Instagram Story Ideas to Get More Followers, Likes, and Fans!
Instagram has grown leaps and bounds over the past couple of years and is now one of the most important social media platforms. What was once a place dominated by brunch photos and unorthodox pictures has transformed into the ultimate social hub for photo sharing worldwide. In this article, I will show you the best ways to boost your engagement on Instagram by using the Instagram Stories feature.
Instagram story ideas for better engagement
Instagram’s dazzling popularity isn’t exactly fresh news as many businesses and individuals are exploiting Instagram’s potential. With the platform growing by the day it has become harder to boost engagement on Instagram. Still, there are ways to reap the benefits of Instagram, and one of the best is through Instagram stories.
Instagram introduced Instagram Stories in August 2016. This move further revolutionized the Instagram society. Much like Snapchat Stories, the photos and videos shared in your Instagram Story are fleeting and can only be viewed in a 24-hour span. This feature lets you share the best moments of your day, without having to keep them on your profile forever.
Instagram story ideas: How to properly use Stories
Ever since the introduction of Instagram Stories, the community hasn’t been the same. Over 300 million active Instagram accounts around the world watch and create Instagram Stories each day. If you want to make the most out of it, you need to know how the feature functions first:
- How to make an Instagram story: To create an Instagram Story, you need to tap the “+” icon at the top-left corner of your screen, or you can simply swipe the screen to your left.
- Manage your stories: Your stories follow your privacy settings. If you set your account to private, your story will only be visible to your followers. You can also hide your stories from anyone you don’t want watching, even if they are following you. Begone, creepy ex!
- See who’s watching: Just swipe up and you will see who is watching your story. This is a great time to ascertain who is engaging with you the most, and maybe connect with influencers who watch you.
- Story Highlights: In 2017, Instagram introduced Story Highlights. This new tool allowed users to save their stories and display them on their profiles as Story Highlights. Users can group their favorite stories and display them as highlights on their profiles, thus avoiding the 24-hour story limitation.
- Story Archives: Instagram also added the option to archive your Instagram stories. By setting up the Story Settings you can automatically archive your stories once they expire. This makes it easy to review your favorite stories and bring them back to your profile as highlights.
Learning how all of these Instagram Story features work will help you get a better grasp of the concept and use Instagram Stories to the fullest.
Instagram story ideas: Make your Instagram Stories stand out
If you’re going to get the best out of Instagram stories, you need to know how to leverage Instagram’s new and existing features. Whether it is to promote your latest product or to share your latest storytelling experience, you should always bring your A-game with you:
- Story stickers: Instagram Story stickers are amazingly flexible and help you add extra context to your Instagram Story. You can choose to add traditional Story Stickers, or Story GIFS Stickers, which are just as fun.
- Add a location: To add a location sticker to your story, tap the Stickers Button and then select the “Location” option. Afterwards, your GPS will showcase your nearby locations. If you want to add a location that isn’t nearby, the search bar will help you search for the desired location.
- Story polls: This interactive poll sticker allows you to ask a question and see results from your followers as they vote. Once someone has given a vote they will be able to see which choice is in the lead at any given moment, and if they watch the story again they’ll see the latest results. The Instagram Sticker Polls are an excellent engagement booster.
By adding a location sticker to your story you may be included in a larger story. If you’re added to the larger story you will see a line at the top of your regular story viewers showing how many people have seen it in the larger story. If you want to add a location to your story, but don’t want your story to appear on Explore, just select the X on your story viewers list.
Instagram story ideas: How to create awesome stories
After learning how to use Instagram Stories to your advantage you should craft a specific strategy tailored to your strategy. In order to have a clearer idea on how to adjust your strategy, you should first be familiar with some of the most popular Instagram story ideas:
- Takeover: An Instagram Story takeover happens when one brand takes over another’s Instagram account and upload their own type of content. Takeovers often resemble collaborations with Influencers, which are the among the hottest endorsers in today’s advertising landscape. Just before you hand your account over, try using an Instagram follower service. This will boost your account and make it more appealing to those who will be seeing you for the first time through the influencer taking your account over.
- Shout outs: Give your followers a reason to be engaged with your Instagram Stories. For instance, GoPro is encouraging their followers to send awesome videos from their GoPro adventures. GoPro then promotes the best videos on their profile, or as a Story, and gives the user a shoutout. Talk about stimulating your followers to take action!
- Behind-the-scenes: People love seeing their favorite brands in action. With Instagram Stories, brands have an opportunity to take their followers on a journey and tell the story in a unique and creative behind-the-scenes manner.
- Hashtags: You can also add #hashtag stickers by tapping the appropriate hashtag sticker when it pops up on your photo. Once selected, you will write whatever you want as your hashtag. Using hashtags help you extend your visibility on explore and you will also be able to find stories related to your interests.
- Sending people to a website: Instagram is great for sending people to your website. You can tell your followers about your new post in your story and either direct them to use the “Swipe Up” feature, or direct them to the link in your bio.
- Promoting something: Whether you’re selling something, have a new song released, or your latest YouTube video uploaded; Instagram stories are great for marketing purposes. Be sure to advertise it in a value-added manner so that people don’t feel advertised to.
Instagram is an evolving platform, and if you want to stay on everyone’s radar you need to learn to jump on their latest updates as fast as you can. You don’t want to miss out on the extremely wide reach of Instagram Stories as part of your overall Instagram follower strategy. There are really tons of Instagram Story ideas, and the very best ones are stored in your own creativity as you share you daily thoughts, ideas, and dreams.
All photos from Instagram's brand assets, used according to Guidelines.
Date: May 14, 2018 / Categories: Engagement, Marketing, / Author: Rich Drees
