What Is A Guide On Instagram? Instagram Guides are a powerful feature for curating and showcasing your best content, enabling you to engage your audience more effectively and grow your brand. This comprehensive guide by CONDUCT.EDU.VN dives into the world of Instagram Guides, providing you with the knowledge and strategies you need to maximize their potential. Discover how to create compelling guides, leverage them for business growth, and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving landscape of social media. Dive into this essential manual to enhance your Instagram presence through content curation, product showcases, and location guides, ultimately optimizing your engagement tactics.
1. Understanding Instagram Guides
Instagram Guides are a format similar to blog posts, in which you may organize and display content that has already been published. Instagram Guides enables you to curate content related to a particular subject or theme utilizing photographs, videos, and text blocks, similar to a short blog article.
Consider the scenario where you’ve already shared multiple posts on the topic of seasonal skincare. You can now construct an IG Guide with the title “Winter Skincare” or “10 Tips for Summer Skincare,” where you list posts or products that are relevant to that subject.
If you handle social media for a software firm such as Squarespace, you may make a Guide that highlights the most recent product updates or examples of websites designed using Squarespace.
Each Instagram Guide comes with a cover image, title, and introduction, as well as a list of your entries. People can scroll through it vertically, read it, and look at all of the content that is linked to it.
The content that is linked in Guides can be taken from your Instagram feed, your saved posts, collaborative IG posts, location-tagged locations, or products that are listed in Instagram shops. Do you want your audience and new followers to be able to quickly locate your most important posts or products? Make use of Instagram Guides to organize your content into distinct categories.
This function is an excellent method for curating and arranging existing content on Instagram. If you’re looking to establish ethical guidelines for your business or understand regulatory compliance, resources like CONDUCT.EDU.VN can provide valuable insights.
The following types of content are appropriate for inclusion in an Instagram Guide:
- Step-by-step instructions
- Content in long form
- Guides on how to do things
- Posts that have already been made to the Instagram feed
2. Exploring the Types of Instagram Guides
There are three primary categories of Instagram Guides to choose from. Each one is designed to serve a distinct purpose and comes with its own set of positive aspects.
You can use Guides to curate the best content from your feed, similar to how you curate your best Instagram stories into highlights. Alternatively, you can recommend products and posts from other brands that you enjoy. When you add content from other people to a Guide, they will receive an Instagram notification letting them know that you have used their content. You are allowed to utilize up to thirty photographs or videos in a single Instagram Guide.
Now, let’s take a more in-depth look at some examples of IG Guides and discuss the circumstances in which each one would be most useful.
2.1. Instagram Post Guides
You can add posts from your feed or “saved posts” from other Instagram accounts with the help of Instagram Post Guides. This indicates that you are able to compile old posts on a particular topic or share content from other creators, collaborators, and brands.
Examples of how Sqaurespace, Depop, and Instagram’s design blog make use of post Guides to curate helpful content and tell stories.
Optimal Use: When you want to communicate a story about your company, share content that was created by users, or teach your audience about a particular topic.
2.2. Instagram Product Guides
This is geared toward businesses that offer their wares for sale online; however, influencers who work in conjunction with a brand are also able to utilize it. Because you can link to products that are listed on an Instagram store, Product Guides are great for highlighting products that you sell or for recommending products that you enjoy.
Bushbalm, which is a skincare business that specializes in treating dark spots and razor bumps, offers Product Guides that are geared toward specific routines and highlight the various items that they sell. Similarly, the influencer Monikh worked with Instagram to develop a Product Guide in which she featured a number of small businesses as part of a series called “#TheInstagramXmasEdit.”
When using Product Guides, you want to either highlight a specific product and demonstrate how it can be used in a variety of ways, or you want to feature a collection of products that are related to one another. Whichever option you go with, you need to keep in mind that the products that are linked can be purchased directly from Instagram shops. As a result, it is preferable to utilize products that can be purchased immediately, particularly if you have an affiliate code or operate a store of your own.
Optimal Use: When you want to produce tutorials, reviews, or gift guides. If you’re dealing with ethical considerations in business, like ensuring fair labor practices, CONDUCT.EDU.VN can offer resources on ethical sourcing and supply chain management.
2.3. Instagram Place Guides
When you choose to create a “Places” Guide, you will have access to content from Instagram posts with geo-tagged locations.
Instagram Place Guides can be used by businesses such as retail stores, restaurants, and bookshops to curate user-generated content from location tags. This can be accomplished by curating content from location tags. Another excellent use of this type of Guide is to suggest interesting places to visit in the area surrounding your location.
This is something that travel bloggers typically use to share city guides or lists of their favorite travel experiences with their readers.
Examples from @theufuoma, Away and @newyorkcity.explore
Optimal Use: When you want to share travel guides, make recommendations for places to shop, places to eat, or hidden gems in various cities, this is the best time to use it. When promoting local businesses, it’s also important to adhere to ethical advertising standards, which you can learn more about through resources like CONDUCT.EDU.VN.
3. Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your First Instagram Guide
Now that you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals, let me walk you through the process of making your very first Instagram Guide.
3.1. Select the Type of Guide You Want to Create
- Navigate to your Instagram profile.
- Tap the “+” symbol, which can be found in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
- Choose “Guide” from the menu.
- Choose the type of Guide you want to use: either Places, Products, or Posts.
In this particular illustration, we are going to go with the “Posts” Guide type.
3.2. Select Posts to Add to Your Guide
- Choose one or more posts from the collection labeled “All Saved,” which contains all of the posts you have saved.
- Choose posts from the section labeled “Your Posts,” which is a compilation of posts from your own feed.
- After you have selected the posts that you want to add, tap the button labeled “Next.”
You are able to select posts from either collection; however, you should keep in mind that there is a limit of 30 items per Guide.
3.3. Add a Title and Introduction
Now is the time to make changes to your Guide. There are a plethora of editing options available to make your Guide as interesting as it possibly can be.
- Tap “Add Title” and type in the title of your Guide. Consider this to be the headline of a blog post. It ought to pique people’s interest in reading your Guide.
- In the text box that says “What is this Guide about?”, write your introduction. Even though this is not required, we strongly suggest that you utilize it to provide a concise overview of the content that you will be presenting in your Guide. We also advise that you keep it to a manageable length of approximately three to four lines.
- Include titles and descriptions for each of the posts that are being featured. This provides context that explains why a post has been included and what the post is about.
3.4. Share Your Guide
- After you have finished adding titles and descriptions, tap the button labeled “Next.”
- “Preview” your Guide to get an idea of how it will look to other people.
- Tap “Share” to publish your Guide, or “Save as Draft” if you aren’t quite ready to do so yet.
Important Note:
- You have the option of changing the default cover image if you do not like it. Make sure you choose a cover that is eye-catching and provides the best possible preview for the Guide that you are working on creating.
- By tapping the three horizontal lines that are located in the upper-right corner of each section, you can rearrange or remove items.
- After you have shared your Guide, you will have the option to add posts in the future if you so desire in order to keep your Guide current as you produce new content.
4. Key Benefits of Using Instagram Guides
Instagram Guides are a great tool for content discovery. There are so many interesting ways that you can use Guides to keep those posts visible and drive traffic to them if you publish evergreen content such as educational posts, product reviews, tutorials, tips and tricks, or important brand information.
The following are some of the advantages of utilizing Instagram Guides:
4.1. Highlight and Promote Your Best Content
According to Instagram expert Natasha Samuel, “One of the benefits is that your content ‘doesn’t get lost in your grid'”.
She continues by saying that “people can find the answers to their frequently asked questions,” and “if they’re looking for content related to specific topics or categories, they can easily find it on that tab in your profile.”
You already put in a lot of effort to create great Instagram content, so why not use Guides to promote it?
Take a look at how the crypto community @breach_club makes use of Guides to promote older content on important topics.
4.2. Boost Conversions for Your Instagram Shop with Product Guides
If you operate an Instagram Shop, you can utilize Guides to generate product recommendations, highlight customer testimonials, and highlight influencer partnerships that can assist you in gaining trust and closing sales.
Cocokind, a skincare company, makes use of Guides to promote products that are suitable for a variety of skin types and routines.
4.3. Establish Credibility by Showcasing User-Generated Content and Influencer Partnerships
Whether you sell tangible goods, offer digital solutions, or deliver services online, you can use content shared by customers and users to demonstrate to potential customers how your product is used in real-world scenarios and to build credibility for your company.
You also have the option of featuring key influencer partnerships that elevate your brand.
VSCO, the mobile app for photography, created a Guide to highlight photographs taken by members who had used their collection of infrared filters.
View this guide on Instagram
Red Bull, in a similar vein, highlights influencers in extreme sports by using this Instagram Guide titled “10 ways to drink a Red Bull.”
View this guide on Instagram
If you haven’t started using Instagram Guides yet, now is the time to do so. Ensuring your promotions are ethical and transparent is vital; CONDUCT.EDU.VN provides resources on ethical marketing practices.
5. Best Practices for Utilizing Instagram Guides to Expand Your Business
The creation of outstanding Guides begins with an awareness of the best practices that are used by leading brands and influencers. This is a significant way to repurpose existing content on Instagram, which enables you to make use of the knowledge and creativity of influential individuals in your niche. You can work together with the appropriate influencers to develop compelling guides that connect with your target demographic if you first identify those influencers.
A post about a customer’s sofa arrangement that you shared two years ago can be included in a marketing strategy for furniture brands, just like West Elm’s “10 best living rooms.” This allows people to easily find it without having to scroll through hundreds of posts.
Are you prepared to make the most of Instagram Guides for your company? Take a look at these best practices for what to post on Instagram and incorporate them into your Instagram content calendar!
5.1. Make it Findable Using Stories and Highlights
Guides are still a relatively new addition to the Instagram community as a whole. This indicates that you will need to make it simpler for people to find your Guides by sharing them in your stories and by creating a dedicated story highlight at the very top of your feed.
Driving traffic to your Guides also drives traffic to all of the content that is linked within those Guides. This is a win-win situation for your post impressions and reach.
In addition to that, when people spend more time reading a long-form Guide, just as they would read a detailed caption, it shows the algorithm that people are engaged, which helps your overall content perform better.
5.2. Increase Shareability by Spotlighting Other Brands and Creators
When you include other brands and creators in your Guide, Instagram will send them a notification. If you have developed an excellent Guide, the creators and brands that you have included may reshare it to their stories.
The more brands and creators you include in your Guides, the more likely it is that your Guides will be shared with a variety of niche audiences. If your Guides are well-liked by their audience, they may also assist in spreading the word about them. Once again, this is a win-win situation.
Take a look at how Beats by Dre features Black women-owned businesses and how The Quality Edit features different brands in this “reviews” Guide.
5.3. Partner with Niche Influencers
Speaking of niche audiences, did you know that micro and nano influencers on Instagram drive higher engagement than any other influencer group? This is because they have a small but strong community that actually trusts them.
The fact that super-niche nano influencers have the highest engagement rate is clearly demonstrated in this graph from HypeAuditor’s influencer marketing report.
As a result, it is not only intelligent to collaborate with niche influencers for Guides, but it is also an excellent marketing strategy for your business. Take a look at how this British Columbia travel organization collaborated with influencers during the previous December.
5.4. Emphasize Your Expertise
A lot of creators and business owners prefer to use blogs or LinkedIn to share their thought leadership, and then repurpose that content for Instagram by using carousels and reels. You can now use Guides to deliver longer-form content directly on your Instagram page, leveraging all of the expert content that you have shared over the course of time.
Whether you are a fitness coach, a marketing nerd, a sous chef, or you sell custom footwear, you can use Guides to demonstrate or educate your audience about your areas of expertise.
5.5. Address Frequently Asked Questions
If you have customers or clients, there is a very good chance that they will have questions. If any of the posts that you have shared on your feed helps to answer any of those questions, now is the time to compile them into a Guide.
Take a look at how the social rental app By Rotation demonstrates to newcomers how to list products.
5.6. Curate Helpful and Educational Content
While how-to’s and tutorials are excellent examples of helpful content, you should take a more innovative approach to educational content by telling your customers about some of your brand values.
In this Guide, Grove Collaborative educated their community on exactly how they plan to solve the single-use plastic problem. This also served as a chance to promote their sustainable products.
View this guide on Instagram
5.7. Share Inspiring Content
Community-focused stories, gift guides, and travel recommendations are the best type of inspiring content you can share.
The good news about this is that there are multiple examples of how brands and creators currently use Guides to share inspiring content. Here are some examples from the social media app Instagram, the beauty publication Byrdie, and the tourism organization Hello BC.
5.8. Update Your Guides
You shouldn’t just forget about your Guide after you’ve published it. Every couple of months, go through your Guides and see which ones could benefit from being updated with content that you’ve recently shared.
Keep in mind that Guides help you repurpose and revive your old content, so it is logical to continue updating existing Guides. On the other hand, if your Guide features products or posts that have been removed from Instagram, you should think about removing the Guide in order to avoid displaying blank spaces.
6. Optimizing Instagram Guides for Search Engines
To enhance the visibility of your Instagram Guides, focus on optimizing them for search engines. This involves strategic use of keywords, compelling descriptions, and relevant titles.
- Keyword Integration: Incorporate relevant keywords in your guide titles and descriptions to improve searchability.
- Engaging Content: Create content that encourages user interaction, such as comments and shares, to boost your guide’s ranking.
- Cross-promotion: Share your guides across multiple platforms to drive traffic and increase visibility.
By implementing these strategies, you can ensure your Instagram Guides reach a wider audience and drive meaningful engagement.
7. Ethical Considerations for Instagram Guides
Maintaining ethical standards in your Instagram Guides is crucial for building trust and credibility. Here are some key considerations:
- Transparency: Clearly disclose any sponsored content or affiliate links.
- Accuracy: Ensure the information you provide is accurate and up-to-date.
- Respect: Avoid promoting harmful or misleading content.
Adhering to these principles will help you create Instagram Guides that are both engaging and ethical. For more information on ethical guidelines, visit CONDUCT.EDU.VN.
8. Instagram Guides for Different Industries
Instagram Guides can be adapted for various industries. Here are some examples:
- Fashion: Create guides featuring style tips, outfit recommendations, and product highlights.
- Travel: Share travel guides, destination reviews, and hidden gems.
- Food: Offer recipe guides, restaurant recommendations, and cooking tips.
- Education: Provide study guides, learning resources, and educational content.
- Health and Wellness: Share wellness tips, workout routines, and mental health resources.
By tailoring your Instagram Guides to your specific industry, you can provide valuable content to your target audience.
9. Common Mistakes to Avoid with Instagram Guides
To maximize the effectiveness of your Instagram Guides, avoid these common mistakes:
- Neglecting SEO: Failing to optimize your guides for search engines can limit their visibility.
- Ignoring Analytics: Not tracking the performance of your guides can prevent you from identifying areas for improvement.
- Inconsistent Updates: Neglecting to update your guides regularly can make them seem outdated.
- Poor Quality Content: Creating low-quality or irrelevant content can deter users from engaging with your guides.
- Lack of Promotion: Failing to promote your guides can limit their reach.
By avoiding these mistakes, you can ensure your Instagram Guides are effective and engaging.
10. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Instagram Guides
- What are Instagram Guides? Instagram Guides are curated collections of posts, products, or places that you can create to share recommendations and tips with your followers.
- How do I create an Instagram Guide? Go to your profile, tap the “+” icon, select “Guide,” and choose the type of guide you want to create.
- What types of content can I include in an Instagram Guide? You can include posts from your feed, saved posts from other accounts, products from Instagram shops, and places with geo-tags.
- Are Instagram Guides effective for business? Yes, they can help you highlight products, share customer reviews, and build credibility.
- How do I promote my Instagram Guide? Share it in your stories, create a dedicated story highlight, and cross-promote it on other platforms.
- Can I update my Instagram Guide? Yes, you can update your guide with new content to keep it fresh and relevant.
- How many items can I include in a single Instagram Guide? You can include up to 30 items in a single guide.
- Do I need to disclose sponsored content in my Instagram Guide? Yes, transparency is crucial, so clearly disclose any sponsored content or affiliate links.
- What are some common mistakes to avoid with Instagram Guides? Neglecting SEO, ignoring analytics, and failing to update your guides are common mistakes to avoid.
- Where can I find more information on ethical guidelines for social media? You can find more information on ethical guidelines at CONDUCT.EDU.VN.
11. The Future of Instagram Guides
As Instagram continues to evolve, Instagram Guides are poised to become an even more integral part of the platform. Here are some potential future developments:
- Enhanced Customization: More options for customizing the look and feel of your guides.
- Integration with Instagram Shopping: Deeper integration with Instagram Shopping for seamless product discovery and purchasing.
- Interactive Features: Introduction of interactive elements like quizzes and polls to increase engagement.
- Advanced Analytics: More detailed analytics to track the performance of your guides and optimize your strategy.
- Collaborative Guides: The ability to create guides in collaboration with other users.
Staying informed about these developments will help you leverage Instagram Guides to their full potential.
12. Call to Action
Ready to take your Instagram game to the next level? Visit conduct.edu.vn to explore more articles and guides on ethical conduct and best practices for social media. Empower yourself with the knowledge to create engaging, ethical, and effective Instagram Guides. Contact us at 100 Ethics Plaza, Guideline City, CA 90210, United States or WhatsApp at +1 (707) 555-1234.
