An Instagram story is a 24-hour post on your profile - whether it be a photo, video, or boomerang. The concept of stories on Instagram was initiated in August 2016, and now at least 500 million Instagrammers use stories daily. Stories will show up in the top bar of your feed, and when there’s a new story to see, their profile photo will have a rainbow ring around it. If you’ve ever considered experimenting with stories to boost your engagement, here are five tips on how to do just that!
Uploading Content from your Camera Roll
Stories allow you to upload photos from your camera roll. In order to do this, swipe up on the story camera, and there will be the latest content from your camera roll. From there, select the content you’d like to add to your story and feel free to make it your own!
The cool part about this is it allows you to use outside apps such as Canva, PicsArt, etc., to make your photos unique and one of a kind for your stories. This feature could come in handy when attempting to advertise a particular event, curate to a specific audience, or even celebrate a certain holiday.
Using the Provided Spacing Tools
Instagram Stories have important lines and limitations you should attempt to stick between. Centering and spacing are a massive part of making things look presentable. If something is off-centered lacking balance, your story may come off as unorganized or hard to understand.
There are teal, glowing lines representing when photos, text, or stickers have reached the recommended Instagram story margins. It’s essential to be aware that anything you may design outside of the app to upload needs to also stay within those lines.
Use the Poll Option to Get to Know Your Followers
Instagram Stories have provided a way to create interactive polls under the sticker menu that lets you ask your audience questions and see instant results/feedback as they vote. Instagram will let you use your question and customize the poll options. This allows you to get instant feedback from how your followers may feel concerning your problem. Once a follower votes on your poll, the lead choice at that given point will be revealed.
Learn the ins and outs of the sticker menu
Time: Add the current time to your story - digital and analog.
Weather: Include the temperature in your story and the current weather!
GIF: Search any word to find a GIF within your story
@Mention: Tag another Instagram user - like a business partner or client!
Questions: Ask your audience questions, responses are sent to you as a DM
Music: Share your favorite songs with your story!
Quiz: Create multiple choice quiz questions for your audience to answer
Get Creative with Font & Symbols
Instagram Stories provides five different fonts to choose from Classic, Modern, Neon, Typewriter, and Strong. This lets your letters and symbols have five different styles. If you take these letters and symbols and layer and expand them, you’ve got a unique and fun way to utilize the elements to switch up your Instagram Stories. If you play around enough, you’ll discover that there are multiple uses for stickers.
Instagram stories have become a new and interactive way to have fun on social media. Other apps that have stories are Facebook, Twitter, and of course, the original - Snapchat. Staying consistent and making your stories pop will grab your audience’s attention and help your business in the long run.