How To Get Around Instagram Stories 24-Hour Restriction Using Highlights

With over 300 million active users daily, Instagram’s Stories feature has already overtaken Snapchat in the ephemeral content business. It lets users posts videos and images on their feeds that can be viewed within 24 hours. This short-lived content helps users attract engagement by getting their followers to act fast on their content.

The 24-hour limit also has its downside since it limits the number of people who can see uploaded content, namely those who don’t log in every day. Luckily, you can work around this roadblock. Let’s take a look at how to extend the lifespan of Instagram Stories and attract more followers.

Creating Instagram Highlights

Instagram Highlights is one way that we can extend the lifespan of posted Stories. This new feature allows users to compile their posted Stories for resharing later. The compilations are displayed on your profile page and remain visible until you delete them. They're easy to create:

• Head to your Profile and tap the + button in the highlights section.

• Select the Stories you want to include in the Highlight.

• Name the Highlight and add a cover image.

• Tap Done to post your highlight.

To view the highlighted Stories you just need to tap the cover image on your profile.

Different ways of using Instagram Highlights

Instead of randomly putting Stories together, you can use Highlights for different purposes, including:

• Creating streams of specific content, like products
• Doing step-by-step tutorials
• Compiling useful tips
• Doing contests
• Reposting your latest updates

These different options make your Highlights more engaging for the audience. Red Bull, for instance, creates different themed Highlights for its varied audiences.

Decide carefully when to post your highlights. You would typically want to create them a day or two after the last Story you want to include has expired. Doing weekly reels also works well in keeping audience's engaged.

Tweaking your Stories content for reposting

One surprising way to get around the 24-hour limit of Instagram Stories is by tweaking the uploaded image or video’s metadata. This tricks Instagram into thinking that you are uploading new Stories content. Some of the metadata that can be tweaked includes:

• Photo/video time and date
• Lens aperture
• Camera shutter speed
• ISO sensitivity

Choose carefully which metadata to modify. Change only the ones that would not create discrepancies in your image data. The date and time the media content was taken are some of the easiest to modify in this strategy.

PixelGarde is one tool we can use for modifying Instagram content metadata. This tool lets you quickly erase and change all the metadata in the content to be uploaded. Since the app erases only the metadata on the uploaded content, you can keep the original ones for other uses.

Re-uploading Instagram Stories content

Reposting the content also works for extending the lifespan of your Instagram Stories. Instead of re-uploading the same original content over and over again, you can use several techniques for reposting which prevent it from being seen as spam.

Taking and uploading screenshots of your Instagram Story is one simple way to pull this off. Since the screenshot is a separate image it will not be seen as spamming. Crop the screenshot to about the same size as the original story to create some similarity to the latter.

Another useful trick is to use your mobile device’s Airplane mode when re-uploading. This prompts Instagram to save the image or video to your device’s Camera Roll folder first. When you turn Airplane mode off, you can then upload that image or video as entirely new content.

When re-uploading Stories images and videos, you need to make sure that they still look distinct in the audience’s eyes. For instance, you can change the caption to an entirely new one. Or you can use a slightly altered image from the original. This makes your Stories feed look more varied to your followers, keeping their interest.

Timing with Instagram Highlights

Carefully timing when to repost Instagram Stories is also vital to get the maximum exposure. You can repost immediately after the original expires to keep the audience interest going. Since Instagram now lets users post images and videos that are more than 24 hours old, you can also delay by a few hours, using the reposts as audience reminders.

Upload Instagram Stories like a pro

Getting past the 24-hour lifespan of typical Instagram Stories can help attract more people to see

• Using the Highlights feature: Instagram’s new Highlights feature lets users permanently display selected Stories right on their profile page.
• Editing content metadata: A simple change in your image and video metadata will let you repost them as new Stories content.
• Repurposing Stories content: Taking screenshots and uploading them using your device’s Airplane mode is a quick and easy way to repost Stories.

By carefully planning how and when you repost your Stories content you can use them to engage with your followers far longer than usual. This can be a book for your goal of getting more Instagram followers, and keeping them engaged with your content.

 

Date: April 26, 2018 / Categories: Marketing, Uncategorized, / Author: Rich Drees