How to guide instagram

What Are Instagram Guides? | Hurrdat Marketing

Last spring, Instagram released a new feature called Guides, which gave select accounts a way to create content centered around recommendations and tips for well-being. Since then, Instagram has expanded Guides across the platform, opening them up to all users and making it easier for brands and businesses to use them as a part of their social media and content strategies. Here’s everything you need to know about getting started with Instagram Guides!

What Are Instagram Guides?
Types of Instagram Guides
Benefits of Using Instagram Guides
How to Create Instagram Guides

What Are Instagram Guides?

Instagram Guides are a new feature that allows users to easily discover and share recommendations, tips, and other content from individual creators, small businesses, or brands. Using a combination of text and visuals, Instagram Guides resemble list-style blog posts and help you create in-depth content for your followers. While they appear in their own tab separate from your main feed, they can be discovered on the Explore Page or through Instagram Stories and direct messages.

Types of Guides

Instagram offers three different types of Instagram Guides that you can create. Whether you want to group your content together, promote products you sell, share an in-depth travel guide, or something else, here are the types of Instagram Guides you can choose from and how to decide which one is best for your brand.

Posts

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Josh Cortis (@themealprepmanual)

An easy way to get started with creating Instagram Guides is with existing posts. Think of an Instagram Posts Guide as an umbrella topic you want to cover. You can connect specific posts you have already created to make curated content for your audience, and you can utilize this feature in many ways. You can create a how-to post from DIY posts, answer frequently asked questions, or simply provide your audience with additional information on a topic you enjoy. Once you’ve selected the posts for your guide, you should add catchy titles and descriptions to give your followers more context and keep them around for the entire guide.

Products

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by #SimplySantaFe (@simplysantafenm)

Product guides are great for promoting your favorite products, announcing a new collection, or creating gift guides. This type of Instagram guide allows you to search for a brand, small business, or influencer merch and select specific products to highlight. Users can only feature items that are listed in the Instagram Shop, so you should set one up for your business if you haven’t already. That way, you can be featured in posts that other users make! Remember to use interesting products and dynamic pictures to keep your audience reading.

Places

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Jessica Ufuoma, Travel Blogger (@theufuoma)

A places guide allows you to choose specific locations and public photos from users at a tagged location. This is a good option if you want to highlight your favorite places in a neighborhood, recommend popular local bars and restaurants, share vacation travel ideas, and more. These guides help you show love for places in your community and give your followers a look into the places you care about most. Users can also increase visibility for local businesses by featuring them on places guides. Once you’ve made your selections, you can add interesting headers and descriptions to give your followers more context as to why you chose each place.

Benefits of Using Instagram Guides

It’s fairly quick and easy to add Instagram Guides to your social media marketing strategy, especially if you’re already on the platform. Here are a few reasons to start using Instagram Guides!

Boost Brand Loyalty

Creating guides is another way for you to give your audience valuable content they enjoy. By creating an Instagram Guide that shares your brand’s story or promotes a cause you’re passionate about, you can work to make an impact on your followers and build brand loyalty. It’s important to stand out among the faceless Instagram business accounts, so don’t be afraid to get personal and make those connections with your followers.

Keep Users Engaged

Similar to Instagram Reels, Guides are a type of long-form content that can keep users engaged for longer. Instead of seeing your post on their feed and scrolling by, a guide can help users learn more about your brand’s story, discover new products, learn information from your tips, and even look at similar posts you’ve shared that you can now group in one place. Plus, they can get all the information they need from your guide instead of having to click away to get more information if it’s curated correctly. Engagement can also come from users liking, sharing, commenting, and making purchases directly from an Instagram Guide.

Take Advantage of Keywords

Instagram has recently updated its search function, allowing users to search for content by broad keywords in addition to profiles, hashtags, and location. This gives you an opportunity to include relevant keywords in your guides to help increase your chances of showing up in Instagram searches, as well as on a user’s Explore Page.

Collaborate with Influencers

Influencer marketing is a major part of Instagram, and creating Instagram Guides is one way to collaborate with influencers to help promote your products and share your content. One way to partner with Influencers is with Instagram product guides. They can help promote your products by sharing your guides on their stories, as well as feature your items on in-feed posts.

More Chances to Make a Sale

Product guides are a great way for e-commerce businesses and local shops to promote their products and potentially increase your chances of making a sale. Whether it’s highlighting your bestsellers or creating a gift guide, you can expand your reach when selling on Instagram by pairing Instagram Shop and Instagram Guides together.

Bring Awareness to Causes You Care About

People love to learn they care about the same causes as the brands they follow, as well as how businesses make an impact in their community. Try using Instagram Guides to showcase a movement that you care about or highlight businesses that are promoting a good cause. If there’s something that you care deeply about, chances are your followers may also share that passion!

How to Create Instagram Guides

Instagram Guides are an easy way to create more social content because they are quick to make. Follow these steps to start making Instagram Guides!

Start by going to your profile page, NOT your feed page.
Tap the plus icon in the top-right corner.
From the options, select “Guide.”
Choose from one of the three guide types: posts, products, or places.
Begin building out your guide by adding photos, titles, and descriptions.
Once you’re finished, tap “Next” in the upper right corner.
Tap “Share.”

Once you publish your Instagram Guide, make your followers aware by posting it on your story. This will encourage them to read, like, and share the guide on their stories. Need help creating Instagram Guides or other social media posts? Hurrdat Marketing can help you create a custom social media strategy designed to reach your target audience. Learn more about our social media marketing services!

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Instagram Guides: Everything You Need to Know

Instagram Tips & Resources

By Jessica Worb

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Updated on November 15, 2022

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6 minute read

The underrated Instagram feature you’re probably not using 👀

Published March 4, 2022

Instagram Guides are the perfect tool for sharing curated, scrollable content with your community.

They give users a simple way to consume a collection of Instagram posts, products, or places in an easy-to-digest format.

Despite all this though, Guides are still relatively underused — which makes them a great opportunity to set your brand apart on Instagram.

What is a Guide on Instagram?

Instagram Guides are like a miniature blog right on Instagram. They let users scroll through a curated flow of content with commentary — similar to a blog post.

They can be used to curate gift guides, product highlights, content roundups, FAQ guides, travel recommendations, restaurant reviews, and so much more.

They’re unlike any other Instagram feature because you can curate feed posts, products, or locations from across Instagram, bringing it all together with your commentary.

Plus, Guides live in one, dedicated place on your profile: the Instagram Guides tab.

When a user clicks on an individual feed post in a Guide, they’re directed back to the original post — making them great for giving old content a new lease of life.

Hello, evergreen content!

FYI: Later is a social media management tool trusted by over 4M businesses, creators, and social media managers. Plan and publish your Instagram posts with Later — sign up for free today:

How to Make a Guide on Instagram

To create your first Guide, tap the plus icon on the top-right of your profile page and select “Guide.”

From here, you can choose from three different formats: Places, Products, and Posts.

Select the type of Guide you want to create, and choose the posts you'd like to feature in your Guide.

From here you can re-arrange the blocks, “Add a Title” and “Change Cover Photo,” as well as add titles and commentary (optional) for each content block.

When you’re happy with your curated Guide, select “Next” in the top-right corner of the screen and then “Share.”

Published Guides are not shared to your main profile feed (yet). Instead, they are housed on a dedicated Guides tab on your profile.

Guides are also surfaced in your followers’ Home feeds in the immediate hours and days after publishing.

What Are The Different Types of Instagram Guides?

#1: Instagram Place Guides

The first Instagram Guide format is a collection of places. These Guides are great for city guides, restaurant roundups, and travel recommendations.

You can search locations from Instagram's library, or choose from past locations you've tagged or saved in feed posts.

When you choose a place, you can pick an image that has been tagged with that location to feature in your Guide.

#2: Instagram Product Guides

The next type of Instagram Guide you can curate is a Product Guide. This Guide is perfect for product releases, product recommendations, or gift guides.

You can attach and link any product listed on Instagram.

TIP: If you want to include a product from a brand's Instagram Shop, you can either search for it or select from your Wishlist.

#3: Instagram Post Guides

The next type of Instagram Guide you can share is a roundup of Instagram feed posts.

You can collect Instagram posts that you’ve created or saved (even if you're not the original author of a post).

Post Guides are great for curating lists of resources — whether it's sharing educational content or reflecting on current news or events.

Where to Find Instagram Guides

To access an Instagram Guide, visit a user’s profile page and select the Guides icon at the top of their profile feed:

If you can’t see this icon, it’s because that user does not have any published Guides.

Best Practices for the Instagram Guide Feature

Ready to create the best Guides for your brand? Here are four tips to keep in mind:

Think About What Your Audience Wants
Share Instagram Guides in Stories
Highlight Your Community
Build Strategic Relationships

Tip #1: Think About What Your Audience Wants

Using the Instagram Guide feature is a great way to curate and organize content for your followers — the creative opportunities are endless.

Think about what content your audience engages with the most, and use this information to influence your Guides content.

For example, at Later, our audience is full of small business owners, creators, and social media managers who are on the lookout for social media tips.

Knowing that, we created a Guide highlighting five of our favorite social media podcasts.

And when in doubt, ask your audience. Share an Instagram Stories question or poll sticker and ask your followers what type of Guides they'd be most interested in.

Tip #2: Share Instagram Guides in Stories

Since Instagram Guides aren’t shared on a user’s main profile feed, you may want to give them an extra boost on Instagram Stories.

Luckily, you can easily share Instagram Guides to Instagram Stories.

Here’s how to share Instagram Guides in Stories:

Open your Instagram Guide
Tap the paper airplane icon in the bottom-left corner
Select “Add guide to your story”

It's that simple!

If you’re a brand, this is a great way to show your products out in the world and provide valuable context.

Think about creating a guide that showcases your customers wearing or using your products like @tjswim:

You can find user-generated content (UGC) by manually scrolling through your tagged photos and branded hashtag page.

Or you can make the UGC search process a breeze by using Later's Content Creation Tools:

Later’s Search by Hashtag
Collect media from mentions
Easily find and collect media from tagged photos

Easily find and curate UGC for your Instagram feed with Later's tools now:

Tip #4: Use Guides to Build Strategic Relationships

Guides are a great way to shine a spotlight on brands, creators, or peers in your network — which can be huge for profile building.

If you’re a creator or brand in a specific niche, you could create a Guide that highlights 10 accounts that create content dedicated to your subject matter.

This can grab their attention, start a conversation, and even lead to a future partnership or collaboration!

And there you have it — all of the reasons you should experiment with Instagram Guides.

It's an underrated curation feature that opens up huge opportunities for storytelling and e-commerce on the app. We can't wait to see yours.

ICYMI: With Later, you can plan and schedule your Instagram posts in advance, track engagement, and more. Create an account today:

About the Author

Jessica Worb

Jessica is a creative content writer and marketer. She lives and works remotely from Winnipeg, a city smack dab in the middle of Canada. Follow along at @jessicaworb.

Plan, schedule, and automatically publish your social media posts with Later.

Category Instagram Tips & Resources

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7 min read

10 Instagram Algorithm Facts You Should Know

By Jillian Warren

Category Instagram Tips & Resources

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16 min read

Instagram Reels in 2022: The Ultimate Guide

By Jessica Worb

Category Instagram Tips & Resources

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3 min read

How to Add Links to Instagram Stories

By Jillian Warren

How to run Instagram the right way: making your account successful

Instagram has evolved from a social network where people share news and photos of food to a blogging platform. The audience is used to quality content, and the competition is high: you compete with users from all over the world, because photos do not care about language or geographic location, and professional models, photographers, makeup artists and artists also actively use the social network. Of course, many do not know how to manage Instagram so that it develops and generates income.

But everyone has a chance to find their audience. Both schoolgirls from small towns and big brands with interesting content are becoming popular on Instagram. We figure out how to come up with a concept, take photos, write posts and maintain an Instagram account so as not to sink to the bottom of the algorithmic feed, but to find subscribers.

How to Instagram

Instagram is not just your page on a social network. Of course, no one will forbid sharing news with friends, we are talking about blogging on Instagram for a person or business, which will be of interest not only to your loved ones, but also to strangers.

Look at the pages of stars: they rarely combine photos with each other and generally bother with content, but fans are interested in any news from the life of idols. If you do not have a couple of million fans, you will not be forgiven for low-quality and uninteresting photos.

Start with an idea. Even if it’s hard to decide, and “taking pictures of everything that surrounds me” seems like the best way out, focus on a specific topic. Culinary blogs, profiles about proper nutrition, about dancing, about clothes, make-up - yes, Instagram already has it all. But you will do it your way. And people don't collect a list of subscriptions based on the principle "I already subscribed to a food blog, so I don't need another one."

Of course, if your idea is interesting and relatively new, it will be easier to move forward. But if you don't find one, don't give up. Maintaining Instagram is constant experimentation and finding a balance in content and interaction with the audience.

How to be in business? You need a concept too. Remember the character of the brand, decide on the tone of voice. Create value for subscribers: talk about topics related to your product. Consider that SMM from 2010, when beauty salons could post "10 hairstyle ideas" and get thousands of likes, is in the past. People won't subscribe to something they can google. Create authoring content: create a branded character or choose your storytelling style and list of topics you can cover.

Instagram profile design

At first glance, your account should be clear what it is about. Briefly formulate the topic of the blog in the bio and tell us about yourself. Typically, users enter their first name, age, and city.

How to get a business account to start Instagram?

The company account must contain contacts, information about the work of offline points and detailed conditions for ordering or recording. If you are unable to fit all the necessary information in your bio, you can use the multilink service.

Use emoji to highlight different information blocks in your bio. It is not necessary to choose bright and intrusive ones: dots, arrows, squares will look neat, but everyone will visually separate the text (name and topic of the blog) in meaning.

How beautiful it is to have Instagram

There is an unspoken rule: profile photos must match. Open the pages of bloggers again: you will surely notice that the pictures standing next to each other were taken in the same tone or overlapped with each other in vivid detail.

A Facebook study showed that users spend 0.2 seconds per post on the mobile feed. Therefore, your posts should be visually cool and catchy at first sight. Let's figure out how to manage Instagram to be qualitatively different from others.

Photos must be of high quality, interesting and well processed. Instagram has its own trends - just try to bring photos processed in the Retrica app to your audience.

Follow Audience Members to find the visual style for your profile. See what content they post, what profiles they follow.

It is not necessary to use professional equipment, but you will definitely have to learn how to photograph and process images. See the photos you like, save them, don't be afraid to repeat, you're unlikely to be seen through, but you'll get your hands on it.

Layouts - a separate big topic. Think this is a joke? Try to create something similar yourself. You will find that you don't have many items that match. And those that exist cannot be organically placed in the frame.

To make high-quality layouts, bloggers buy accessories (candles, sparkles, postcards, fruits, garlands, frames, flowers) and spend a lot of time on them.

How to blog on Instagram

In 2017, a new trend appeared on the social network: users are interested not only in photos, but also in texts. Thematic blogs have appeared that talk about proper nutrition, makeup, motivation, parenting, or just about your life. And judging by the number of subscribers on such accounts and interactions under publications, users are ready to consume not only visual content in contact, but also read texts, even long ones.

Therefore, the desire to create and maintain an Instagram blog may be a good idea. But first, how to lead it? As with the concept of an account, a blog also needs one. Define a list of topics you write about, designate them in the profile header.

Follow the pages of users whose content you like. Pay attention to how often they publish posts, at what time they do it. How the audience is asked questions in posts, and what topics the audience is discussing more actively.

Instagram post contains up to 2200 characters. If your text does not fit in this size, move the part to the first comment, this is a common practice among bloggers. The problem will arise if there are too many discussions: then users will have to get to the first comment in the topic for a long time. Therefore, it is better to shorten the texts or split the story into several posts, publishing them under one hashtag.

How to broadcast on Instagram

Anyone can broadcast on Instagram. After the end, it will be available, like stories, 24 hours.

To start the broadcast, go to the news feed, click on your profile picture (just like when creating Stories). Select the option "Live" in the horizontal menu below. Now by clicking "Start" you will be able to broadcast live on Instagram.

How to attract an audience to a live broadcast?

Warn your subscribers about the broadcast in advance: make an announcement in a post or story. Pick a time when your audience is online. To do this, analyze the social network account in Popsters. On the chart "Activity / Days of the week" and "Activity / Time of day" you will find the most successful days and times for live broadcasts.

Wait for a larger audience, don't jump straight into the main topic of the broadcast. But at the same time, you can’t lose the audience who have already arrived: figure out in advance what will take the waiting time. Tell stories about the topic of the broadcast or arrange an interactive one: answer subscribers' questions or, conversely, ask them about something.

How to start Instagram?

Keep step-by-step instructions for maintaining an Instagram account:

Decide on a topic if you're blogging.
Find a photo style and processing style that you will follow.
Follow competitor accounts and profiles you want to be like.
Fill out your profile: choose a bright avatar, write in the "Bio" section about yourself and the topic of your blog.
Make several publications in the new concept. In order for new visitors to be able to get an idea about the account, 6-8 posts are enough.

Useful related articles:

10 advanced Instagram tools;
Effective Advertising in Instagram Stories: Actionable Tips;
Guidelines for creating an Instagram profile description;
How to correctly set up and run ads on Instagram.

A complete guide from A to Z

Are you going to publish your first post and tell the Instagram world about yourself, but don't know how? Or maybe you already have a blog, but are not satisfied with it? What about earnings? Is your profile bringing in enough customers or would you like more?

You are reading a complete guide on how to start blogging on Instagram. In this article I talk about what points to pay close attention to in maintaining an account. Consider everything:

niche selection,
target audience,
competitor analysis,
account registration,
useful applications in maintaining a profile,
writing posts and publishing stories,
free and paid promotion methods forbidden topics.

In almost every block you will find links to more detailed articles. I recommend reading each, in them I tried to answer all possible questions.

In this article you will learn:

What do you need to do before starting an Instagram account?

Look, there are hundreds of happy wives, needlewomen, fitonies and knitters, knitters, photographers, trainers on Instagram. If you write about the same things they write about, then you will simply drown in a mass of similar blogs.

You need your own chip, and instagram doesn't need another blog .

Start managing your account the right way with Lecture "The Content Engine" .

As a result of the lecture, you will receive a scheme that will help you sell more on Instagram without constantly posting stories.

Bonus - ready-made content plan for an expert for a month!
Read more

Start with market analysis

Before you learn how to manage Instagram, you need to start with market analysis . I'm not talking about serious marketing analysis, you just don't have the resources and experience to do it. I encourage you to see what people are searching for in your niche with:

Yandex Wordstat,
Google Trends,
Comments on forums and competitor accounts.

Before the advent of the iPad, there were PDAs (personal pocket computers) on the market. However, they were not popular with people: it was expensive, incomprehensible, ugly. And in 2010, Apple presents its first iPad, which combines the functions of a laptop and a smartphone.

saw the potential of the niche, responded to 's expectations and people's requests, and released the product.

To properly start from scratch - answer the question “ What do people need? »

For example:

Beginning confectioner Masha saw in Yandex.Wordstat a demand for birthday cakes for boys and girls. Based on this, Masha decided to make two main products: a birthday cake in the form of superheroes for boys and a birthday cake in the form of princesses for girls.

Use Yandex.Wordstat and Google Trends to find your niche.

Make an analysis of the target audience

It has already been said and retold about the target audience, but still I meet a bunch of comments in the style: "I don't know who my target audience is. "

Target audience is a group of people united by some sign. This includes not only existing customers, but also potential ones.

Through the analysis of the target audience, you know:

What a potential buyer watches, reads, listens to . When developing texts and advertising, you take into account their slang, traditions, religious or political beliefs, ways of obtaining information, etc. All this increases the effect of advertising.
Audience Needs : What does your client need? what problems he faced and what he can offer her. This will allow you to make the most targeted offer. As one cliché says: An offer you can't refuse .
What the audience breathes . You also know the people they listen to. This is especially true when buying ads from bloggers.

4 steps to define your target audience

A little reminder for those who don't know or have forgotten how to define their target audience. To do this:

Draw a general portrait of TA . Here, describe gender, age, geography, income level, possible professions, marital status (if it is important).
Divide the overall portrait into segments . If you develop a profile on Instagram, then we reduce the age of our target audience. According to official data, the average age of Instagram visitors is 18-34 years old . Agree, at 18 and at 34 there may be different needs, and this is important - this is point number 3.
Explore the needs of the target audience . To do this, go to Google, rummage through forums, VK groups, competitor profiles and write out your assumptions in a mind map.
Refine product or positioning . Remember, you cannot change the habits and pains of your target audience. But you can change your product to solve the pains of the target audience.

It's like in the story about Vasya and Petya:

Vasya first made a product, and then he didn't know who to sell 1000 units of his product to.

Petya found out what people needed, made a product that solves their pain and sold everything without a trace.

Be like Petya.

Get to know your competitors for a successful start

For some reason, many people associate working with competitors with struggle, conflicts or even war. Let's agree, from now on, to consider our competitors as colleagues from whom you can learn something or build up against their background. It seems to me that this point of view is more suitable for constructive affairs.

Why analyze competitors:

in order to understand the differences between your own assortment and that of a competitor,
to see its strengths and weaknesses ,
understand how they sell and where their customers come from,
adjust their own development strategy .

Competitor analysis is also a great way to find out the client's pains . Go to the comments under a useful post and see what questions people are asking.

Competitors are:

Key - companies whose actions can significantly affect sales (both upward and downward).

Direct - companies that sell a similar product in a similar market and work with your target audience.

Indirect - companies that sell a product with different characteristics or a completely different product, but work with your target audience. ⠀

“But how is it, Zarina. Does that mean you have to keep an eye on everyone? And when to work?

Of course, you don't have to keep track of everyone, you won't physically have time to do it. Therefore, remember the algorithm of actions:

Make a list of possible competitors on Instagram.
Divide this list into direct, key and indirect.
Analyze the profiles of direct competitors: profile header, avatar, content, what they offer, how much it costs, the number of subscribers, profile activity.
Think about where you can offer the best conditions, how you can distinguish yourself, and what ideas you can borrow.

How to start Instagram

After you have figured out your niche, target audience and competitors, you can move on to the account itself. In order for readers to notice your profile, it is important to format it correctly. This means that you need to make a header, think over the visual, write a content plan and start promoting your profile.

Decide on the type and theme of your blog

Decide on the type of blog to start blogging. On Instagram, it is customary to divide any accounts into 3 large groups: a business account, a personal blog, and an expert blog.

Business account

You will get a business account if you want to create a shop, studio or salon page. Such profiles are monetized by selling their services and products.

In terms of content, everything is simple: selling and informational posts (for example, about the benefits of your product) + rare entertaining posts or videos for engagement. There can be no personal content in the feed of a business account.

An example of running a business account (shop, salon, studio)

Personal blog

A personal blog is any profile whose author maintains Instagram and does not provide any services. The authors of such blogs often shoot funny and not so funny videos, comment on world events, express their opinion on topical issues in posts and stories. They also broadcast their life, relationships, sports results, nutrition, hobbies. They earn, as a rule, by selling advertising integrations.

Personal blog example (humor, travel, food, fashion)

Expert blog

Expert blogs are ideal for promoting your services. For example, if you are a makeup artist, copywriter or photographer. It is important for the authors of such blogs to work with the loyalty of the audience, increase their expertise, and engage them with interesting and useful content.

Expert blogs are monetized by selling services and training (courses, marathons, master classes).

An example of an expert's blog

Absolutely any field can be a topic for a blog. If you don't know what blog to start, here are two tips for choosing an account theme:

Blog about topics that are close to you and that you understand. If you have no idea what to write about skiing, don't write about skiing.
Niche and find your audience.

Let me explain the second advice. Let's say you're a psychologist. Yes, you can write about everything and a little, this area is limitless in terms of ideas for posts. But it would be much better to choose a narrower direction and better reveal each topic. This will increase your expertise and average check. For example, you can write about problems with children, relationships, or emotional burnout (the latter is a direct scourge of the 21st century, which I also faced).

Think about visual design

An example of a good profile visual: high-quality photos with different angles. On the left ribbon is my profile in warm colors, on the right - a profile in cold colors.

If text is used, then it is readable, and the font is the same everywhere.

Instagram is a social network where the main content will always be photos and videos. Your useful publications will remain unread if the profile or post does not attract attention.

An example of what not to do: stock images, different font on the photo, it is unreadable on some photos, there is no single direction in color design. In the left tape on none of the 9there is no photo of the author, but this is an expert blog.

Visual design includes a profile header, an avatar and a photo of posts in the feed. Trends are constantly changing and what was relevant in 2020 has already gone out of fashion in 2022. Therefore, I will not tell you about visual trends, but I will suggest general principles that you can follow.

Look at the description of the target audience . Your visual should be close to those we want to attract. For example, if you sell an expensive service and are looking for solvent people, then you will never attract them if you publish a photo against the backdrop of a Soviet carpet.
Post quality photos . And now I’m not only talking about professional photo shoots, although they are also needed for the blog. Choose clothes, accessories and surroundings to take good photos.
Watch the balance of light and darkness . The photo should not have highlights or, conversely, too dark fragments.
Choose different angles . Do not post only selfies or only portrait photos. Make sure that different angles alternate in your feed: details, medium, long-range and ultra-long shot.
Process photos . You can use presets for Lightroom or edit images in other photo apps.

YouTube is full of video guides on mobile photography and editing. Look at them, it will make it easier for you to create photo content.

Design features

Each type of blog has its own design features.

Which image answers the question "What does the profile sell" faster?

The best solution for avatar business account will be the product photo. You can put a store logo on the avatar only if you are Nike, Adidas or the logo contains an image of what you are selling. In other cases, with a 99% chance, your logo will be almost impossible to make out, and you will lose your avatar as an advantage.

Write the addresses of your stores/studios, current discounts, calls to action and a link to the site/taplink in the header.
Alternate product photos from different angles and plans.
Avoid foreign objects in the photo, unless they "enhance" your product.

The author of personal blog must be recognized, so we put 100% of our face on the ava in close-up, maximum to the waist.

In the profile header, write what you can interest the audience, why it is worth subscribing to you.
Keep the design of the ribbon natural. Fill it with bright "live" images. Avoid the same type and fuzzy photos. Photos should convey emotions and attract to the reading of the post.

For the blog of the expert, it is appropriate to use both a personal photo and a photo of the result of your service. A copywriter, for example, cannot show a photo of his service, just like a psychologist. Therefore, for such experts, a personal photo is the best option. Again, close-up or to the waist. A photographer can post a personal photo with a camera, a confectioner can post mouth-watering buns or cakes.

The header should hook a person from the first words, so place the most important things in it: the key phrase in the name, USP and call to action.
The visual should be combined with each other both in color and in content.
To make it easier to navigate your blog, you can place post titles on photos. This will allow the person to immediately understand what the post is about, or find the right one in your feed.

Install applications

This item may seem strange, they say, why install applications when there is an insta. The built-in tools are not enough to schedule the tape, do the necessary processing, and even more so glue the video. I have compiled key Instagram apps that make it easy for me to work with content.

The Preview application

Preview allows you to schedule a tape and get the same profile "in the same style." For basic tasks, the free version will be enough for you.

The app has a clean interface, photo editing tools and a font pack that you can use in your posts or bio. With Preview, you can create a grid layout, rearrange photos, and get the best version of your feed.

The app also has a post planner and analytics tools, but I don't use them. Internal analytics from Instagram is enough for me, and if necessary, I schedule posts for free through delayed posting on the Facebook website.

Photo editors

I'll tell you how to process photos easily and simply, what editors to use to get beautiful photos and likes:

Lightroom is a cool visual photo editor. You can find many presets that make works of art from ordinary photos. Here you can change the saturation, brightness and hue separately for each color. It is convenient to crop the photo and change the contrast. The free version is enough to work.

Snapseed is the basic editor. It differs, perhaps, in speed. Very fast loading, exporting images. Suitable for removing unwanted objects in the photo, quick color correction and cropping. The application is also free, with an intuitive interface.

Available tools in Snapseed

PS Express - where without it. Photoshop is the father of all photo editors. Also free. In it I use only the “Restore” tool to delete objects. Photoshop does it best, I recommend it.

My favorite tool in PS Express

Video editors

Some blogs consist entirely of video posts. And now that Instagram has rolled out Reels, you absolutely need a video editor to keep up. I use it myself:

InShot is an excellent mobile editor, many people know it by its watermark. In it, you can glue a clip from several videos, trim where necessary, add music, text, change the speed of the video. All basic tools are free to use, but your videos will be watermarked. You can get rid of it by purchasing a subscription for 349₽/month, 1150 ₽/year or for 3290 ₽ forever. I take an annual subscription, because. videos are not the main content type in my account.

Pay attention to the same watermark in the right corner of the preview. You can remove it for free once a day.

Videoleap is also a video editor, but I keep it only because of one useful difference. Here you can work with several tracks, as in a full-fledged editor. InShot loses in this regard, there is only one track and you cannot overlay one layer on another.

You can overlay both images and audio tracks.

iOS Basic Video Editor - 360-degree video rotation is now available after the latest update. It helps a lot if you suddenly took something at the wrong angle. Free, available by clicking the "Edit" button in the upper right corner.

Start writing posts

You figured out the type of blog and theme, installed everything you need, filled out the header, what's next? Tell the audience who you are and how you can be useful, write a post-acquaintance.

Maximum post length 2200 characters , but Instagrammers have long learned to bypass this limitation. There are two ways to publish something that does not fit in the post:

1. Text on the photo in the carousel . In addition to the first photo, you have 9 more slides in the carousel, where you can write what did not fit in the post. Do not forget to write in the post that the continuation can be read in the carousel.

Make an entry in a text or photo editor, save it, add it to the carousel to the post.

2. Comment under post . Fewer people use this method, but it is still alive, so I will write about it. Each comment can contain up to 1000 characters, and if not less than this figure, write a comment. Don't forget to pin it so it's right below the post so people don't have to look for a sequel. To pin a comment, you'll have to post it as a different account.

For each type of publication, you can come up with and find a lot of topics for posts. Depending on the content and purpose, posts are distinguished:

Sellers . The purpose of such posts is to sell a product, product, service. These are posts where you directly encourage readers to buy something from you.

Informational . Delivering information to the audience. This may be an up-to-date price list, information about a change of address or the opening of a new branch. We also include useful posts on the topic of the account.

Involving . Such posts are aimed at engaging existing subscribers to leave comments and communicate with you. Here you can discuss procedures and products, hold competitions.

Entertainment . Posts of good mood and increasing loyalty. Humor brings you closer to your readers. Entertainment content includes funny memes and videos, curiosities and polls.

Of course, in one post you can't reveal the topic of blog copywriting. Therefore, I give 7 rules for a good post for Instagram:

Write for your target audience . Use the same words, terms and slang. If you write for moms, then greet them: “Hello, mufflers!” at least indecent.
Make text of different lengths . Write both short posts and long ones. There is no universal recipe here, test it.
Write the way you speak . Some people, sitting down to the text, for some reason, begin to fence complex constructions.
Follow logic . First, Anna Karenina fell in love and only then threw herself under the train. Not vice versa. ⠀
Follow the structure . Attract attention with a headline (if you practice captions on pictures) or the beginning. Then talk about the benefits of the product and end with a call to action.
Divide text into paragraphs, spice it up with emoji .
Write every day . Regularity is the key to success in copywriting.

Post Stories and Reels

Stories examples: lifestyle, questions, polls

In Stories tell us about yourself, personal insights, how your work day went, share achievements. Emotional content brings the blogger closer to the audience. It is very important to publish stories daily so as not to get lost from the feed of subscribers.

business accounts can post current promotions, new products, arrange interactive questions and answers about products or services. This will increase coverage and find out what is interesting to the target audience.

I advise the owners of personal blog to conduct more live communication: polls, voting, situations from everyday life, breaking news.

Blogger-expert can share the results of work or achievements of students in stories. Show subscribers customer reviews, tool or product reviews. Arrange an interactive with a vote or a request to evaluate the result in a before / after style. Don't forget to show the personal on the blog, it has a good effect on the reach.

Reels video examples: they can be both entertaining and useful videos

Reels is a new feature from Instagram and it is also an attempt to move TikTok. It appeared in the world in August 2020, and in Russia it was launched only at the end of June 2021. It is a short video for 15-60 seconds. They are displayed on a special tab and do not disappear after 24 hours, like stories. The main difference between rils and stories is that they are shown not only to your subscribers, but also to random people in the feed.

Track statistics

Statistics are needed to understand what the audience is interested in and to properly promote your blog.

I'll note right away that statistics are available only for business accounts and author profiles. To transfer an account to a business account, you need to connect statistics to Instagram. In it, you can see the age of the audience, their gender, location, periods of greatest activity by day of the week and hour.

Pay attention to posts, stories and Reels that have received more reach, a lot of comments and likes. Analyze them and make similar content. Over time, you will find your recipe for fasting that will “get in”.

How to start promoting on Instagram

We have come to the final step in order to start attracting an audience on Instagram. Even the steepest profile will bend without advancing. So let's see what options we have.

Free promotion

The social network annually cuts this direction and it becomes more and more difficult to gain followers on Instagram for free.

Geotags . Indicate in the posts the places where your target audience is. For example, if you photograph newborns, you can use the geo-tags of antenatal clinics, perinatal centers, maternity hospitals.

Barter or Mutual PR (VP) . You advertise a blogger for free, he advertises you. Be sure to analyze the account with which you want to conduct the VP. Ask for statistics on stories, take a look at the percentage of likes and comments from the total number of subscriptions, it should be at least 6-10%. This method of promotion is appropriate if your blog has at least 1-2 thousand subscribers.

Hashtags . It's good, but you need to know how to use it. Don't even try to post high frequency hashtags like #fit , #girl , #work . They will only work if you are a Kardashian with a billion followers who will bring your post to the TOP of the recommended with their likes. For young blogs, there is a chance to get into the recommended ones only with low-frequency hashtags. For example, #website text or #weight loss workout .

Spamming HF hashtags in a post is a useless thing and will not bring a loyal audience. Most likely, after such hashtags, stores, other fitness trainers and motivation blogs will subscribe to the author of this post.

SFS . Post a useful or not very useful post with a call to talk about your blog in your profiles. In response, you talk on your blog about the people who supported your account.

This list used to have geo tags and hashtags for stories, but in 2021, Insta turned them off as well. Stories by geo-tagging are no longer available, which means that they cannot be used for promotion.

massliking and massfollowing never go away, but I have always been against this method. You can do it manually better than with the help of services, albeit longer.

But remember - there is always a risk of getting banned for using MF and ML, so think a thousand times whether you are ready to lose what you have been gaining.

Paid promotion

In the vastness of the network, you can still find articles in which there is the cherished phrase “... although Instagram does not have ads …”. Right now, you can buy placements in Posts, Stories, Reels, and IGTV only in Facebook Ads. In addition, you can always buy ads from bloggers, bypassing the official advertising tools.

Targeted advertising

Examples of advertisements in the target: 2 ads in stories and 2 posts in the feed

Target is a one-love for me. You can choose the goal of promotion: more visits to the profile, site or increase in the number of comments. Customize the audience: specify gender, age, location. Target will show your posts or stories exactly to those who could potentially become your client. Or it will remind people about you who have already visited your profile, saved posts, but for some reason did not subscribe.

Advertising with bloggers

A great way to increase the audience of your blog is to buy ads from bloggers. Choose to start microblogs with a small number of subscribers. The audience of such accounts is quite involved, and you can get more return on advertising in such a profile.

You can use popular exchanges like Sociate, but I recommend always looking for handles and contacting blog owners directly for advertising.

In addition, you can buy advertising in the public. But here you need to analyze well and choose sites. See to it that the audience is alive and active.

What is forbidden to post on Instagram?

It is forbidden to post nude photos, posts that incite conflicts on religious, political or social topics on Instagram. Plagiarism is not allowed - the social network is against content theft. For spamming in Direct and spamming comments, you may be subject to a permanent account ban.

Also, the service may consider publication of several posts on the same day as doubtful:

New profiles 2-4 weeks old can publish no more than 3 posts per day .
Profiles older than 6 months can post up to up to 25 posts per day .

Instagram reacts sharply to any mass action. Numerous identical hashtags, comments and direct messages are perceived as spam. Endless likes, subscriptions, unsubscribes make the page activity suspicious. For various violations, insta can ban you for several hours, days, months, and even forever.

Conclusion

Now you know everything to start blogging on Instagram. This social network is a goldmine for business and self-expression. I hope you understand the algorithm of actions and this article will really help you in maintaining a profile.

And do not forget that in order to develop an account, it is not enough to read some information. The main thing is to put it into practice.

Questions?

Questions and answers

How to manage a group on Instagram?

Group - this is the same blog that is dedicated to a specific topic.