Instagram introduced its Stories feature in 2016 and in no time, the feature became one of their most popular updates. Instagram stories are a way of posting short-form content like 15-second videos, photos, texts and more that stay up on the user’s profile for 24 hours only. With over 500 million users using the Instagram stories feature every day, it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to grow your brand’s reach. As its popularity grew, Instagram has also rolled out new features to make stories more interactive and entertaining. You can also use sites like Doe to share anonymous stories.
As a brand, Instagram Stories should be an important part of your social media strategy. When used correctly, they are one of the best ways to create awareness about your brand and to increase your engagement. Whether you are a newbie or are looking for ways to promote your established brand, keep these practices in mind to get the most out of Instagram Stories for you.
- Post Consistently
Instagram displays stories using an algorithm that also takes chronology into account. What this means is, the more often you post on your stories, the newer and more recent your story will be for Instagram. Instagram will push these stories to the top of your followers’ news feed, thus increasing its visibility. If you do not have many followers, you can use Instagram followers app to get thousands of free Instagram followers instantly. Brands with stories that are constantly in this top spot will inadvertently receive more traffic.
- Create Ads
Create a sponsored Story or an ad for your brand that Instagram will then promote to a target audience. These ads are displayed to users in between the other stories they might be swiping through, hence providing a seamless and uninterrupted viewing experience. You can use any online video ad maker to create an attention-grabbing photo or a video with a call to action. Before creating your ad, remember that your audience may not always be able to return to the ad later, so make sure to catch their eye right away.
- Use Features like Polls To Increase Engagement
Instagram has added a host of interactive features like Polls, Quizzes, Sliders, and more to their Stories. When your audience interacts with these stickers and answers these questions, they are not only engaging with your stories but are also providing valuable feedback. Regularly posting polls and Q&As helps your audience realise that their opinions have value and that they are being heard by your brand. You can also ask your audience to submit their questions to you via these stickers. This gives your brand an opportunity to create content around the answers to these questions. Use multiple-choice quizzes to direct your audience to a post or a website link that has more details about the correct answer.
- Add Relevant Hashtags
Just like with Instagram posts on your feed, adding relevant hashtags to your Instagram stories will help you increase its reach organically. Adding hashtags makes your Story discoverable to new people who might not be following your profile. Instagram lets you add up to 10 hashtags in a Story, and your brand should make the most of this by selecting the hashtags that are most relevant to your content and have a high volume of associated traffic. You can also use Hashtags for Likes website for getting insights on trending and popular hashtags for your posts.
- Create Shareable Content
While promoting your brand’s services and products, do not forget to also create Instagram stories that your audience can relate to. This prompts the users viewing your stories to share it among their friends or repost it to their profiles, which, in turn, increases your reach. Instagram stories with tutorials, how-tos, Mythbusters, etc., and Q&A templates that your users can personalize with their answers and post on their profiles are some great examples of shareable content.
- Plan Content Ahead Of Time
Just like your Instagram posts, planning your Instagram stories ahead of time will help you carefully design your Story and stick to a consistent voice and aesthetic. InVideo is an Instagram video editor that helps you create Instagram stories in advance. Similarly, Later is an app that lets you schedule your story for a future date. Using tools like these for creating, planning, and scheduling your Instagram stories will help you prepare your ads in advance that you can post them when your audience is most active or when you have a time-sensitive announcement to make.
- Save Stories To Highlights
Highlights appear on your profile just above your main feed and are a way to add stories to your profile so that they can be viewed even after their 24 hours is up. The best part about saving your Instagram stories to highlights is that you can categorize them. By increasing the shelf life of your stories, you are giving them greater visibility while also increasing your reach. You can create different highlights for your brand with new product launches, customer feedback or support, giveaways, etc.- the possibilities are endless. You can change the cover image of your highlights, so you can add colours or logos that are consistent with your feed’s aesthetic.
Utilise these tips to make the most of Instagram stories to engage an audience for your brand.
