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    What is Close Friends on Instagram?

    What is Close Friends on Instagram?

    by Team AllYourVideogames | Jun 21, 2022 | Instagram |


    Do you work with social media and want to know more ways to reach your audience? There is a tool that can help you on the social network. Do you know what is close friends not instagram? Let's explain.



    Everyone has a little group of closest friends, right? Obviously, some friends are closer than others. With that in mind, the photo and video sharing social network developed the Close Friends tool – close friends, in free translation, for the platform’s Stories.

    While the feature was launched targeting more personal profiles, Close Friends can also be used by brands and businesses.

    This can increase your engagement and allow you to get closer to your audience. For that, you need to know the basics of what Close Friends is.

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    What is Close Friends? 

    To summarize what Close Friends is, we can say that it is a feature created by Instagram in which the user can select a few followers of their choice to create an exclusive sharing list on the platform's Stories.

    By doing this, every time the user shares a Story, they will have three options:

    • Make the Story available only to a certain person.
    • Make Stories visible only to “Close Friends”, the exclusive list.
    • Share Story to all Instagram friends.

    This tool can be very useful for people who have a large number of followers and don't want everyone to see their Stories.



    Whenever you publish a Story just for Close Friends, the Stories circle will be outlined in green and only the followers of that exclusive list will receive this content. There's also no way for anyone to know when you add or remove any of your close friends.

    Learn more: Instagram audience already surpasses Facebook


    How to use it in your marketing strategy?

    Now you know what Close Friends is, do you know that companies, influencers and other brands also make use of it in digital marketing strategies?

    Through close friends it may be possible to have a more intimate relationship with your audience and customers, in addition to being able to forward your content more easily to the audience that corresponds to your niche.

    What is Close Friends on Instagram?

    While this tool can be used for these strategies, the question remains how to do it. Here are some tips that will help you in this process:

    1. Produce exclusive content

    Engagement on social media doesn't come from all followers, as follower numbers don't equate to high engagement.

    Some carry more weight than others, some users generate more engagement than others by liking, commenting and sharing their posts.


    So the question remains: why not give a prize to these followers?

    By creating a Close Friends only for those followers who are most loyal to you and your brand, you can also offer exclusive posts, carry out campaigns and several other activities. This will make your engagement increase more and more and that follower who follows and interacts with your work will also receive a worthy award.



    2. Offer rewards

    Another way to use Close Friends is to differentiate followers. The most active followers will be able to earn some extra rewards, in addition to exclusive content, as mentioned above.

    If you have an online store, a good way to not only benefit your business and sell on Instagram, but also to give gifts to followers who generate more engagement, is with exclusive discount coupons. 

    You can sell online and share coupons on Close Friends Stories. Thus, only those selected followers will have access. This can encourage them to interact more and more, and can even make less engaged followers feel motivated to interact and end up joining your Close Friends as well. 


    3. Create special offers

    In addition to short videos, Stories also allow the user to insert external links. This is a good way to suggest some offers to your Close Friends followers, like webinars, courses, consultations, talks and the like.

    This alternative can be even more important if you have partnerships with other profiles that offer this type of content. 

    And another, why not close these partnerships and get discounts on courses, consulting and other things for your followers of close friends? This will make your supporters feel even more privileged, in addition to increasing the sense of importance of your profile, ensuring even more loyalty of these users with your account.

    4. Promote customer approach

    Perhaps, the fact of being able to have a greater approach and interaction with its audience is the main positive point of Close Friends. Especially if your number of followers is growing and you can't pay more attention to everyone.



    The Close Friends group may have users who have the greatest potential to purchase your product, service or earn you more monetization on social networks.


    In addition, you can also invite your exclusive customers to test products and services in advance, send them some “treats” to cheer them up and collect opinions on things you can improve on your profile, products and services.

    5. Offer an exclusive service

    Another feature of close friends can be support for your audience. If you sell a product or service, such as courses to your followers, you can use this tool to ask questions, teach how it works, give tips, solve a problem and other types of frequently asked questions.

    But remember: offer this only to Close Friends, after all, it is impossible for you to provide this quality support to thousands of people.

    Learn More: Cover for Instagram stories: 13 sites to find the best

    How to monetize Close Friends?

    If you carry out detailed planning, the list of close friends can end up earning you good monetization. However, you need to know in detail what Close Friends is and how it works.


    If you have a store in a specific niche, such as makeup, ornaments and the like, you can add an exclusive list to talk about and give tips on some specific products.

    This will encourage followers to buy the products/services and thus be entitled to access on Close Friends, to follow what you will say in Stories.

    If this works, it will be a hand in the wheel and you can also use this group as a way of promoting other products or even for them to convince other people to also buy from you.

    It is at this stage that you will make an advertisement offering the famous “Last vacancies”, with an ad like “Buy now and receive exclusive content”. 

    Learn More: Is buying Instagram followers worth it?


    How to create a Close Friends?

    You already know how to use it in the marketing strategy and what is Close Friends on Instagram. Now you will check out the step-by-step guide on how to create a Close Friends on Instagram:

    Step 1. Tap on the three dashes located at the top right of the app;

    Step 2. Click on the “Close Friends” option, formerly known as Best Friends by the platform;

    Step 3. In the next phase, you will just click on “Add” on the contacts in your list to receive exclusive content;

    Step 4. If you want to remove any, just click on “Remove”. 


    What is Close Friends on Instagram?

    It's worth noting that Instagram no longer sends notifications to contacts when you add or remove them from the list. They will only know when they receive your Close Friends Stories. 

    Learn More: What to post in Instagram stories? 15 ideas to copy

    How to share Stories with Close Friends?

    To share Stories only to your Close Friends contacts, the process won't be much different from sharing a Story normally. Just follow the steps below:

    Step 1. In the upper left corner of the screen, click on the camera symbol;

    Step 2. Create or select an image or video for the Story as usual;


    Step 3. The difference is in the time of sending the Stories to make it available. Instead of clicking on “Your Friends”, as you normally would, you will click on the green icon that says “Close Friends”. That's it, with that only your Close Friends will receive the content you selected.

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