Instagram Stories are a powerful tool for your social media marketing campaign. They help get more exposure, increase engagement levels, and even get valuable customer feedback. Here are twenty ideas to help you improve your Instagram Stories and promote your business.
Make Polls and Ask Questions
Polls and questions are an amazing way to get customer feedback, play a game with your followers, or simply lift your and their day. Once you give them positive emotions, they will be more likely to do something for you in the future. That’s basic psychology. In addition to that, you can get early feedback for a product you are developing or something that you have been selling for ages.
Source: https://animoto.com/blog/video-marketing/how-to-set-up-instagram-story-poll/
Encourage Followers to Turn On Post Notifications
Instagram’s algorithm has been weird since 2017. Before that, everyone saw posts in chronological order on their Feed, but now the logic is way more complicated. By encouraging your followers to turn on notifications, you will make sure that they don’t miss any content from you.
Add Your Location
You won’t believe how effective this is. By adding your location to the Stories, you make more people discover your content. In fact, sometimes the number of views can be several times bigger than your usual metrics. Add your location whenever you can, get more views, and then more followers.
Rant about Something
A rant about something you are passionate about can show your followers how much you care about something. This is especially useful if they also love the topic you are ranting about. Connect with them on a personal level and establish yourself as an authority in a particular niche by ranting about this and that from time to time.
Use Stickers
Stickers. What a wonderful thing these are. Whenever you are filling crazy, don’t hesitate to use some stickers. You can even design your own custom ones with the help of such programs as Venngage, online graph maker tool, and then use them on your business profile on Instagram. This will help your brand have something unique and make it different from all other Stories your followers watch.
Source: https://later.com/blog/instagram-stories-stickers/
Show Your Mood
Showing that you are a human being is important as it helps to establish a strong relationship and connect with your customers. To do this, don’t be afraid to show your mood once in a while. You can’t be optimistic every single day, so when you are feeling down, you can still post about this to your business’s Stories.
Post Teasers to Your Upcoming Products
One of the most important parts of marketing your product is creating hype around it. Show your followers sneak-peaks of products you are currently developing, but don’t give out too much. This will make them curious about your upcoming products and you will be able to gradually build up their excitement till the official release.
Encourage Followers to Send You a Message
As mentioned above, Instagram’s algorithm works differently than it used to. In order for your posts to appear at the beginning of your followers’ feeds, you must show the algorithm that you are friends. The best way to do this is to have a conversation with your followers, because who else can they be talking to in private messages than their friends or family?
Promote Your Latest Post
Another amazing way to ensure that your followers see your latest post is to simply promote it in your Stories. Don’t necessarily disclose how it looks, just pique their curiosity so they go to your page and check it out. By the way, if you don’t know how to write good, engaging captions for your posts, you can use writing services that will write them for you. As well as photo editing services for creating the best images.
Include Links for Users to Swipe up and Read Posts
Unfortunately, this feature is only available to accounts with over 10 thousand followers. But once you reach that number, you will be able to send your followers to your posts or articles outside of Instagram through the swipe up option. Moreover, you can send them to virtually any website.
Publish Short Videos
Short videos can actually prove to be even more effective than your usual images. Create epic short videos that will make your audience go “wow!” and they will gladly share them to their own Stories.
Add Music to Images and Videos You Publish
In order to spice up your Stories a bit, add music to the images and videos you publish. Instagram’s music feature makes it easy to do so. You can add music to set a certain mood or simply to share a song you like.
Promote Your Product
This is pretty obvious. After promoting your product for a while with the help of teasers, you can still continue advertising it through your Stories by reminding your followers once in a while that it is still available. Don’t forget to create urgency by saying that it may be out of stock soon or you are selling it for a limited time.
Post Quotes
Motivational quotes are extremely popular nowadays. A simple sentence can make a person’s day, inspire them, and even prompt them to check out your account.
Talk about Success Stories
Social proof works wonders for businesses all around the globe. Talk about your past clients’ success stories to encourage potential customers to try out your product or service. It always looks more believable when there are real people and real stories behind it.
Show Your Work
Instagram is the perfect place for companies that specialize in game development, illustration, photography, and so on. Your Stories are a great place to show off your work.
Do Shoutouts
Shoutouts are a great way to build strong relationships with other brands or influencers on Instagram. Moreover, you can also give shoutouts to your customers who posted a review of your product or service.
Use Graphics for Simple Messages
You don’t need to go overboard every time you post something to your Stories. In fact, making it look simple may work even better. If you need to post a short message or make an announcement, you don’t necessarily have to make a whole video about it. Just use one of Instagram’s Stories backgrounds and type your message on it.
Create Wallpapers
Everyone loves beautiful wallpapers. Whether it is a breathtaking shot of a mountain peak or a customized illustration, wallpapers (aka screensavers or backgrounds) are loved and valued. Create beautiful wallpapers and post them to your Stories for your followers to use them on their devices.
Promote Your Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to get more exposure. But even a better way to use them is to promote your own hashtags. You can post about it to Instagram Stories encouraging people to use your hashtag in their posts and Stories for you to discover them in return.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, Instagram Stories are a powerful tool for many purposes, but sadly, not many businesses use it. Follow the advice in this article and make the most out of your Instagram Stories, improving engagement and getting you more exposure. Many people are already making good money from their Instagram followers. And you can, too.
About the Author
Diana Nadim is a writer and editor who has a Master degree in Marketing. She combines her passion for writing with her interest in research and creates thought-provoking content in various fields.