Your Guide to Instagram Guides in 2020

You’re not the only one who hasn’t heard about Instagram Guides. Instagram introduced Guides in May 2020. The initial rollout was for locked-down wellness content. The feature didn’t reach the stardom of Stories and Reels.

Instagram Guides are an excellent tool for content creators. They allow you to create mini-curated collections of recommendations places, products, and posts. Let’s take a look at Instagram Guides and see how your brand can use them.

The Backstory of Instagram Guides

Do you remember the time when everyone was forced into staying at home in 2020? This was a terrible time that caused many mental health problems. In 2020, Instagram said:

This will allow creators to connect to expert organizations to share their resources, including tips and tricks on managing your well-being, connecting with others, or managing grief or anxiety.

Initial collaborators for Instagram Guides were creators and organizations including @afspnational, @heads_together, @vitaalere, @klicksafe, @headspace_aus, @deepikapadukone, @sudahdongand@eenfance

We can see @afspnational’s Instagram account focuses on suicide prevention and mental health. Below is the Guides tab.

Tap the Guides button to access a list of blogs and posts that can be used for suicide prevention and checking in with our family and friends.

This feature is now available to all Instagram users, and it’s not just for those who are interested in mental and wellness. These are valid topics that can still be included in Instagram guides.

What are Instagram Guides?

Here’s a quick overview about Instagram Guides and the things you can do with them.

Instagram Guides can be found in your profile along with your Posts, Reels and Tagged menu bars. They can be used to create travel guides, gift guides, reviews, wedding planning, and other useful content. Gucci’s colourful Guides are filled with fun collections and fashion show curations like Twinsburg.

Clicking on a feed post in your Instagram Guide takes them to the original post. This is great for your website traffic and SEO (search engine optimization).

How to Make an Instagram Book

It is simple to create an Instagram Guide thanks to the easy menu options and prompts.

Let’s take a look at the basics of creating an Instagram Guide.

Tap the + at the top-right corner of your profile page, as if you were uploading a reel, post, or live.

2. Select Guide from the drop-down list to see your options for Guide type. These are the three Ps: Products, Places, and Posts.

Select the Guide type you wish to create and select the posts that you would like to feature. You will then be able to select the type of Guide you want and the posts you wish to feature.

You can search for Products to view and choose their posts.

For Posts you can choose between posts that you have saved and posts that are displayed on your profile.

You can now arrange the blocks and add a title, description and edit your cover photo. You can share the layout once you are satisfied with it. Guides are not currently visible in your profile grid. Users won’t be able to see Guides unless they visit their profile and tap Guides or are tagged with the Instagram Guide. Your Guides can be added to Instagram Stories!

Instagram Tips Guide

Scroll through your tagged photos to find user-generated content. Your Agorapulse dashboard can help you find brand ambassadors. You can also create community engagement by including your favourite brands and products in your Instagram guides. Every shop and creator will be notified, and they can then share the guide to their account. Be useful! Make Instagram Guides that appeal to your target audience. This might require you to create a series of Guides. If you are a local business, make an Instagram Guide that features your neighbors. You might be the neighbor with the best coffee shop or the public library right across the street.

Now you are able to create an Instagram guide and reap the benefits for your brand. What can you do? These are some Instagram Guides marketing strategies that may work for you!

1.Create a gift guide

Ideal for: Ecommerce merchants and independent shops.

Benefits: Helping users choose the right gifts can help you increase your social media sales and ROI. By including and tagging other businesses, you can improve community interaction.

Are guys and girls able to choose the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for their loved ones? What Secret Santa gift is best for the IT guy you’ve never spoken to? How about Mother’s Day gifts under $20? This is where I am going. You will provide valuable information and increase your sales by creating gift guides that are very specific. To make your collection more authentic and less commercial, you can include brands.

Shopping for holidays begins at least six weeks prior to the event. So get your Guides ready!

Tip for Instagram guides: Label and describe each Guide clearly so that they are easy to find. If you don’t know where to find something, gift shopping can be stressful. @letterboxgift does an excellent job with their Gift Ideas for Friends guide.

Include all body types and skin tones in your Guides. @ladybirdbridal deserves a special mention for their Love Your Curves Guide.

Keep in mind: If other brands or creators remove your featured posts, they will also be removed from your Guides.

2. Create a Travel Guide

Ideal for: Tourist organizations, hotels, restaurants, and local businesses.

Benefits: Your brand will be seen as an expert and encourage interaction by providing useful (but not salesy) information.

To create an Instagram Travel Guide, you don’t need to be a professional travel guide. Everybody has something to offer, no matter how small it might seem. An example of this is a restaurant that serves organic, farm-fresh food. They might share an Instagram Guide about local farms and beauty spots. A bookshop might make a guide that lists places to visit in each book. I would love to read them! This Guide allows you to tag other creators or businesses by including their posts and shops into your Guide.

@BritishAirways has some great Instagram Guides with actual customer reviews. These links then take you to the posts of the resorts, tours, and hotels. This transparency makes the Instagram Guides more attractive to Instagram users looking to book a vacation.

3. Collect Your Favorite Bits

Ideal for: Service-based companies that use announcements and photos of team members more than product images.

Benefits: Involve your community in your best bits, including launches, events and travel.

Some brands are not able to showcase products. Many service-based companies wonder what to post on Instagram. You can compile your most memorable moments or funny memories with Instagram Guides. A End of Year Review could be created and shared via email to your subscribers. This is a great way to show off your company milestones, awards, promotions, new hires and office moves, or client acquisitions.

Monzo’s Christmas Jokes Guide is a great resource. This is a great way for digital banks to create an Instagram Guide that sparks conversations and engages comments.

4. Give Resources and Support a Charity

Ideal for everyone!

Benefits: It doesn’t matter if you are a large corporation supporting a charity financially or a single creator without any spare cash. Awareness is still support. This is a great way for you to make use of your channel for good.

Even if you can’t donate financially, sharing posts and resources are still a way to support a charity. This is especially true for our social media-centric world. Instagram Guides lets you feature a charity (or charities), focus on a particular area (for instance domestic abuse), or celebrate a month like Black History Month, LGBTQ+ Pride Month, or Black History Month.

In your Instagram Guides, you can feature speakers and campaigners. Tony’s Chocolonely believes in fair treatment of cocoa growers and advocates equality for all. Their Instagram Guide features Pharrell Wilkins, founder of #BlackAmbition.

5. Send your guides to other channels

Ideal for: Brands who want to increase engagement on their Instagram channel.

Benefits: Importing fans from other channels can increase your engagement, follower count, and possibly ROI.

An Instagram Guide can be shared on other channels thanks to its unique URL. It can be embedded into your company’s blog as a visual (and clickable!) feature.

Once you’ve copied the link to your Instagram guide, go to your Agorapulse dashboard to create a post to your other channels. Let’s look at @clevergirlfinance, who created an Instagram guide on the top personal finance books for women. Contentworks loves this account for its smart, women-focused finance advice.