Instagram Guides

Instagram recently launched Guides, a new format for sharing curated, scrollable content.

The new feature gives users an easier way to share and consume helpful recommendations and tips in an easy-to-digest format. Guides allows users to follow a curated flow of posts with commentary - which is great for step-by-step guides, tips, and recommendations.

This feature is imperative for tourism businesses to consider - as it is perfectly suited to provide users with inspiration and information to discover destinations/establishments.

Guides enables users to choose from 3 different formats:

• Places (recommend places in your city and beyond)
• Products (recommend your favourite products)
• Posts (recommend posts you created or saved)

Each format is designed to suit a creator’s needs. For example: Places is perfect for sharing your location-based recommendations, from city guides to restaurants and cafes.

More Guides features:

• Guides can be easily shared to Instagram Stories or with other users by tapping the paper plane icon at the top right-hand corner of the screen
• This new feature is currently available through the Instagram Explore Page, as well as directly via a user’s profile

How can tourism businesses use Guides?

As mentioned above, tourism businesses can utilise the Places guide format, to create compact recommendations depending on locations. For example, if a business was situated in Larne, a handy guide to promote fellow small businesses would be a great way to support the industry, and inspire potential visitors to make a trip.

For each feature mentioned in this walkthrough, you can access by going onto your Instagram profile, and tapping the ‘+’ icon at the top right-hand side of the screen.