Increase Your Post Value with Instagram Guides

Instagram Guides: the underrated Instagram feature you’re probably not using 👀

With guides, you can bring new value to your content by collecting a series of places, products, or posts that could interest your audience. Instagram guides are a relatively new feature, so you might be wondering how to create them and what they’re for. So if you want to know how you can benefit from this new feature, read on!

What are Instagram Guides?

Instagram Guides allow users to curate content previously shared on the platform. A guide is a collection of posts or products that you group together to provide fresh value to your followers. With one tap, your followers can scroll through each post or product in your guide. 

You can use it to curate gift guides, product highlights, content roundups, FAQs, travel recommendations, restaurant reviews, and more. You can also keep track of all your Instagram Guides in one place on your profile: the Instagram Guides Tab.

Despite all this, Guides are still relatively underutilized – which makes them a great way to differentiate your brand.

It can help your business:

• Create a series of related posts
• Highlight complementary products
• Engage with your customers and social media community

Where to Find Instagram Guides

Instagram Guides can be accessed by visiting a user’s profile page and clicking the Guides icon. This icon won’t appear if that user doesn’t have any published guides.

Also, you can browse recommended Product Guides by visiting the Shop tab and tapping the “Guides” button at the top of the screen.

How to Create an Instagram Guide

Are you ready to create your own Guide? To get started, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Instagram profile.
2. Tap the ‘+’ symbol in the top right corner of your profile. You should see a menu at the bottom of your screen.
3. Click on ‘guide’.
4. The next step is to select the type of guide you wish to create. 
5. Select the posts you want to feature in your Guide. You can toggle between your own posts and tagged posts at the bottom of the page.
6. Select ‘Next’ once you’ve chosen your posts.
7. In the guide, you can now add a title and text to your posts.  
8. After you have created your Guide, select ‘Done’. 
9. You can now share your Guide on your profile.

In step 4, you are asked to choose the type of guide you want to create, and your choice affects how you select the content. There are three types of Instagram guides:

Posts Guide:

1. By selecting the Posts option, you can view posts from your own Instagram profile or save posts from other accounts.
2. Choose the posts you want to include from either Your Posts or Saved Tab.
3. Adding other people’s content to your Instagram guide requires saving their content first. Each guide allows you to share up to 30 posts.

Places Guide:

1. With the Places option, you can choose a location listed on Instagram.
2. Choose a location (or place) and upload up to five posts related to it.
3. It’s a great way to highlight or showcase your business location if you own a local business with a physical location.

Products Guide:

1. You can pull Instagram posts related to a particular product category using the Products option.
2. As soon as you select Products as an Instagram Guide type, you will be prompted to choose an Instagram Shop.
3. Shops from accounts you follow will appear first. You can scroll through those or search for a specific account.
4. Choose the shop, the product you want to feature, and then select the posts associated with it.

Note: You can only feature one product per guide.

Increase Your Instagram Guides’ Visibility

As you may have noticed, Instagram Guides publish directly to your profile. What can you do to increase their visibility and drive more results? Take a look at these tips:

• Share your guide to your stories
• To make your guide shareable, give it a hook that will grab the attention of readers
• Your guide should serve a purpose
• Collaborate with others

Let us help you with your Instagram marketing strategy!

Instagram Guides are an underutilized but valuable piece of social media content you can use to enhance your marketing strategy. However, we understand how challenging it can be to keep up with new content types and features across all your social platforms.

Get your social media marketing handled by a results-driven agency. You can focus more on running your business and fulfilling sales when you trust us with your social media strategy. Book a 30-minute free strategy call with me now and let’s get started!