Instagram stories can be a powerful, effective, and fun way to advertise your business and build Know, Like, Trust. If people know you, like you, and trust you, they are way more likely to buy from you and Insta stories are a great place to do this within your community. You can also use this space to increase engagement, survey your audience, boost your own posts, and much more!
What are Instagram stories?
Instagram stories are 15 second images, videos, or shared posts that last 24 hours and appear at the top of your instagram feed as profile pictures with a red circle around them. When you select one, the stories will open and you will see the images/videos/shared posts put in the story by that user. Instagram stories max out at 100 posts per day.
Why do I see the same stories at the top everyday?
That’s because the story algorithm lists stories in order of the accounts you interact with most, and those with the most recent stories added. You can see more user’s stories by swiping left on the story slider.
How can I use them to my advantage?
Stories are jam packed with features and tools for creatives like you to leverage.
Here are 5 tips to boost your Insta story game!
1. All Day Every Day
To use the algorithm mentioned above to your advantage, you should post something in your stories throughout the day. How does this work? Say you post in your stories at 1pm, 2pm, 5pm, 9pm, etc. Because instagram stories prefer to show recent stories, the accounts you interact with will likely see your stories all day! What if I post a lot at once? So if you post 5 stories at 1pm then don’t post for the rest of the day, people might see your story at 1pm, but as more people post to their stories, your story feed will lose priority in the slider. So post throughout the day instead.
2. Promote Your Posts
How many times have you had a post on your Instagram feed flop? One way to help get people to your posts is to share it to your story! This is great because Instagram auto-links back to the original post so viewers can click on the post and go leave a like or comment! SWEET! How do I do this? Go to the post you want to share, tap the airplane button, and tap add post to your story.
You have the option of tapping on the image so that it shows a piece of the caption, which can get people interested. Instagram’s story algorithm is more linear, so posts have a higher chance of being seen. Occasionally including old posts in stories is a good strategy because new followers might have missed them. Also sharing others’ posts is a powerful way to show support to your community. Just be sure to mention them in the story. They’ll get a notification that you have shared their post and can then re-share to their own story. No mention= no notification= no reshare. See what I mean?
3. Mask and Call to Action
If your post is seen ONLY in the story, that won’t help it in the instagram feed. Sometimes people need to be told to go somewhere or it might not come to mind. The call to action encourages viewers to do the action. An example could be “What’s your favorite movie? Go tell me on this post!”. To add text tap the Aa icon at the top, type what you want, and place it in the story.
Another fun way to get people to your post, is to tease them a little by partially covering the image. People think “What’s that?” and will click to see the whole thing. I personally do this with gifs because they’re fun and eye catching. Instagram has a vast bank of searchable gifs to choose from. To find a gif, tap the square smiley at the top of the screen, tap gif, and search any word you want. Select a gif and place it on top of your post, making sure you can see a little of the original post.
4. Survey Your Audience
Stuck or unsure about your next project? ASK YOUR AUDIENCE! You can use Instagram stories to see what your community likes and dislikes so you can better cater your product or service to them. Here are the tools you can use to do this in order from most likely to get engagement to least: Polls, Emoji Meter, Quizzes, and Questions. Polls are first because they’re easy and take no time, while Questions might still be easy but take more time. These tools can be found by tapping the square smiley face at the top of the story.
The success of these tools depends ENTIRELY on how you use them. For example, if you want to take a poll but have more than 2 options use the emoji meter! Place your options above it and people can slide the meter to vote! The question sticker is great for surveying a LOT of choices. Get creative! To see the results, go to the survey story and swipe up.
If you didn’t look at them before your story disappeared, don’t panic. You can still see them in the story archive. To find the archive, go to your profile, tap the three lines at the top right, tap archive, then select the story you want and swipe up for the results.
5. Build Your Email List
Stories are a great place to get emails for your next launch, especially if you have been showing behind the scenes on the making of that product/offer. Stories build up anticipation and excitement, making it more likely people will want to give you their email for first dibs! There are three ways you can collect emails in stories. First, viewers can reply directly to the story. Their response goes to your DMs.
Second, you can mention your newsletter or email offer and put a question box for them to type their email. This is my favorite because all the replies are in one place so you don’t have to dig through your inbox.
Third, send people to your bio: if you have a website that has an opt-in landing page linked in your bio, you can send people there. Note this does take a little more effort for them so they might be less likely to do it.
Instagram Stories Can be a Great Way to Grow Your Business and Create Community
In the end, Instagram stories are a very fun and engaging way to interact with your community. People love seeing the behind the scenes of what you do, and they want to get to know you. It’s an easy way to build KLT and to really understand your customers as well. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, be genuine, be kind, and show your followers who you really are! The more you do this the more likely you’ll gain fans and grow in your business as well on Instagram. Happy posting!
By Chelsea O’Daniell. You can find out more about Chelsea’s work on her website: chelseaostudio.com and Instagram: www.Instagram.com/chelsea.o.studio
