By Ellie Watford

Instagram has a new feature – Instagram Guides! We have trialled and tested the new feature with several of our clients to share everything we know since the launch. We’ll explore what they are, who should use them, how to use them and the initial shortfalls.

What are Instagram Guides?

Instagram guides are essentially an Instagram blog. They are a scrollable feature that curates a blog-like piece of content about places, products or posts. At the time of writing, Instagram guides are a new feature with more aspects yet to be revealed (we think).

Instagram guides allow you to design a page that has been curated with other posts already existing on Instagram. With each place, product or post you include you can accompany it with copy to tell your users a story and guide them with advice.

Who should be using guides?

Instagram guides present opportunities for several businesses and there are plenty of ways you can implement them into your social schedule:

• Hospitality and tourism: Instagram guides are literally made for you. Get on their quick smart and recommend your business along with other places near your venue/business. For example, ‘Best Places to Eat on the Macleay Valley’ or “The perfect day in Port Macquarie”.
• Product-based businesses: This is a great way to present the various products you offer in one place on your feed. Let’s say you own a health food store and there might be five best-sellers you want to showcase, this is a way to do it. Perhaps you have a new range of seasonal products coming out, combine them into a guide.
• Advice posts: Use the ‘post’ Instagram guide to gather all of your best pieces of advice you’ve shared on your feed. For example, if you are an accountant who shares tips for tax time, you could collate them in one guide “Five things you need to know for tax time”.

As we always say, whenever a new feature is introduced to a social media platform – start using it as soon as possible! When a social media platform reveals a new feature, they want us to start using it and be creative. In return for using the new feature, they will reward you with more exposure to other users. If you can find a way to make Instagram guides work for your business, give it a go.

Key things to note so far:

• Existing content only: The biggest thing to bear in mind is that you can only create an Instagram guide with posts that have already been uploaded onto Instagram – you cannot upload new photos into the guide. It is a collection of existing posts (from every public Instagram account) curated by you.
• Cross-promotion opportunities: As the guide can utilise other people’s posts, there is an opportunity for cross-sharing/promoting between other Instagram accounts. When you use the photos of other users to create the guide, they’ll receive a notification and might share to their story.
• No analytics or engagement: This is a heartbreaker for the marketers out there and the biggest downfall so far. How do we know if the guides are doing well if we can’t measure it?! At the time of writing, we can’t see any analytics on guides like views, likes, shares, etc. You can only see if someone has shared the guide to their story. We are confident analytics and engagements should be on their way soon.

Where can I find Instagram Guides?

Guides are currently showing up in these locations on Instagram:

• Directly on the user’s profile, in a new tab like IGTV.
• Shared in Instagram stories by users.
• Guides are also expected to show up on the explore page, however, we are yet to see any ourselves. This exposure point might still be on its way for Aussie users.

How can I post an Instagram guide?

Keen to try making an Instagram guide yourself? Here is how…

Step 1: Tap and hold on the cross in the top right-hand corner and click guide.

Step 2: Choose the guide type. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will show you ‘places’.

Step 3: Start searching for all the places you want to add to your guide and choose the best images. Try to select photos from your own profile or from other accounts that have a following.

Step 4: Write a description of each place, post or product. Longer form copy is encouraged, so be comprehensive and provide valuable insight. Creators who provide genuine ‘insider tips’ will reap the most benefits. Use hashtags for (anticipated) exposure and emojis to break up the content.

Step 5: Post! Don’t forget to share the guide to your story as that’s the only way people can find it on their feed right now (to our knowledge).

So there you have it! Our guide to everything we know about Instagram guides. If you decide to create your own guide, send it to us on Instagram – we’d love to see how users get creative with the new feature. If you have any more questions on Instagram guides, send us a direct message on Instagram via @dragonfly_marketing.

Dragonfly Marketing is an award-winning marketing agency based in regional New South Wales. We help small regional businesses grow with high impact, low budget marketing. Find out more about us here.