Twelve top nine ideas for 2026

1. By likes. The classic: what your audience rewarded most.
2. By saves. The nine most useful things you posted — it flatters a different year.
3. By comments. The nine that started a conversation.
4. Your nine vs the numbers. The personal edit with counters beside it.
5. Top 9 vs bottom 9. Two grids: what you expected, and what worked.
6. One per month. Twelve months, nine slots — the constraint forces a real edit.
7. Palette nine. Ordered by colour instead of date or score.
8. First post of each season. Four seasons, nine posts, a visible rhythm.
9. Nine that aged well. Posts that kept collecting likes for months.
10. Nine you almost didn’t post. The surprises.
11. Two columns. Your nine beside the nine your audience would pick.
12. The quiet year. Fewer posts, more meaning — and the honesty to say so.

Making nine different choices hold together

Two rules fix most recaps: one metric per grid, and one palette — let the colours come from your photos rather than from a template.

What to avoid

• Mixing Reels, photos and Stories in one ranking without saying so.
• Using a number that does not match the posts.
• Nine near-identical frames: the grid amplifies repetition as much as it rewards variety.

Keep reading

• Best nine
• Captions
• How to make it