Ways to use Instagram guide

 Instagram is a very popular social media platform. The platform facilitates

media sharing, and while Instagram started specifically with photo sharing,

now you can share a variety of forms of content. Since Instagram’s incep-

tion, the way that we use social media has been changing, while originally

orientated towards connecting people with other people, such as their

friends or their families and other people they have lost contact with over

the years. The purpose of social media has now, increasingly, become to

connect people with brands and businesses. This cultural shift has led to a

variety of different things, and one of the most exciting elements of this is

the new avenues for marketing and content creation.

Instagram was originally developed for people to be able to share photos

with their friends and the rest of the world. Over time, its functions have

changed and there are now numerous things that many people are able to

do on Instagram. The newest feature is Instagram Guides.

Instagram introduced the Guides feature because the platform wanted a

way for its users to be able to give and discover recommendations, tips,

and suggestions. They are capitalizing on the information trends and en-

couraging users to share a compilation of posts on certain topics.

Having Guides embedded into Instagram is a fantastic way for people to be

able to get the information that they desire on a platform that they are al-

ready using. The duality of social media means that it led to more central-

ized places for business, information, and connecting with others. Guides

are another way to do this.

The following guide will teach you how to use Instagram Guides.

But first, what are Guides? They are, effectively, a step-by-step flow of

posts. They somewhat resemble a blog post yet are built into the Instagram

system. This means that there is now a way that you can create a resource

on a certain topic or concept, putting all the information on it in one easy to

navigate place.

Effectively, Instagram Guides are just that, Guides. They are a good way to

expand upon your posts and cement yourself as an authority on a particular

topic or area.                                                                 

                                     But what about the other kind of posting capabilities on Instagram? Other

kinds of Instagram posts are still going to be relevant. Feed posts are not

going anywhere anytime soon—so do not worry about that!

Guides are completely made up of feed posts. You cannot add content to a

Guide that has not just been shared to feed. This means that you still need

to create content for your feed, but now with the added pressure of making

sure that it is relevant to a Guide that you may create one day. You need to

continue to use hashtags and post descriptions as well as having engaging

captions on your feed posts. Once a feed post has been included in the

Guide, when a user clicks onto the Guide and sees the post in the Guide,

they will then be able to click directly from the Guide to that post. This

means that Guides are a great way to increase engagement on your older

posts.

Video post types such as Reels and IGTV are still a better way of sharing

content that will be better expressed in a video--whether it be long-form or

short. Guides do not take away the need for the use of videos, however,

they are a great way to expand upon concepts that ordinarily would be ex-

plained in a video. This is because Guides can be written as a procedural

or as an informative post, like how one would write the script for a video.

Concepts from videos can be implemented into Guides you would just need

to have the posts to back them up. Some users do not engage with video

content on Instagram, and if your audience fits this demographic you may

find it more useful to rerate informative Guides, instead.

Stories will still be the most useful tool to promote your Guides. You could

even utilize stories for using the question box and asking questions about

things that your audience want to be explained, and then you could create

a Guide. This is a fantastic way to create content that you already know

that your audience wants. Stories are a great promotional tool, and a way

to give your audience insight into your business on a smaller level.

Now that we have established that Instagram Guides are likely to be a

beneficial method to back up your posts, there are also a huge amount of

benefits to taking advantage of a new feature. Instagram tends to like and

favor users who begin to use their new features. This means that you could

find your posts prioritized in the algorithm and pushed harder to your fol-

lowers.                                                           

 But, before starting using Guides, you need to ensure that your target audi-

ence will be receptive to them and happy to interact. Some users simply do

not want new information. They do not want posts or products pushed at

them in such an obvious marketing manner. It is possible, however, to find

an angle for the Guide that will be appropriate for your audience. You just

must determine what that is. 

However, at the time of writing there is a major downside to Guides, cur-

rently, there is no way to come across Guides organically. Meaning that to

begin with, you may struggle with exposure. While there is an ‘Explore

Page’ for posts, Reels, and IGTV, so such a function yet exists for Guides.

There will be one eventually, but this drawback is something that you will

need to consider when evaluating your promotional strategies.

A huge benefit of this new feature is that users are often unlikely to want to

leave an app to get new content. Links shared often go unclicked and many

users will not search for information, they will just scroll onto the next post.

Effectively, having to leave the app to view some kind of content breaks the

audience’s suspension of disbelief. This means that the newfound ability of

users to be able to get the information from within the app is a fantastic win

for creators. 

When you are creating a Guide, one of the most important things you need

to think about is the type of Guide. There are currently three types availa-

ble: places, products, and posts. Places are the way to recommend differ-

ent places that have a location tag on Instagram; products are the way to

recommend products that are available and sold on the Instagram shop-

ping feature, and posts are a way to recommend your posts as well as

posts that were made by others. So, naturally, there is a multitude of uses

for Guides. Try and be as creative as possible, while still creating content

that you know your audience wants more information about.

When selecting your content, something that you will need to consider is

ensuring that you have enough content to fill it. Guides can be short, or

long, but make sure that the content you are including is relevant. You

need to remember that you can only include posts that have been shared

on a feed whether it be or own, or.  someone else’s.                                     

    When you format your Guide, you will need to consider that it exists as a

sort of listicle. You add headings and descriptions onto the posts as they

appear in the list. You can arrange and rearrange posts as you see fit. You

need to give your Guide a catchy title and description as well as an appro-

priate cover photo. All this information should be informative without being

too long or disengaging. 

Once you have created your Guide you need to share it for your audience

to find it. Sharing it on your story is the most effective, and easiest way to

show it to your followers. However, you may also find it prudent to edit cap-

tions on your posts to remind people to check out your Guides on the same

topics. 

There are many different Guides that you can choose to create. As already

discussed, they are divided into three main types: places, products, and

posts. The place and product Guides are more restrictive but can also be

more beneficial for that specific purpose. Therefore, you may need to weigh

up the costs and benefits of the restrictive type, versus the overall value

that it would be using the more specific Guide form. 

Posts are the most versatile Guide. With this type of Guide, you can make

them, basically about anything, (this is inclusive of Guides about products

or places). You should create Guides about a specific concept theme or

explanation, with all the posts being relevant to the overall theme. You

could answer questions, provide how-to Guides, create, and share ideas,

and recommendations. You can create collections of posts around a certain

theme or event and provide recommendations of other creators and their

posts. The ideas are almost limitless. You are bound only by your creativity

and the posts that you have available on your feed.

As previously stated, promoting Instagram Guides can seem like a chal-

lenge. The simplest way is to share it with your story. You will also want to

be encouraging other users to share their stories and to their friends. Gen-

eral promotion of your accounts and posts will also be a good way to share

your Guides, especially if you create valid links between them.                                     

    If you have been conducting marketing strategies on Instagram before, you

will surely be aware that the algorithm works in mysterious ways. It can be

a challenge to navigate and different content is often promoted for various

random reasons. The most basic thing that you need to remember is that

engagement is key.

From a user’s perspective, their algorithm will show them the things that it

thinks they will enjoy. It wants to keep people on the app for as long as

possible which means that the algorithms will show uses the content that it

thinks they will most enjoy and interact with.

Posting content at peak times of the day is the best way to reach your au-

dience, as well as using sponsored posts. To promote a Guide, you may

have to promote your other work and then direct them through that to the

Guide. For example, creating a sponsored post that is in your Guide and

has a suggestion to go over to the Guide in the caption of that post. Any

engagement is good engagement so getting people to interact with your

content on any level is key. This, again, means getting things on the ex-

plore page.

Featuring other people's content is a great way to reach new audiences. It

places your content among strong company and makes you seem authori-

tative and trustworthy.

You also need to make sure that your Guides are consistent with your

brand and that the content you are creating is relevant to your overall busi-

ness goals. There is no use in creating content if you do not think it will

have an overall positive purpose and impact on your branding.

Ultimately, it comes down to analytics. Anytime you run any sort of cam-

paign, you should be checking your analytics. A good way to know if people

are reading your Guides properly is to check the analytics on the posts that

have been included in Guides versus ones that were not. Remembering of

course what the statistics were like beforehand. This is a good way to see

the impact of Guides on your overall engagement.

To summarize, Instagram Guides are a great new feature, and, once you

understand how you can best use them, they will be incredibly beneficial to

your business and brand. Creating Guides is an excellent way to share

new, and more detailed, content with your audience.