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Introduction

Once the new features on social media platforms get announced, social media marketers often try to determine the cost and the benefits of using particular features for their business. They need to decide whether the cost of learning how to use a new feature will be worth it, and whether or not it would translate into extra engagement and sales.

The Instagram Guides feature is a new way to share information and recommendations with your followers. Effectively, when creating a Guide, you are creating a blog post that is comprised of other Instagram Posts but is built into the Instagram platform.

Growth can look different for different businesses. The goals of growth depend on the aims of the brand and the purpose of the content strategy is. When trying to grow your brand, it is important to set tangible goals. This will ensure that you are on track and posting effectively. It is not enough to simply post; you must post effectively.

Growth on Instagram can look like many things. One of the most common growth metrics is follower growth. So, perhaps you want to increase your overall follower count. When doing this, you need to remember the difference between the number of followers, and engaged followers. What this means is ensuring that your followers actually care about your business and interact with your content—uses Guides effectively is a great way to target interested users.

Growth with Instagram Guides is similar to growth in other areas and post types. The principles and basic theoretical understandings of growth are the same.

There are three types of Instagram Guides: places, products, and posts.

1: Set the rules and stand out

Naturally, as Instagram Guides are a new feature there are no conventions or expected posts. This means that you get to make the rules. Once your audience has an expectation of a kind of post the standards increase exponentially. This is why there are so many elements of posts that are consistently replicated across many accounts; because those are the things that work. When users view a feed post, in particular a brand post, they have certain expectations that need to be met, or they will disengage.

But, with Guides, however, you can be a part of the revolutionary users who get to decide the rules. Conventions and expected formats do not exist as of yet meaning that you can be as creative and exciting as you want.

It is also important to note that audiences may not be receptive to undertaking new features and forms of posts. This means you get to entice them. You got to be the entry into the world of Instagram Guides for them.

Nevertheless, being one of the first people to use a new feature, and use it well, is central to a growing audience. It will show that you are on-trend and relevant--given how fast we are used to receiving information and how accustomed we are to instant gratification we only want to be receiving do you find relevant information.

2: Promoting your content

Being able to promote your content is the best way to grow your audience. Promotion runs two ways; first promoting your content through Instagram Guides, and second, promoting your Guide.

Using the product Guide, you will be able to create insights into the product that you are selling on Instagram. Often people do want to know more about a product before committing to buying, see creating a Guide to your products is a great way to show your audience more. It could be the difference between a sale and not.
Anything you do to help make your products is good and will help you grow your audience. It will also assist in the growth of your business, and translating views into sales.

If your business has a physical location using the place Guide is a great way to show it off. You can create a Guide into many different elements of your business; it can be an effective way of communicating to your audience what your brand is all about. You can share informative content about elements of your business, and create an easy way for your audience to share your brand with their friends and family.

By including your post in the “posts” Guide, you are effectively promoting that content, too. Whether your Guides are comprised entirely of your own posts, or you are creating a compilation of many user’s posts; having your own post in there is a promotion of your content. The same goes for if your post is included in another user’s Guide—it is an easy promotion of your content.

These three kinds of Guides; products, places, and posts, all have different, yet effective implications for growing your audience and business.

As for the promotion of the Instagram Guide itself, there are several avenues you can take.

Primarily, though, you will be relying on shares. You should share your posts to your story and also encourage your audience to do the same. Eventually, Instagram Guides will show up on the explore page, but until then you need to promote them organically.