A Guide to Instagram Guides

In mid-May 2020, Instagram rolled out its newest feature, Instagram Guides, to select accounts. Their initial launch focused on wellness content in an effort to offer users a hub for mental health resources during COVID-19 pandemic. It has since been expanded to include guides with resources related to the LGBTQIA+ community and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Guide Features

Guides, like Shops, Filters, and IGTV, have their own category on the profile home page as well as on the Explore page.

Guides can feature curated posts from other accounts and written content from the Guide creator, great for curated how-to posts, tips, collections, the list goes on. Similar to a blog, Guides are generally text-heavy with highlighted posts centered on image. The highlighted post copy will not pull through to the guide itself, but when tapped the image will link through to the original post.

Similar to IGTV, Guides can be shared to Stories in a sticker that features the static cover image and links through to the Guide. So far, Guides can not be shared with a feed preview, like IGTV, so story shares or feed posts with a CTA to navigate to the guide are currently the only way to promote them.

Instagram recently added a Well-Being section to its explore page, which opens to a Guide-specific explore page featuring Guides by creators and accounts that are included in this beta test. No word yet from Instagram on plans to expand the Guide function to more accounts.

We will be on the lookout for updates as the feature expands to more accounts, and updating this post with more information on Guides as it becomes available.