Instagram guides can be useful to set your profile apart from other accounts on the platform. In this post, you will learn how exactly Instagram guides can help you build a brand and how to use them effectively.
What Are Instagram Guides
Guides is Instagram’s take on creating short, sharable content in text style to share with followers. They are small blog posts to advertise upcoming product collections and showcase the entire portfolio in an easy-to-understand format.
Many brands are busy creating Instagram Stories and Reels to advertise upcoming products or sales. Sometimes, a picture or video may not be sufficient to get the clear messaging out there. You’ll need to write a small guide to cover every detail. Instead of choosing WordPress, Medium, or any other web publishing platform to write small posts (and later share them on Instagram), you can use guides to create content inside the app. Instagram guides is neatly integrated into your profile. Anyone visiting your Instagram account can check them out.
What Type of Content Can You Create With Instagram Guides
The final use case depends entirely on you. For instance, you can write a small review of a movie using the Instagram guide and share it with followers. Similarly, restaurant owners can share the weekend’s buffet lunch menu with more details in the guides. Here are some popular ways to utilize Instagram guides: Now that you know what Instagram guides do and how they can be helpful, let us show you how to use them in the app.
How to Make an Instagram Guide
We will show you step-by-step instructions to make an Instagram guide from scratch. Let’s get started. Note: Instagram iPhone and Android apps are identical. We’ve used the Instagram app for iPhone in the screenshots below. You can use the same steps on Instagram app for Android. Step 1: Open Instagram app on iPhone. Step 2: Go to your account from the bottom tab bar.
Step 3: Tap on the + icon at the top.
Step 4: Select Guide from the bottom menu.
Instagram offers built-in Guide templates to choose from.
Places – To recommend places in your city or nearby areas. Products – To showcase your favorite products to followers. Posts – To recommend your previous Instagram posts or saved ones from different accounts.
Let’s select Posts.
Step 5: From the following menu, you will see two options – All Saved and Your posts.
Step 6: You can pick the picture from saved posts or your uploaded ones. Tap on the radio button below an image and select Next at the top.
Step 7: The selected photo is used as the cover image for the post. You can add a title, change the cover photo, and add more details to the guide. Interestingly, the guide title is already using auto-capitalization. That’s a nice touch from Instagram to bring consistency among all guides. Step 8: Tap on Add Posts button at the bottom and add more pictures (from saved posts and personal profiles) to your Instagram guide. Step 9: You need to add a title for each product (it’s mandatory) and write a small description about the same (optional). Step 10: You must add at least a couple of posts to guide and hit the Next button at the top.
Step 11: You can either save the guide as a draft or share it on your Instagram account.
It might take a while before your guide appears on your followers’ home screen. You can create a product guide, set an amazing cover photo, and add product images with descriptions. Similarly, you can create a vacation guide, add the country name/flag in the cover photo, and talk about memorizing places to visit in the guide. The major limitation of the Instagram guide is that it won’t let you upload images directly from the phone gallery. You must pick photos from the uploaded or saved posts.
How to Check Instagram Guides
Whether you’ve created a guide or want to check someone else’s, the process is quite simple. After you create a guide, it will start appearing in your account. Step 1: Open Instagram and go to your account.
Step 2: Check the new guides section with a familiar icon and tap on it.
Step 3: Glance over all your created Instagram guides. You can open any guide and remove it from your account or edit it with more content.
Master Instagram Guides
Similar to Instagram posts and stories, users can hide likes and comments for Instagram guides. How are you planning to use guides on Instagram? Share your use case in the comments section below.
