In the early days of Instagram, the service didn’t allow you to hide your stories from outsiders. You had to dig into the settings of a particular post, select unwanted subscribers for it, and hide information for them. If you wanted that group of people to see the next post, you had to go into the post settings and remove the restrictions.
Fortunately, in 2018, Instagram developers launched the Close Friends feature, or as it’s also called CF for short. It made sharing content with a limited group of your followers much easier.
Once you create a Close Friends list on Instagram, you’ll be able to share your stories only with these followers. If you occasionally post controversial content, personal opinions, or something candid, you can only show it to people you trust on Instagram.
So here’s more about the Close Friends feature on Instagram and how to use it.
What are the benefits of the Close Friends feature on Instagram?
The Close Friends feature has several advantages:
- With its help, you can mark your close social circle and share more private and personal information with these people. This makes many users feel more confident.
- This option lets big bloggers keep in closer contact with close friends and family members. And use regular stories for the rest of their followers, ads, and more.
- You can take polls with people whose opinions really matter to you.
- If you run a business account, you can add company employees to the list to do a newsletter for them that ordinary followers won’t see.
- People tend to view unique “green” stories more often than regular stories because the information in them feels more meaningful and personal.
- The CF feature allows you to create a special connection with your subscribers: people often feel flattered when they are added to the Close Friends list.
- This option allows you to protect your privacy. None of your subscribers will know who else you’ve added to your CF list.
Honestly, the CF feature has made using Instagram much easier and yet more versatile. Now you can easily separate your private and public life on social media.
How to add someone to your CF list on Instagram
If you want to add someone to your list of close friends in the Instagram app, you can follow these steps:
- First, open Instagram on your mobile device and sign in to your account if needed.
- Then go to your profile page and tap on the hamburger button at the top right corner of the screen.
- From the drop-down list, select the Close friends option.
- After that, you will see the list of your followers.
- Just check the circle next to the name of your followers to add them to the CF list.
- Finally, tap Done to save changes.
- You can clear your CF list by tapping on the Clear all link at the top right corner of the screen.
How to post a Story for CF on Instagram
If you want to post a Story for your close friends – follow these instructions:
- Tap on the + icon at the top right corner of the screen of your profile page.
- From the list, select the Story option.
- Take a photo or upload it from your library and tap on the Close friends button.
Once you have completed these steps, your Story will be posted and only people from your CF list will be able to see it.
How to use the CF feature for work purposes on Instagram
Of course, this feature is not just for sharing funny stories with family and friends. You can also use it for business purposes.
Here’s what you can post for your list of close friends:
Exclusive content
You can create a closed club for selected followers and post unique content only for them. To get on this list, you can offer to be active on the page – so you motivate followers to leave more likes and comments. By the way, this is one way to increase your reach on Instagram.
Promotions, promo codes, and company news are a way to organize your loyalty system on Instagram. You can offer closed posts promo codes with discounts for existing customers or those who have applied but haven’t made a purchase.
Let’s say you sell expert content. Add clients who have paid for your courses to your CF and send the content.
Communicating with colleagues
Of course, there are more convenient tools for this, like Trello or Zoom. However, suppose you have a small business focused on Instagram and a couple or three employees. In that case, discussing everything on one platform may be easier than registering with several services.
Testing Instagram Stories
Suppose you are responsible for maintaining a corporate profile on Instagram. In that case, you can send colleagues, bosses, or customers sample stories for approval (to show what the publication will look like before making it available to all subscribers).
Inviting people to private events
This is one way to encourage and motivate followers to be active on your profile. You can tell them that the most active ones will get access to a private event. Followers will try to get into the CF club, and anyone who receives an invitation will consider themselves the chosen one.
Will your Instagram followers know when you remove them from the CF list?
When you add or delete people from your list, they don’t get a notification, so this action can’t hurt their feelings. And if one day you decide you no longer want to share personal information with your friend from elementary school, you can safely remove them from Close Friends.
As with any other digital hygiene practice, it’s worth reviewing your list from time to time to ensure all the people you want to share more personal stories with have been added.
