Social Media Tips on Instagram Stories

The Basics: Tips on Instagram Stories

Instagram stories have been around for a while- they’re not really new. Now we actually have stories on Facebook too-and there’s just stories everywhere. How can Instagram stories help your business? Here are some tips on Instagram stories, but let’s just cover some basics first. An Instagram story is something that shows up when you’re on Instagram and you see somebody’s profile picture. (I’ve included visuals in the attached video- so if you’d like to see screen shots definitely watch the video above!) There’s a little circle that goes around the outside of the profile pic, and that means they have a recent story that’s that they’ve done. If you click on it then you’ll see those stories that they’ve put out there.  Stories typically stay alive for 24 hours- unless you select to highlight them.  If you highlight them they stay on your profile indefinitely or until you take them down.

Why should I story?

Implementing Instagram stories is an effective way to get organic views on your profile and to your brand.  Organic simply means not paid. You can do a story and it is going to be seen by people. They will get notified if they follow you (unless they’ve turned that feature off). Typically followers will get a notification saying Julie Bee created a new story –check it out! It does help drive up organic views.

Tips on Instagram Stories – What should I story?

What kind of content does really well on stories? Well, there’s three that we’d like to highlight.  Number one is behind the scenes footage. Think of this content as something that isn’t quite what you would normally put in your Instagram feed.  Teamwork, behind the scenes volunteer activities, how something’s getting made– those are all things that do really, really well in stories.  Another thing that does well in stories (and this is especially for e-commerce or consumer product brands) is time sensitive information. So if you’re running a special or a discount or a contest for example, those types of things are time sensitive. You might combine it with an Instagram post, but you want to do a story because that’s going to get attention a lot more quickly. Finally, any special announcements do really well via Instagram stories. Examples might include the founder speaking through a short video about a new product line that’s coming out. Maybe a new partnership that you’re working on or a new brand ambassador you’re super excited about.  Another idea is announcing a new hire. Hopefully those tips on Instagram stories will help.

Story Features

So you’ve got a really great piece of content that you will story. To help boost the engagement a little bit more Instagram also has all of these really cool features that enable people to interact with your story.  You can run a poll, you can ask a yes or no question, you can add hashtags, tag other profiles, add location information.  Adding a bit of interactivity helps boost the engagement with the story which helps the story do better overall.

If you have any questions about how to make Instagram stories effective for your business or for a client’s business -don’t hesitate to reach out.  I’d love to talk you through that and answer any questions you have.