4 Ideas For Instagram Guides For Business Brands
Instagram rolled out a brand new feature call guides around mid-2020, limited to the health and wellness industry. This new feature has been a little bit of a mystery for some. Yeah, those that are able to master using guides can get excellent results. Instagram guides are helpful for organizing your content effectively for your audience.
You may be asking, “what are Instagram guides?”
Instagram describes guides as “a way to more easily discover recommendations, tips and other content from your favorite creators, public figures, organizations and publishers on Instagram.”
You will find guides are individual albums or groups of content collected into a single resource. You can use a mix of educational content, product information, team insights, behind-the-scenes looks, and more into relevant categories. Guides allow you to group and gather your own and other creators' Instagram content.
Instagram guides categorizes into places, products, and posts. You use already posted reels, IGTV, and posts to place into your specific collections.
I’ve seen influencers embracing the greatness around guides. You may want to know how to use this in your business. I have tips for you to consider on integrating guides into your platform.
These four brands are doing a great job at using this new feature. Each has different niches and audiences. I want to show you various ways for inspiration.
Skims
Are you shocked? Skims has 2.3 million followers on Instagram and still used the features function. It’s an excellent opportunity to create gift guides for customers. For the holiday season, they created a Skims Holiday Gift Guide.
For product brands, you can add posts or shoppable posts to compile together. The benefit is inspiring your customers to match things. Plus, you can forward into Instagram story or direct messages to customers.
Do you have a product-based brand? Try to create a Valentine's Day Gift Guide for your business. It can be self-care items to gift ideas for a partner.
Millie
Itsmodernmillie is an online educator that helps influencers grow their brands. She has a wonderful platform that screams the like, know, and trust factor. I’ve been following her platform through seeing educational reels.
Her guide, called INSTA Worthy Places to Shoot in Las Vegas, has terrific insight on content creation in that area. Business is about relationships. You can use posts that feature a specific location or topic into a brilliant guide.
Service-based brands can do the same example featuring their favorite customers. You can create posts with you at their locations. The guide can talk about how you helped the customer or a possible review. For an added touch, mention or tag your customer to cross-promote their brand.
Patrice C Washington
If you haven’t heard about Patrice C Washington, shame on you. Lol. I was just playing. I love her platform, podcast, and messaging. I’ve been an avid listener of her podcast for some time now. She’s a motivational speaker and overall boss.
She used the collection to feature her From Purpose to Platform program with six graduates. Her Instagram followers can easily locate information in the collection. Whenever she wants to market on social media or newsletter, she will be able to share it.
You can replicate for coaching and service-based brands. You are likely asked certain questions repeatedly in DM. Create posts talking about those points and gather them together in a guide. You can forward it to the appropriate follower whenever someone asks.
Finding Francesca
Francesca shows you all of the great places to travel. Her platform educates people about weekend traveling for the 9-5 person. She uses the feature to educate and highlight favorite destinations. Her Most Instagrammable Places in NYC has seven fun locations to visit.
Francesca has wonderful blog content and engaging social media. You use the collection on both platforms. The share function allows you to copy the link to repurpose content and send in a direct message.
For food and culinary brands, you can show your favorite dishes or cooking ingredients. You can select your favorite food posts and create a short description.
The easiest way to use guides is by looking at what you currently have in your feed or some platforms that share lovely ideas. You can create collections that don’t just feature your knowledge. You can feature other thought leaders to round out your expertise.
I love how my guides are explicitly curated for my audience and platform. You can view my guides here:
Favorite Black Owned Jewelry Brands
I will continue to switch out features and content in my guides to educate my followers. It’s time to jump into it.
I would love to know how you are using guides. Are you having any challenges with it? Comment below and let me know.
