Social media influence creates a buzz for your organization on the web. It is no longer optional for your business but has become a useful tool to reach new audiences, gain valuable insights, and grow your brand. Since its inception, Instagram has become the biggest photo-sharing social media platform on the web. The success of Instagram is over its competitors because it is highly accessible and easy to use. Like other social media platforms that thrive to rule the digital world, Instagram also keeps on upgrading and adding new features that retain the user base.
If you are not aware of the potential of this fantastic tool, it’s time to go through some of the amazing facts:
- Instagram has over 500 million users each day.
- 31% of the millennials and 39% of the Gen Z users create content for the platform.
- 86.6% of users post regularly on Instagram stories.
- 68% of people become more interested in a brand after seeing it in a story.
- 60% of Instagram users watch and post Stories.
- 17.8% of Instagram FAMs watch IGTV.
Instagram Stories And Their Importance?
Initially, Snapchat was the only platform to introduce the ‘Stories’ feature, but clearly, now every social media platform has inspired and added the feature to its platform. Instagram stories are crucial for successful social media marketing as businesses want to keep up with the latest trends in the industry and deliver the best content to its users.
Instagram stories are like slideshows but in a more engaging and appealing format. They are simple and easy to create, and you can interact directly with your FAM. Instagram Stories acts as an additional branding feature for your online facade. It steers a way to explain your content, create, exhibit a story, and build your online presence. Instagram users are comfortable with edited Instagram photos, but they love watching realistic Instagram stories. The more realistic touch you can give to your Instagram stories brings high engagement to your brand. Be sure to show off your brand’s image, its inception, thoughts, and any updates.
Posting stories on Instagram is essential for the following reasons:
- IG Stories are easy to create and great for engagement.
- Creating stories isn’t time-consuming and is highly rewarding.
- The Instagram algorithm allows you to surface your content to the top.
- Instagram Stories have a short-life span, so you can be highly creative and innovative while delivering the content.
If you are not using the feature, you might be missing out on tremendous opportunities. Here are some of the Instagram stories tips and tricks that you must consider in 2020 and beyond.
1. Add A Highlight
A story can be highlighted and can be viewed longer than 24 hours. The highlight feature comes in handy when you have a product or service to be highlighted. You can turn on the highlight feature in settings >> story settings >> save to archive. You can convert your story into a highlight on your profile.
2. Add A Link
You can add a link on the top right after you have uploaded or recorded your content. You can ask your Instagram followers to swipe up to access the content you have linked. However, your account needs to be a business account and have at least 10K followers to use this feature.
3. Mentioning Anyone In Your Story
When adding a photo/video to your story, you can mention someone. Tap on the letters icon and type ‘@’ followed by the person’s username you want to tag in the post. After saying them in your story, they will be notified and receive a DM. You can mention not more than ten people in one picture.
4. Add A Mention Post To Your Story
If someone messages you in their story, you will receive a direct message (DM). You can directly add that post to your account as well. This feature is best when you are featured or have collaborated with some brand as it increases engagement and helps build your influencing presence.
5. Ask A Question To Your Followers
Instagram offers two tools to get input from your followers. First, you can create a poll by selecting the ‘Poll’ sticker, enter your question, and add two options for followers to choose between the two. The poll feature will display the percentage. You can also add a slider sticker with which your followers can drag the slider to express the reaction. You can ask your followers or allow your FAM to ask you a question using the request a question sticker.
You can always use the create mode and explore the sticker features to make your post highly creative, innovative, and bring you great engagement.
A few options are listed below, always try to make your story perfect for better engagement:
- Create a solid background
- Create an opaque background
- Use the full-color wheel
- Use colors in images
- Explore different font sizes
- Layer your Captions
- Ditch the Square captions
- Incorporate different fonts and sizes
- Explore other sticker options
- Pin your Stickers or Add a Gif
- Turn your face into a custom stickers
- Change your weekday’s sticker color
- Add music to your story
- Use third-party apps for more effects
- Embedded Spotify Links in Instagram stories
- Go Hands-free to record hassle-free
Explore all the above-mentioned Instagram stories tips and tricks one by one or multi-adding them to create the best stories for your profile and boost your Instagram reach & engagement.
Conclusion
Instagram is the best platform to build your brand, retrieve a higher click-through rate, generate more traffic, and improve your sales. The stories feature of Instagram helps you create an online presence as it interacts with your followers directly. The story feature shows the community that you care; it sparks conversations with your community using stickers and amplifies your voice to reach more audiences. You can also use IGTV and Reels features to surface your brand on the top.
Are you looking to boost your social media presence with a brand-oriented, personalized social media marketing strategy? Then, you’ve landed in the right place. Propel Guru social media strategists would build a strategy tailored to your company and help you take your social media marketing game to the next level. Hire the top-notch, affordable full-fledged social media marketing services now!
Indrajeet Agrawal
Head of Business Development & Consultant
A successful sales leader, Indrajeet has effortlessly led teams to successful deliveries by redefining business promotion, lead generation, email marketing, and a series of out-of-the-box sales and marketing techniques. Ability to work independently and with cross-functional teams and facilitating truly agile processes while seeking iterative improvement.
Hire Canada’s best Lead Generation & Email Marketing Company. Choose certified Sales Specialists from Propel Guru now.
