If you're not using Instagram Stories to boost your business and highlight your brand, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity. Instagram Stories are not only fun and creative, but one of the best ways to increase engagement, build brand awareness, and even drive sales.
As consumers expect a closer connection with brands, Instagram Stories have become the perfect outlet for all that extra content that only requires minimal post-production.
In a world that instinctively detects and rejects advertising (and we even pay to not be interrupted), stories offer a golden opportunity. You go to look at photos of your friends' dinner and in less than 1 minute you've seen 10 photos and 3 full-screen ads.
The addictive design of Instagram Stories means we stick around for longer than we planned. We never know what’s coming next, and it’s easy to keep tapping instead of exiting. Want to know how to use them to make your brand stand out? Read on.
How to use Instagram Stories
IG Stories and ResourcesUnlike posts, stories disappear after 24 hours (or sooner if you delete them). This means you can post quickly and easily without worrying about overwhelming your followers with your content.
Compared to the polished aesthetics of Instagram posts, the vibe of Stories is a bit more casual. And this is good news for beginners, as they don't require a lot of production and editing. Here's a quick guide to making your first Instagram Story.
Within the Instagram mobile app, swipe right to open the Instagram Stories camera.
Tap the white circle at the bottom of the screen to take a photo or long press the white circle to record a video.
Swipe up to use pre-existing images from the gallery.
At the bottom of the screen, you can select other post formats to experiment with: Story, Reels , Live, etc.
On the right side you can select other publishing options, for example, if you want to make a Boomerang, Hands Free, Photo Booth or a Layout to organize several images.
At the top you can add Stickers or Effects to your story.
Stickers
IG Stories and ResourcesStickers are fun visual additions that can also be a crucial tool for your brand aesthetic. They are constantly changing, but the best way to stay up to date with what's new is to use them.
There are all kinds of stickers, and they are updated almost daily. Some are classics like location, time, temperature or weather.
But there are also stickers for donations, trends, challenges, to order the food you are showing and even to support small businesses. Some of the most useful to encourage interaction are polls and chat stickers.
Product Stickers
Stories are a great way to boost sales, especially when you use product stickers. These allow you to tag specific products in stories, just like you can with regular Instagram shopping posts.
You can add these product stickers to images or videos, and they come in a variety of colors (or transparent). One positive aspect of this is that you can use them regardless of the number of your followers, creating a simplified way for your audience to learn about and purchase your products.
Links
Once your account has over 10,000 followers, you can add direct links to your stories. There are several ways this simple feature is valuable in making your brand stand out.
You can use story content to encourage someone to click through to a link, which could be to another piece of content, a link to your store, or a landing page.
With your story, you provide a quick explanation of why the follower should “swipe up.” It’s always a good idea to add an eye-catching GIF that encourages further activity.
Animated GIFs in Create Mode
If you want to create content immediately and can't find anything to post, Instagram's Create mode may be what you need.
In Create mode, you can add any animated GIF to a story and it will automatically resize to fit the screen perfectly. Once you're happy with your GIF, you can add st bulgaria mobile phone number list ickers, text, or more GIFs to complete your design.
Layout Mode
There are hundreds of apps that allow you to design Instagram stories using professional templates, but this isn't always necessary. You can work with Instagram's own built-in tools to enhance your content or brand.
IG Stories and ResourcesThis can be as simple as using Layout mode to create a quick collage of existing photos or images.
You can combine it with the thousands of Instagram Stories filters to achieve a more cohesive aesthetic. Or use the color picker, brush tools, GIFs, and text options to highlight your brand image and create visually appealing stories.
Boomerang Mode
In addition to Create mode, Instagram has introduced new effects in the “Boomerang” mode to assist in designing engaging content. This mode consists of a short video (1 second) that rewinds to play in a loop both forwards and backwards.
To use Boomerang mode, you need to capture the video from the Instagram app. In addition to the classic boomerang effect, the “Slow Motion”, “Duo” and “Echo” effects have been added.
Slow Motion lets you slow down your video by half, doubling its length.
Duo quickly rewinds the video and adds a transition before rewinding.
Echo creates a double or blurred vision effect on moving objects in the video.