Engaging Your Audience with Instagram Stories
Instagram isn’t just for influencers of people eager to share photos of their cats and their children. It’s also a very valuable tool for business.
While it’s important to keep up with engaging posts that showcase your products or services, it’s also important to make use of other Instagram features like Stories.
What are Instagram Stories?
Instagram Stories allow a glimpse into your brand through vertical photos or short video clips that disappear after 24 hours. Instagram Stories are featured at the top of the app, and they often feature content like polls and stickers that are interactive and fun.
The beauty of Instagram Stories is that they’re so easy to keep watching. Once you click on one Story, it’s easier to keep watching more Stories than to exit.
This makes for great business marketing strategy, and it’s important to create Instagram Stories so your followers stay engaged with your brand and so you can attract new followers to your business.
How to create an Instagram Story
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Press the plus icon at the top righthand corner of the Instagram app
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Choose “story” from the dropdown menu
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Select a photo or video from your camera role or take a new photo or video
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Add text, stickers, emojis, and more — anything that makes your content pop
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And that’s it! You can post away.
Instagram Story strategies
Our marketing experts at Creative Coco’Nuts are here to help you craft Instagram content that will best engage your followers. Our team can also give you all the information and the templates you need to start creating your own content.
Here are a few ideas to get you started with Instagram Stories.
Behind the scenes
Instagram Stories are a great way to give your followers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the workings of your business.
This holiday season, show your followers around your decorated office, or show them shots of your secret Santa exchanges.
For year-round content, you can include photos and videos of new product packaging, team meetings, or new products.
Giving your followers a glimpse behind the scenes will help them get to know your brand and also convey a more personable side to your business.
Announcements
Instagram Stories are a great place to make announcements about new products, giveaways, and more.
Including important information in your Stories will encourage your followers to keep checking back with your content.
Polls
Polls are a great way to hear from your customers while also engaging them with interactive material. Use polls for customer feedback or even to learn more about your customer base.
Ask a question — serious or humorous — or quiz your audience on trivia related to your brand.
Instagram polls encourage your audience to interact with your brand and engage in real conversation. Polls can even create brand loyalty.
Questions
Use the questions feature to allow your audience to ask any questions they have about your brand or your industry.
This shows that you care about your customers’ opinions.
As well, showing a willingness to answer questions about your business or industry demonstrates a transparency that customers appreciate in a business.
Add a hashtag
Hashtags increase the reach of your story. Include a hashtag sticker by tapping the sticker icon at the top right of the screen, or simply type a # symbol.
This way, people who search content by hashtags will be able to see your content.
You can add up to 10 hashtags to your story.
Add a location
By tagging the location of your brick and mortar store, potential customers will be able to find you much easier.
Adding a location also expands the reach of your post and adds legitimacy to your content.
Story highlights
Story highlights are Instagram Story segments that never disappear. This means they are a valuable tool that can be used as an extension of your bio to give customers more information about your brand.
Include a segment on new products, your stores, and any other material you want to highlight.
Use attention grabbing covers to keep your audience engaged!
Don’t forget to track your progress
Instagram Insights is an important tool to use with your social media marketing. It keeps track of likes, views, and gives you a sense of how well your content is resonating with your audience.
Our marketing experts can help you make sense of the data and optimize your Instagram content so that your social media does the hard work for you, especially when it comes to converting customers.
Instagram Stories can raise the profile of your business and grow engagement with your customer base, but you need the right content. Contact our social media marketing experts at Creative Coco’Nuts today to get started!
