Once a retro-inspired photo-sharing platform, Instagram has grown to rival competitor, Snapchat, by offering users the ability to share up to the minute, discoverable content that lasts 24 hours with fun filters, stickers, tags, and interactive elements.
Over 300 million people log into Instagram each day, so no matter what the size of your brand, a good Instagram story strategy has the power to boost brand awareness and grow customer affinity.
Here are a few tips to get you started on creating stellar Instagram stories…
1.Go behind the scenes
The very nature of Instagram stories is that they are live. The 24-hour lifespan of your stories, naturally, means that they are perfect for immersing your viewers in a live experience and communicate the atmosphere through digital means. If you’re running an event or product activation, give your viewers a behind the scenes look at the event. Create a narrative such as showing the set-up or voxpops with attendees. Stories are a great way to promote yourself in a more casual way, and have fun with content that wouldn’t sit well on your Instagram grid.
2. Make them pretty
While Instagram stories tend to be more casual, this does not mean that you should throw your brand identity and voice out the window. Your stories, just like newsfeed content, need to be instantly recognisable as your brand. More importantly, they need to be created with purpose and easily digested.
A few tips:
Always shoot in portrait mode. If a viewer has to turn their phone around to see what’s going on, you’ve already lost them.
Use consistent font styles, filters and colours. All your stories should have similar fonts, colours and layouts unique to your brand.
Less is more! Let your content do the talking and try to avoid an abundance of text and stickers that give your viewers a headache.
3. User-Generated Content
Whatever your brand, give shout outs to your loyal advocates! If an Instagrammer is at your event, or using your product, and want to shout about it on social media by tagging you in their story, don’t be afraid to add it to your own story and show them you care and that you are listening.
When someone mentions your profile handle in a story, a chat box will appear in your inbox. All you have to do is tap the “add to your story” link and you’ll be able to customise it before it goes live. Easy!
4. Interactivity
Instagram Stories has fantastic interactive features that you can add to your stories, such as Q&A, quizzes and polls. Using these features are a fantastic way to get to know your audience, crowdsource ideas and drive extra engagement. Using the Q&A feature, you can communicate directly with your customers by answer common FAQs or learning about their interest. Get creative!
5. Monitor performance and adapt
To create the best Story content, you have to adapt to trends and listen to your audience. Keep a close eye on what content is performing well by checking your Instagram Story Insights. Monitor the performance of each story to gain insight into what works and what doesn’t.
