Instagram guides have been around for a while now, but we would consider them one of the apps most underappreciated features. When Insta first released this feature it caused a little uncertainty, as we see with just about every feature release. Some of us loved it; some of us hated it; some of us thought that it could even ruin certain careers. But unlike many features, it appears that after the initial weirdness, it didn’t really take off the way it could have. And we think that’s a shame!

Today we’re going to be giving you a quick intro to Instagram Guides. We’ll also explain just why we think that more people should be using them! 

What is a guide?

Instagram guides let you create collections of posts on Instagram. They cater to three categories: places, products and posts. Of course, the ‘posts’ category is pretty general and gives you the freedom to focus on any type of category you may actually want, for example, activity types. 

One of the nice things about categories is that you can include other people’s posts within your collections so that you can also feature some of your favourite businesses and content creators. 

In addition to collecting the posts in one place, you can name your collection, add a description for the collection itself, title the individual posts, and even give an explanation about what each individual post is about!

3 reasons that we love guides!

They’re mini-blogs

When this feature was first released, some of the first people to speak about it were bloggers. Not necessarily because they liked it… quite the opposite: many were worried it would ruin their blogging careers. 

They actually had a point. While guides are less customizable and less detailed than a blog, they take a lot of the pressure off people because they’re easy to navigate, expected to have small paragraphs, and don’t require you to maintain a website. This made them accessible to just about anyone with knowledge of Instagram.

In our opinion, they aren’t quite enough to directly compete with full blogs, but they do give you a taste of the blogging life. So, if you ever considered starting your own site, IG Guides are a great way to dip your toe in the water. 

They let you compile similar posts

Whether many of us realize it or not, most IG pages consist of a few types of topics that get built upon over many posts. Whether it’s a deliberate series of cleaning tips or an accidental compilation of being in love with your dog, everyone has at least a couple of topics they like to talk about more than once. 

Until guides, there was no great way to compile those posts, except for a dedicated hashtag. That sort of worked, but made the experience of finding similar posts pretty cumbersome for followers. 

Now, these posts can be neatly collected in one spot, so that people can easily learn about the specific topics that interest them without having to scroll through your entire feed. So go ahead and get those “Cleaning tips” , “Fave photo spots” or “puppy love” collections going!

They let you guide people

Guides make for a great educational platform! Aside from being able to collect posts, you can actually organize them to your preference. This is a new avenue for making content that is interesting and useful for your users!

If you want to create a guide for a perfect day trip to NYC, you can! Just organize your posts step by step, write the names of each place and include a line or two about why it’s on the list. That way your users will have the perfect quick reference guide for their next trip. 

Do you prefer talking about cleaning? No problem, create a guide on the best way to deep clean your house. Collect the posts that help explain all the things that need to be done, organize them in your recommended order and add any extra hot tips you may have in the descriptions. Even an amateur cleaner will be able to come to your page and immediately see how they can best clean their home, without having to spend hours on your feed!

Stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll break down exactly how to create a guide on Instagram.

Want somebody else to do the thinking here? Take a look at our social media management packages.