Instagram Guides are here!
This is your chance to breathe new life into old content.
That's right OLD content, as in, use content that you have already put the hard work in to!
Guides rolled out to all Instagram accounts at the end of November 2020. In this blog post I am going to tell you what they are, how to use them and give you a step by step guide on how to create your own.
Let's begin!
What Are Instagram Guides & What Can They Do For Me?
Guides were actually created in mid 2020 as a way of helping people cope with the affects of COVID 19.
Mental health professionals and accounts in the wellness niches were encouraged to create guides to support their audiences and help them navigate these challenging times.
Now, as of the end of November 2020, all accounts have access to creating their own guides.
The release of Guides is great news for content creators across all industries. We put so much hard work into an Instagram post and I feel like this tool is Instagram's way of acknowledging the quality of the content we create and allowing us to give that content a longer shelf life.
Expert Status
Creating guides around the core topics you teach your audience will help to solidify your status as an expert on these subjects.
Think of each Guide as a little mini book for your audience where they can go to binge your content!
Don't worry if you can't see Guides yet. Once you have made your first guide it will appear on your tabs, next to Reels and IGTV.
What Kind Of Content Can I Put In A Guide?
Your guides can be made up of both photos and videos, you can mix it up, which is great in terms of keeping your audience engaged. You can use your own posts from your instagram account or you can use content from other accounts that you have saved!
The ability to mix up content that is yours with other accounts is a fantastic opportunity to cross create and collaborate with accounts.
You can get really creative with the guides you create for your audience, not only increasing the value you are delivering to them, but also helping you to form relationships with other content creators as you share their content.
You have three categories to choose from when you go to create your guide;
- Places
- Products
- Posts
Places includes content related to a specific location. If you wanted to create a guide around things to do in Dublin you can select the 'places' option and select content that has been shared relating to the location you have selected.
Products will give you a chance to showcase either the products you sell or the products you are recommending. Another opportunity for strengthening the relationships you have with other businesses. You could create a 'My Recommendations' guide that shares all your favourite products with your audience. Perhaps this will open up affiliate and brand partnership ideas for some of you creators.
Finally we have Posts. This will be the one I'll be using most. Posts is where you get to put your best content in to guides allowing your audience easy access to your content around a particular subject while breathing new life into old content!
These can just be your own posts or if you want to add some saved posts from other accounts you can do that too.
Some Guide Ideas For You
So what kind of content should go in your guides?
This is where you get to be creative and let your best content shine!
Check your insights over the last 2 years and see which of your posts had the highest engagement.
Take a note of the categories of you top performing posts and start from there!
Think of each guide as a little sub niche of its own, the more specialised the better.
For example, I could create a Guide on Instagram Story Design Hacks. You see how specific that is?
Also take note of the topics that perform best on your account and make a plan to create more of that kind of content so you can keep adding to your guides as you go.
How To Start Your First Guide
Here is a step by step guide of how to start your first Guide!
Before you get started I would do a little research and plan in advance the content that you want to include in your Guide.
You can do this by noting which posts you want to include with a pen and paper, or you could save those posts for easy access.
Once you have that done, you can begin!
Step One - from your profile, select the big plus sign at the top right of the screen
Step Two - select 'guide'
Step Three - select the type of guide you want to create (place, product, post)
Step Four - Select your posts (from your posts or saved)
Step Five - Select 'next'
Step Six - Choose a cover photo for your Guide, create your Guide title and short description and give each post a title and description too. Then hit 'next'.
Step Seven - Share! Congratulations, you just shared your first Guide!
To Recap (screenshot this to reming yourself!
Tag me on Instagram Stories here)
Guides are a way for you to showcase your expert status and breathe new life into old content.
You can create a Guide on any topic and use either your own posts or posts from other account to make up the content of your Guide.
Check you insights to see which of your posts people most engaged with and create a Guide around that topic!
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