Instagram stories are 24-hour-only posts that appear in the avatar icon on an Instagram profile; they're a fun, engaging, and snappy way to present content while also increasing brand awareness.
Used effectively, Instagram’s stories can be instrumental in boosting your businesses engagement rate and, in turn, sales. Let’s walk through some of the best ways to use this feature to your advantage:
Post content from behind-the-scenes. Show your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your company and a regular day at the office. Show off a behind-the-scenes look at what happens on a daily basis - what is your team working on right now? Your followers will be interested to see the inner workings of your operation! Let your audience in on the show by sharing the creative process behind what you do.
Keep it brief and to the point. Keep in mind that you can only use photos for as long as they add meaning to the knowledge you're providing - you don't want to go overboard. You don't want to be adding new photos to your feeds every five minutes if you already have thousands of followers. Instead, concentrate on high-quality photos that are relevant to the subject, and share them with those who may be following your account.
Make use of story links. For certain companies, links may be the most important story element. Unfortunately, it’s worth noting that access is limited to business accounts with 10,000 or more followers. Once you’ve surpassed this figure, you can add direct links to your website or landing page from your story using this tool. All viewers have to do is swipe up and they'll be taken to your link. In a world where distractions abound and attention spans are shortening, this is extremely useful. If you already have a 10K+ follower account, you can start using this feature right away. If not, it's a goal to strive for.
Make Brand Announcements or Push Promotions. You can also play with various types of graphics and visual content to see which ones have the most effect on your posts. Make sure that your announcements are easy to read and that they are written in a way that invites engagement when you post them. It is not necessary to provide lengthy introductions and explanations; the point is to allow users to participate.
Use Stickers! Stickers are a fun way to spice up your stories and can be added after you've taken a picture or video by pressing the square smiley face button in the top right corner of your screen. There are stickers for every occasion, and new ones are being added all the time. They can easily be resized and put anywhere in your story once you've chosen one, and since the hashtag and location stickers you use on stories are searchable, they're great for exposing your content to new potential audience members. Poll stickers are also a perfect way to get your fans to interact with you.
Story Takeovers. What exactly is a takeover? Simply put, it's when one brand takes over the account of another for a specified period of time. You will significantly improve your company's visibility by hosting a takeover with a well-known influencer. Taking over another brand's tale, on the other hand, can be quite powerful.
Keep an eye on your analytics. Instagram Stories provides a few simple metrics for company profiles to analyse and improve. KPIs include reach, impressions, taps, replies and, maybe most important of all: swipe away (allowing you to see how many people have skipped over your content). You will learn a lot about your audience and the success of your social media campaign for Instagram stories by monitoring your analytics - in fact, some businesses find that hiring digital marketing experts to review their analytics can be the most effective way to improve these key metrics.