Are you all over Instagram Guides? Or, like me, have you never heard about them until just now? (I always feel about a year behind on Instagram.) Well, wonder no longer. Here’s how you can add this versatile post type to your social media game.
Instagram Guides are curated lists of posts which allow you to add a title and note about each post in a website-like scrolling experience. The great thing about Guides is that you can use other people’s posts in your Guide, as well as your own posts. This makes them a super versatile tool to use to connect with your audience.
How to create a Guide from your profile
From your phone, go to your Instagram profile grid, click the + and then click Guide. You can choose whether it’s a Places Guide, a Products Guide or a Posts Guide.
Choose the posts to include in your Guide. You can pick from your Saved posts and Your Posts. So, if you want to use someone else’s post in the Guide, make sure you save it first.
You’ll then put all the detail into your Guide. Title, cover image, and then a title and note about each post in the Guide. Make sure you have at least two posts, and a title for each post.
How to create a Guide from your Collections
There is more than one way to create a Guide. Save posts to Collections as you find them, and then when you view that Collection, there is a handy button right there to Create guide. Perfect!
How to save a draft of your Instagram Guide
When creating your Guide, click Share and from the next page you can save it as a draft. You have to have at least two posts, and a title for each post, before you can do this.
Sharing your Instagram Guide
Once your Guide is ready, click Share to share it to the Guides tab of your profile. Creating your first Guide will add this tab to your profile, between Posts and Tagged.
When you open your Guide, click the dot menu to Copy Link or share in another way. Drop this into a tweet, Facebook post, email blast or text message and your Guide will be out in the world.
Look out for my next article in this series where I will go through a bunch of ideas for how you can use Instagram Guides to talk to your audience. While you’re waiting, why not try out a collab post on Instagram, ready to add to your newest Guide?
