Instagram has become the go-to place for people who want to escape the toxicity of Facebook and Twitter and the silliness of TikTok. The social network has become a sort of de-stressor for people who need help in dealing with this pandemic we’re all living through. Now they are introducing a new thing called Guides, a way for creators to curate content on a specific topic and give recommendations, tips, and share content from their own account as well as other people.
At launch, Guides will be focusing more on wellness content and so they have enabled it for creators that are connected to this particular topic. The content that they’ll be sharing on Guides is all about taking care of your mental health, maintaining connection with others, managing anxiety and grief, learning to be kinder, and all connected topics to our over-all wellness. Eventually, Guides will be adding more topics but for now, this is what you’ll be getting.
You will see a new tab on the profiles of participating organizations and creators. It’s an icon that looks like a newspaper/magazine and this is where you’ll see curated/aggregated posts including pictures, videos, galleries in just one place. For example, in Heads Together (heads_together), they currently have “Our Guide to Kindness”, “Our Guide to Self Care”, and “Our Guide To Talking About How We Feel”. Some of the participating accounts include @afspnational, @vitaalere, @klicksafe, @headspace_aus, @deepikapadukone, @sudahdong, and @eenfance.
The content in Guides can include posts from their own profile as well as posts from other creators on Instagram. There’s a short description before each post but when you tap on one of the photos or videos, you will see the original post from the account. You can share Guides on Instagram Stories and in Direct Messages. You can also copy the link and paste it in an email, message, or browser. You will also be able to see Guides in the Explore tab soon.
For now, Instagram is making Guides available only for wellness-focused creators as well as selected companies/accounts that they chose to launch the feature. They will eventually roll it out for other topics but no word yet if the ability to create Guides will be available for all users.
