Is expanding your online following and customer base a priority for your company? If that’s the case, Instagram Story may be a good fit for you. To share photos and videos with your followers that disappear after 24 hours, you can use the Instagram Story feature. Having meaningful conversations with your target demographic can be an excellent way to develop lasting relationships with them.
Instagram Stories are also a fantastic tool for promoting your company and its wares. If you want to see results from your Instagram Story posts, they should be both interesting and engaging. The use of hashtags and tagging other users in your posts is also highly recommended.
The Importance of Instagram Stories and Why They Should Be Shared
Why Your Instagram Story Matters
In a world where we naturally skip over many ads (“Skip Ads” on YouTube) and pay to not sell (Spotify Premium), Instagram stories can save us money.
It’s like a conveyor belt for consumption. You ride it without meaning to when you click on a friend’s photo of their dinner. Before you knew it, you had gone through 30 Instagram stories, seen 5 ads, swiped up to see a link from an influencer’s closet, and were in the last 20 minutes of your life. Most likely, you have no idea where the minute went.
When you get on the conveyor belt, it’s hard to get off.
Instagram Business Insights shows how many people clicked from one story to the next and how many people left the line. If you look at the insights of a typical Instagram user, you’ll see that 80% of Instagram stories are “tapped” instead of “finished,” which shows that people want to keep riding.
Because of this, Instagram Story is a great place to do business. You can’t believe it, right? So, without further ado,
Here are 14 things you can do with Instagram Stories right now that won’t cause you any trouble. You can raise the profile of your brand, get people interested, and get more customers.
Public statements and news
The Instagram Story is ready to use and is a great way to share company news like new products, new employees, and general updates.
This is a great time to share behind-the-scenes footage of your business, but it may not be worth posting on your main profile. Your followers will feel like they know what’s going on and will learn more about you and the business. You can make your Instagram story more interesting for your followers by adding more than one photo to it.
Personal insights can be about anything, from how to package a new product to how to trick a coworker. They show the human side of your business and make people more interested in your brand.
Team up or work together
Instagram stories are a great way for influencers and brands to work together.
You can work with businesses that are similar to yours and that your followers might find useful, or you can work with clients who are also influencers. This made both companies more well-known, and they seemed to enjoy making it.
Just a warning: some of these kinds of partnerships can pay off, especially if they involve influencers. Still, Instagram Story gives you a lot of ways to work together. So consider how it can help your business.
Highlights from Instagram Story
Since Instagram story highlights came out in December 2017, there have been a lot of changes.
Normal users can use these as “best of” clips for their own show reels. For brands, though, being able to pin the story to the top of the profile basically makes the bio longer.
As a business, you can use highlights to tell people who visit your page who you are, what you do, and why you do it. You can also use highlights to tell people about your products and services. To make a highlight story, make your Instagram page look like a pamphlet with an interesting cover.
Putting up Polls
Customer surveys are now a thing of the past. Just tap to get an answer. Voting in Instagram stories is a great way to get your followers to interact with you. You can use it to find out about the market, get customer feedback, or get to know your audience and have fun with them. There are a lot of different ways to vote, and you can make campaigns that are unique to your brand or audience.
We think there will be even more brand-customer interactions in this story in 2023! Instagram keeps adding new features that help people talk to each other and stay loyal to the brand. Let’s get to the next thought.
Q&A (Questions)
With question stickers, brands can encourage their audience to ask tough questions or come up with their own.
This is a great way to build communities and make it easier for customers to talk to each other. The brand positions itself as trustworthy, human, and friendly by showing that they care about the customer’s opinion and are there to answer questions. Then it leads to customers sticking with you!
Slider for Reactions
A funny addition to Instagram Stories that lets people respond to what you post in your stories.
All interactions on Instagram Stories go back to the rules that say how specific content needs to be and how engaged customers need to be with it. So, response sliders are a great way for brands to increase the number of people who interact with them.
Most of the time, manufacturers look at this choice to see how much their target audience likes a product.
Countdown
Countdown stickers, which are new to Instagram stories, are a great way for brands to promote sales, contests, and other news.
Users can set reminders for the countdown period, and brands get this information so they know exactly how many (and which) of their audience are most engaged.
Linking or Links
At the moment, this feature is only available to accounts with 10,000 followers or more.
If you work for one of these lucky companies, you can add links to your Instagram story.
You already know that Instagram only lets links work in the bio (trying to keep the app working). Including the link in the story is a big plus for that reason. When someone clicks on the link, they are taken to Instagram’s browser. Pick up where you left off when you leave. Use this to your advantage by making sure your story has a clear subpoena. You can choose “Buy Now,” “Start Free Trial,” “Book Today,” or “Grab the Deal NOW.”
Templates
You might have noticed that influencers and brands that were popular last year used story templates in their Instagram Stories. These are well-made forms that users can look over and fill out, mostly so that their followers can get to know them. Brands should join here because it’s a great chance! Think about who you want to reach and what they like to do. Then, make a template for a branded story that you can fill out and share. Also, fill it out yourself, because it’s a great way to tell your followers more about your business and how it works.
Stickers for places
Instagram is all about making connections and bringing people together over things they have in common. By tagging places in your Instagram Stories, you can make them easier to find.
They will learn about the professional history of that place, which means that people who don’t follow you will be able to follow them. It’s such a quick and easy trick that you can use to get more attention for your stories.
Hashtag Stickers
The same thing happens when hashtags are used in Instagram Stories. It means that if you use that hashtag, your story could be linked to a bigger one (that turned into a mouthful).
You can do research to find out which hashtags your audience and competitors use the most, and then use those hashtags in your stories!
Stickers with “New Post”
Because of how the Instagram algorithm works now, how long it takes for a post to get engagement is important. Because of this, more and more Instagram users are starting to show off their latest posts in their stories, usually by blocking thumbnails and making people click on their profile to see them. Users with more than 10,000 followers can use CTA to link to posts and “swipe up to like” to engage higher and faster. This trick must work for a lot of accounts that are using it right now, so try it on your business Instagram.
Give-aways or Contests
Do you know of a great thing or service that you could give as a gift? Hold a contest on the Instagram story for your brand and make a big splash! The good thing about tests is that you can only take them for 24 hours a day. This can make your followers feel like they need to act quickly. Take a picture or photo of the prize and write down how to win it. Please respond to this story using the email address you put in. After the contest is over, you can gather all the information and pick the winner at random.
You can also use Instagram stories to promote contests on your main profile. Because of how the algorithms work now, it’s possible that many followers won’t be able to see posts about free gifts. Use the story to let your followers know about it and encourage them to get involved. Hashtags like #giveaway, #contest, and #competition make it easier for people who don’t follow you to find your story and help you reach more people.
LIVE Sessions
Businesses can get more people to interact with them by using Instagram Live. Be ready to tell your followers about it and to promote it in other places.
The more people who watch your live video and interact with it, the more likely it is that it will show up on the Discover page under Top Live. So, try to get as many people as possible to help. This gives you and your coworkers time to plan what to do and say during the live stream.
- If you want to know what your business can do with Live, there are a lot of options. Many brands use Live to show off new products and features, record events, interview movie stars, hold Q&A sessions with their followers, or offer discounts for a limited time.
- Instagram is trying to make live streaming the next big thing, so telling your followers that you’ve started a live stream will help you promote Instagram. At the top of the story bar, there is also a live video. So when you get on the story conveyor, your video is the first thing that people see.
- So, now that we’ve looked at all 14 ways to use Instagram Stories to get more followers and grow your online business, we can come to the following conclusion:
- Every day, Instagram Stories’ conveyor belts reach more than 300 million people, and it’s easy to use them as part of your social media marketing plan. With a short, easy-to-read story, you can show how great your business and products or services are.
Conclusion
In conclusion, using Instagram stories is a great way to build your online business and get more followers. You can use them to show behind-the-scenes footage of your business, give sneak peeks of new products or services, or even give followers a tour of your office or manufacturing facility.
You can build a strong, loyal following that will help your business grow if you come up with creative ways to keep your followers interested.
