With Instagram Guides, the visual platform introduces exciting new ways to creatively present content reminiscent of blog posts. Initially this was reserved for selected profiles, but finally guides are available for all users. We have summarized what you need to know about the new feature!
What are Instagram Guides?
Like on a kind of landing page, you can use guides to clearly summarize already published articles and provide them with further information or useful tips. At the professional level, Instagram Guides can be used by creators, public figures, organizations, and magazines to vividly organize their own or others’ content and give more context.
First examples of this implementation can already be found on the following profiles: @klicksafe, @afspnational, @heads_together, @kidshelpphone, @projectrockit or @eenfance. So far, they are only visible in the mobile version.
How do I find Instagram guides?
To get to a guide on Instagram, tap the magazine icon in the tab in the middle of the profile. The guides can also be shared on Instagram Story or via Direct Message. Likewise, there is a deep link that leads to the guide.
How to create Instagram Guides and what do you use them for?
The creation of the guides is very intuitive. To create a guide, tap the plus icon at the top right of your profile in the app and tap the magazine icon for the “guide.”
A menu opens where you can choose between three formats. Under “Places” you can recommend locations in different cities or your own neighborhood – perfect for travel, food or fashion enthusiasts who want to share their insider tips for sightseeing, restaurants or vintage stores. Of course, you can also summarize this content in a modified form in the form of the option of recommended “posts”.
Under “Products” you can list items that match a theme. These are limited to items from the Instagram store. Brands can thus give their products more context. However, not only your own products can be used, but also those of other users. This allows influencers, brand ambassadors and other partners to recommend and report on products and services.
How might Instagram Guides be used by brands in the future?
The introduction of Instagram Guides is an exciting development for every social media marketer, brand and content creator on Instagram. They represent a long-desired possibility to clearly offer users further content. There has long been a trend toward micro-blogging in the form of ever-longer captions – but even these have character limits. In order to avoid this and to be able to give more space to more complex topics, the note “continue in the comments” is already provisionally switched to the comments section.
The guides could now function as a kind of landing page to collect information and prepare it strategically – whether for employer branding, info on events or FAQs. They likewise enable new and more diverse types of storytelling and could be used as an alternative to swipe-up in Stories, which some users find disruptive due to the media break.
Content focus of the first Instagram guides
Instagram itself did not initially introduce Instagram Guides as a new form of marketing. Instead, the focus will be on the topics of the guides that were initially published, as well as the benefits that accrue to the community as a result. It’s about education and tips around topics like self-care and mental well-being that Creator shares with experts from professional organizations.
The new feature is thus also intended to improve the image of the platform, which is often criticized for negative effects on the self-image and mental health of its users. Especially during the Corona pandemic, the social media platform is increasingly used. Instagram Guides are intended to provide “reliable information and inspiration,” according to Instagram.
We are excited about these exciting developments through Instagram Guides and are already testing them extensively. Anyone who has further questions about this and would like advice on how to use it, please feel free to contact us TACSYs.
Author: Sylvia Muschalski
