4 Ways To Make Your Brand Stand Out On Instagram Stories
In August of 2016, Instagram shook up the social landscape with the introduction of Instagram Stories. Stories allow users to upload short, snappy videos, photos & boomerangs. This content doesn’t appear in your regular feed, and only stays up for 24 hours. This is the new breed of content with a short lifespan – wave goodbye to Snapchat – it’s all about Instagram Stories.
If your brand is already using a regular Instagram feed to share content, why not consider introducing the Stories feature into your strategy? With 500 million daily active users, you’d be a fool not to!
Here are some ways to make sure your brand stands out in Stories.
1) Let your creativity flow
Hashtags, locations & tagging still matter in stories. When you’re creating a story, remember to use all the features we know and love in Instagram – including location tagging and @mentioning other accounts. You can still do all of this in Stories, and it gives your content potential larger reach – clicking on a location allows users to view stories in that location, as well as regular Instagram photos.
Instagram have gone absolutely HAM with their creative additions to Stories. From emoji stickers to quotes – the opportunities are endless. There are some really creative things to be done with Stories. I recommend taking an hour to sit down and get to grips with all the options in the edit section of Instagram. And they keep coming – new stickers are added almost every day, and new features are always being announced. Who doesn’t love a boomerang?
2) Test & learn (again!)
Don’t think of your stories like regular pieces of content. People don’t interact with Instagram Stories the same way they do with regular Instagram posts. It might be another step in your process, but it’s worth testing out content on Stories and finding what works best for you here. It’s very different to what we’re used too on Instagram, so it takes it’s own planning and testing to figure what works.
3) Engagements still matter
Engagement is still key with Stories. As Instagram works as a gallery, some brands forget that engaging with your audience is still important. Stories create a unique way for fans and followers to engage and respond to your content – so it’s important to factor this in when posting on Stories. Be on hand to reply to anyone who may respond to your stories – after all, the conversations are what everyone’s after!
4) Drive site traffic
Drive direct traffic. For accounts with 10k or above followers or accounts that are verified, Instagram offers the option to link to pages directly from a story, by swiping up. This is an amazing way to connect audiences with highly relevant information on your site. Through video or motion graphics, you can encourage this interaction, too. Literally signposting your audience to ‘swipe up’ can have a larger effect than you may anticipate!
Has your brand seen success with Instagram Stories? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the feature.
By Ruby Lowe