New Instagram guidelines: recommendations for your followers

It is a fact that, as much as Facebook seems to have come to a halt in terms of news within the platform, it contrasts with the hyperactivity of the company's photo network. That is, Instagram.

For a short time now we have been seeing outstanding advances such as video reels in the purest TikTok style. And now it is the turn to open the guidelines to all accounts.

At least initially, we can say that they are a consequence of the measures and transformations that the entire digital environment has experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally, they emerged as a way for brands and influencers to create useful health recommendations.

As they have been used for that purpose, Instagram has realized the potential they could have in other areas.

Instagram guidelines formally have been defined as an alternative to blog posts because of their ability to present a greater amount of content in a single post. But they are also comparable to Twitter threads.

In fact, the structure and philosophy of a guideline is very similar to that of Twitter threads since, basically, what it does is to nest publications related to each other by the same topic and present them consecutively when scrolling vertically in the order we have defined when creating them.

In terms of their formal appearance, they are not very mysterious, but to get a clearer idea, it is best to see some of them already created in an active profile.

Take a look at @stuckinthebook. In his profile there is a tab represented by a small double-page open book with the name "Guides".

By giving the whole publication a common thread and hierarchy, they are perfect for giving some kind of instruction or generating a recommendation for the user.

Going back to their original use, that of giving instructions or safety recommendations during COVID-19, we can understand that taken to another area they would be perfect for creating small tutorials.

Obviously, this is not a bad idea at all, but as we have seen with the example of Stuck in the book, there are many more possibilities for eCommerce than informational content.

In fact, the ideal would be to combine that communication capability with some posts that help monetize the content by generating visits to our store and, as a consequence, conversions.

Instagram, as of today, defines 3 major types of guidelines:

The truth is that with these three types you have covered the spectrum of needs of most eCommerce. Obviously, the most interesting ones will be the product ones, but all of them can add up if used strategically.

Now you can choose the products. As they are often included in several publications, you can select one or more images (creating a carousel).

We add the description in text with the emojis we see necessary and repeat the operation as many times as entries we want to add to our Instagram guideline.

If it does not appear directly, do not worry. Just go to a profile that already has one created and scroll down to the end of one of its guidelines. There you will find a button to do so.