. 

Brands like Drumstick, Chipotle, and Scrub Daddy have also leaned heavily into the format.

Example carousel from Gymshark's TikTok

To back up, about a year ago TikTok announced their new feature “Photo Mode”. It allowed users to upload swipeable photo slideshows. (For a full breakdown of how to upload one, head here.) Brands and creators started experimenting with this format back when it launched, but in the past few months I’ve seen photo carousels pop up a lot more frequently.

In today’s newsletter I am breaking down the most popular types of photo posts I’ve seen from brands, examples of them, and why they work.

This includes:

• The “Where Is This Going?” Post

• The Themed Post

• The Trend Post

• The One-Two Punch Post

• The Informative Post

• The Instagram Post

• The Inspirational Post