Create Organic Engagement: Instagram Guides

Social media marketers and influencers often think of creative ways to engage their followers without resorting to expensive advertising. Luckily, the concept of using "Instagram Guides" may be the key.

Below we explain what an Instagram guide is and how to create one. We also include some best practices on how to create engagement with them.

Why is organic engagement important on Instagram?

Instagram is just one of the many platforms that matter to online marketers, and anyone familiar with social media marketing should know the significance of organic engagement. These interactions can be especially helpful for brand promotion.

Social media engagement refers to the actions and activities users engage in when they’re online. It covers anything from commenting, liking, and sharing posts, to following others and sending direct messages. ‘Organic’ means you don’t have to pay for these interactions.

To put it bluntly, if your post doesn't get a lot of reach and engagement, it will likely be hidden from the public. This is why it's important to strive for organic engagement on Instagram, as that will give your post the best chance of going viral.

To be more specific, below are two main reasons engagement is extremely crucial.

• To generate revenue: SMM is simple—the more users you can get to engage with your posts, the more money you will make. Every single social network rewards engagement, so the question is, how do you keep lots of users active? Well, regularly post content that is engaging to visitors and respond to others’ posts often. The more you engage with people who follow and comment on your posts, the higher the chance of your brand reaching newer audiences.

• Builds a close community: As you interact more with your audience over time, you’re more likely to be recognized as one of their own. Once they do, people will introduce your brand or product to new users (their family, friends, colleagues, etc).

Pro-tip: Remember that the brands and businesses you want to collaborate with aren't going to work with you if they think your engagement is false. They will only work with you if your follower count, comments, and likes come from real people who are interested in what you do.

What are Instagram Guides?

Instagram guides are like carousels on steroids. The feature lets you group a collection of posts into a single, easy-to-view post.

They’re a great way to connect your followers with products and places that you think they might be interested in. And aside from you being able to gather and group your posts, you can also import posts from other user accounts.

The feature was first available in mid-2020, but only to some people. These lucky users created some helpful resources around many different topics and by late 2020, Instagram rolled out the limited feature to other users.

There are still many people who haven’t been able to take advantage of this tool just yet, but it looks like more brands and businesses are interested compared to celebrities and influencers.

How to create Instagram Guides

The first step is to tap the “+” icon on the top-right of your profile page and choose “Guide” from the pop-up menu. Choose one of three options (which will be explained below) and add the pieces of content you want to group.

But if for any reason you can't access your guides from your profile page, go to any account that already has a guide section and open one of them. Scroll to the bottom and you should see an option to create yours.

Which types of Instagram Guides bring the most engagement?

You can choose from three formats to curate Instagram Guides on the app. These are:

• Posts

  You can choose to feature posts from your page or those saved from other accounts. You can alternate between the “Your Posts” and “Saved” tabs when picking the posts to include in your guide. And unlike other formats, you can select up to 30 items per guide.

• Places

  This format is for sharing location-based posts, and you can select up to five items. Posts displayed here are all public posts tagged with a location, not only yours. Retail stores, cafes, restaurants, tourist centers, parks, and malls are perfect examples of places you can use to curate content for your guide.

• Products

  Here, you can fetch different Instagram posts related to a searched product. After selecting the Products option, a list of shops based on your recent follows and searches is shown to you.

  Alternatively, use the search bar to find the shop you’re looking for. Once you’ve picked a shop, opt for the product you want to add and the posts related to it. (Note that you can only highlight one product in a Guide.)

  On that note, here’s how to launch a product on Instagram.

Increasing the reach of your Guides to bring more organic engagement

Reach is an important thing to consider. It shows how many people are seeing your content and for each influencer or brand, the expected reach depends on their follower count.

Unlike other Instagram features, you don't have that many options to increase the reach of your Guides. The most popular way is by sharing.

But before you start sharing, you need to understand the places where Instagrammers can discover your guides. These include:

• The Explore tab: Users looking for new content often come to this section. They can notice and visit your guides from there, though these guides intermix with other posts and reels.

• Your Instagram profile: All your guides are under an exclusive tab close to the Reels tab on your profile. Anyone checking your page can quickly see them. (Interested in learning some tips on how to create a killer Instagram bio.)

• Instagram Shops: This tool features an exclusive tab for product-centered guides.

Having understood the places where users can find your guides, all that’s left are the various ways to share them. Try distributing your guides using Stories, Live streams, direct messages, and external platforms (i.e., share links to your guides anywhere, from other social networks to advertisement outlets. The last option serves as an opportunity to expand your reach immensely.