How to Create an Instagram Guide in 5 Easy Steps

One of my biggest gripes about creating content on Instagram is that an Instagram post can take a lot of time and thought to create - only to have such a short life.

You might spend an hour writing a thoughtful post with detailed insights or step-by-step instructions, but after 24 hours, that post may as well be non-existent. Day-old Instagram posts fade away as the feed moves on to the new posts for each day.

I don't know about you, but this left me feeling unmotivated to share valuable content on Instagram. I quickly began to understand why so many creators shared their content on a platform that could be evergreen, like a blog, a podcast, or YouTube. Unlike an Instagram post, evergreen content can be found (through search engines) and consumed months or even years later.

But with the introduction of Instagram Guides, there is a bright future for Instagram posts.

What are Instagram Guides?

Instagram Guides allow users to create a curated collection of posts about a certain topic with commentary. 

There are 3 different guide types:

• Places: recommend places in your city and beyond
• Products: recommend your favorite products
• Posts: recommend posts you created or saved

Creating a guide is much easier and faster than I expected. You’re curating content that is already created, so when you put together a guide, you’re going through your existing content and picking out posts that are relevant to the topic.

How to Create Your First Instagram Guide

1. Tap the + icon on the top left corner of your profile and select “Guide” Note: This + icon may show up in a slightly different spot for you.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the guide type: places, products, or posts. For this example I’m going to walk through creating a guide for posts.
   
   
   
   
3. Select the posts you want to include on your guide. You can choose from your own posts and posts you’ve saved. Hint: You’re only able to choose from content that is on your main feed. However, if you want to add a reel or IGTV video that isn’t on your feed, you can save it and then select it from the “saved” section.
   
   
   
   
4. Select a cover photo and give your guide a title. Note: At the time of writing this, your options for a cover photo are limited to just the graphics on your feed, saved posts, and the posts in your guide. Hopefully this changes in the future so we can add cover photos from our camera roll.
   
   
   
   
5. Add a title (required) and commentary or a description (optional) for each post that you add to your guide.
   
   

And that's it! You're ready to publish!

How to Edit a Guide

While creating your guide, and even after you’ve published it, there is a lot that can be edited:

• You can add or remove posts
• You can reorder the posts
• You can change the titles and commentary
• You can change the cover photo

So don’t feel like your guide has to be perfect before you publish it! Just go for it!

Looking for some inspo? Check out my guides @thedogmomboss here. I'm especially proud of my guide about Mental Health & Instagram.

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