Over 500 million people worldwide check out Instagram Stories every single day. A whopping 80% of all Instagram users who log in daily do so just to view Stories rather than the main feed.
More and more money is being put into Instagram Stories by major businesses. Why? We’d all benefit from hearing a good narrative, after all.
As a marketing tool, Instagram Stories has the potential to be quite effective. Use this space to get consumers excited about upcoming releases and promotions, showcase items, give them a glimpse behind the scenes, and hear their thoughts. All of this, and more, can be accomplished through the use of Stories in a natural, unplanned way that won’t detract from your meticulously arranged profile grid.
In this post, we’ll go over all the ways in which Instagram Stories may help you strengthen your brand’s presence on Instagram and expand your reach.
Invent a fascinating tale
Users of social media like it when businesses reveal more about themselves than simply their wares. Stories are a great way to put a face to your company. You may obtain more views and interaction with your content than with a regular post by using 15-second snippets from your Story.
Sharing your brand’s story on social media channels is a great way to get your name out there and establish a good, consistent identity for your business online. Storytelling can help you think outside the box and develop content that can be used across all of your digital marketing channels. Use this tool to your advantage, because Instagram Stories only last for 24 hours. To express your ideals and character, use lighthearted, impromptu writing. Show off your office, develop a meme, and introduce the people that make up your team. You have the floor here.
Make use of Instagram’s dynamic tools for Stories.
Many interesting additions may be made to your Story, each with its own potential impact on your target audience and effectiveness in achieving your aims. Just take a picture or film a video, then press the sticker symbol in the top bar to access them.
Location
Using geotags is a great way for a small business to boost its profile in its immediate vicinity, increasing the likelihood that potential buyers will come across it.
Mentions
If you’d want to call attention to a specific person or company in your Story, thank them for their contribution, or highlight them in another way, you may do so by tagging them. Anyone you’ve tagged will receive a notification and be able to reshare your Story with ease. When people tag your business, it works the same way.
Hashtags
Hashtags are a primary means of navigation for Instagram users, and this includes viewing Stories. To increase your pageviews, use hashtags that are both timely and applicable.
Styles, graphics, and mnemonics
You can make your Instagram Stories unique and interesting by using some of the other features offered.
Polls
The results of a poll may provide valuable first-hand information and provide a natural opportunity to interact with your audience. Put a question to your followers, give them a choice between two options, and then evaluate their responses. Show your audience that their thoughts are being heard by using this function.
Questions
The ability to ask questions of potential clients is another powerful tool. The format is a standard Q&A with them asking you questions and you responding. Your responses can then be made public or sent via a direct message.
Not only does this function provide your audience with direct access to the most recent information on frequently asked questions, but it also encourages them to interact with your brand. A quick and easy way to get feedback on whether or not your communication is coming over clearly to its intended recipients, and whether or not adjustments are necessary.
Make the most of Instagram’s Highlights feature as a supplement to your profile
With Instagram, you may only have 150 characters for your bio. That’s quite brief. A further complication is that just a single link can be included. You may make a lot more content accessible to your Instagram audience by using the highlighted Stories feature (collections of curated Stories placed permanently to your profile).
Several Highlights can be added to discuss various facets of your business, such as certain product lines, frequently asked questions, user-generated material that features your brand, etc. Every Highlight may have its own custom thumbnail, chosen from your existing camera roll.
Drive more people to your website by using stories
If you have over 10,000 followers, you have the luxury of being able to put a link in your Story. Stories containing links have a small See more arrow at the bottom of the screen. Every viewer of the Story can access the external link by swiping up from the place in question.
Remember that it’s in your best interest to get people to give you that thumbs up. The default “see more” option is fairly small and can easily go ignored, so add text, arrows, or GIFs to draw attention to the link.
The need of 10,000 followers is a huge pain. This is common knowledge to us. Yet, if your account has less than 10,000 followers, you still have options; you simply need to be a little more resourceful.
Even if you don’t want to include a link in your bio, you may still let people who watch your Stories know where to find it by using text, GIFs, or other graphics.
Apply shoppable stickers
Swipe-up links are a convenient and effective method of directing users to a particular webpage or online shop. Nevertheless, if you want to utilise Instagram Stories as a sales tool, you might take it one step further by including in-story shopping into your posts.
Product stickers have been made accessible to qualified vendors since last year. They’re quite similar to the stickers found on Instagram Stories.