Top 7 Tips for Making Your Instagram Stories Stand Out
Posting a story on Instagram is one of the most convenient things you can do. With only three touches, you may record a video or take a photo, and then post it right away to your social network page.
Particularly because Stories are frequently viewed as the unpolished antithesis to many users’ manicured Instagram feeds on the social media platform.
Instagram Stories, however, are more complicated than they appear. Correct usage of these platforms can help you establish relationships with your followers, drive traffic, and show off your life to the people you care about.
Stories, on the other hand, can rapidly devolve into grating, tedious monologues that are incomprehensible to anybody but the author. Use these Instagram Stories techniques to make your posts stand out above the rest.
What Are Instagram Stories?
Here’s all you need to know about Facebook and Instagram’s Stories feature, which was first introduced by Snapchat and has since been adopted by the two social media giants. Instagram stories are a series of images and videos that appear in chronological order on your Instagram profile for a period of 24 hours and may be seen by anyone who follows you. The article is gone after 24 hours.
Instagram Stories serve several functions. The narrative behind an outstanding Instagram photo may be told, insider knowledge about a promotion provided, or a fun method to highlight an event in your life that doesn’t merit a formal post can be shared.
Posting a story is straightforward: open Instagram, and tap the camera icon in the top left. Take a photo, and hit Send To, then press Share next to the contact labelled “Your Story”.
Of course, there’s a whole lot more to know, including Instagram mistakes you should avoid making.
1. Post Quality Photos and Videos
Despite the fact that this Instagram Story tip may seem obvious, many Instagram users fail to take use of it. Unlike Instagram posts, Instagram stories are less structured, allowing users to upload unedited images or videos that feel more conversational.
However, if you are looking for social media success, everything you post needs to be worth your audience’s attention.
Here’s a quick checklist:
Also, just because you can publish as many photographs or videos as you want doesn’t mean you should. Your narrative should be no more than two or three minutes long. A longer discussion is best suited to a blog post or YouTube video.
2. Give Context for Your Instagram Stories
One of the biggest mistakes Instagram users make is posting stories that don’t make any sense. But, you also don’t want to spend your time typing out lengthy explanations that no one will read, or offering voice-overs that no one will listen to.
Instead, Instagram offers simple stickers (found in the top right of the photo-editing screen) for each image or video. Use these stickers to identify your location, provide a timestamp, tag the people you’re with, or add a relevant hashtag.
Paired with a sentence or two on Instagram Stories’ “Type” screen (swipe all the way left after opening the Stories camera), your story will make sense to everyone who views it.
3. Be Interesting
Instagram provides a lot of cool features for Stories. Because Instagram Stories are meant to reflect a more personal (and entertaining!) side of your social media, you should use them whenever feasible!
Great Instagram Stories features include:
- Taking and sharing Boomerangs
- A Focus filter that ensures your face stands out from the background
- A “Superzoom” filter that can be paired with different sound clips (including “bounce”, “TV show”, “dramatic”, and “beats”) to help emphasise an essential item or person in your story
- Playing a video in rewind
- A “Hands-Free” mode that lets you take video clips without holding down the shutter button
- A “Stop Motion” mode that lets you create short, looping videos out of still photos
- Your choice of a changing selection of live filters (press and hold on someone’s face or tap on the smiley face at the bottom right of the screen) that can give you silly accessories, distort your face in funny ways, or even work some Photoshop magic
- A wide variety of stickers, GIFs, and emojis that you can add anywhere on your image/video
Have fun exploring these Instagram Stories tricks to make your Instagram Stories stand out from the crowd.
4. Ask Questions on Instagram Stories
One easy way to get viewers invested in your Instagram Story is to ask them to share their opinion. Instagram offers two easy tools to get input from the people watching your story.
First, you can choose to create a poll. Simply select the “Poll” sticker, type in your question, and then enter two options for viewers to choose between. As people select either option, the poll will continuously update its percentage.
Want something a little less polarising? Choose the slider sticker instead. You can customise both the question you ask and the sticker you use to label the slider. Viewers can then drag the slider to the intensity of their reaction to your question.
5. Cultivate a Community on Instagram
One disadvantage of Instagram Stories is that your followers can’t openly reply to your postings. While the above polls and sliders are amusing, they don’t allow for much subtlety. Many popular Instagram accounts solve this flaw by sharing screenshots of intelligent direct message answers.
Build a community around your Instagram account with this tactic, but be mindful of your followers’ privacy. When in doubt, ask before you tag or reveal identifiable information in a screenshot. You may also use the marker tool to erase any identifying information.
6. Think Outside the Box
Instagram has a ton of great features that are native to the app. But you can also add to your stories any photos (or screenshots of photos) that you’ve saved to your phone over the last 24 hours. This feature opens up a world of possibilities, especially when paired with awesome third-party Instagram apps.
Instagram Stories are only limited by your imagination and your audience’s attention span. Third-party applications and editing tools may help you create whatever impact you desire with tales.
7. Branch Out
Instagram Stories, although they may seem gimmicky at first, are a great method to reach followers. Whether you’re marketing a brand, starting a company, or just posting what you had for breakfast, it’s critical to utilise Instagram Stories to connect viewers to your other social media profiles.
Don’t be afraid to direct viewers to other social media accounts through your Stories.
For example, after showing a behind-the-scenes interview, you can ask viewers to go view the final product on YouTube, enter a contest on your blog, or visit a specific site with a coupon code.
If you have over 10,000 followers (or are a verified account), you can even include a link directly in your story. If you have fewer followers than that, you can always use the old “link in bio” trick!
Instagram Stories are also crucial for promoting other accounts that you enjoy, building hype for a promotion, or helping viewers to feel more connected to you as an individual.
What’s Your Instagram Story?
One of the most important recent changes in social media has been the use of stories on sites such as Instagram and Snapchat. Their adaptability is essential to this—the way you tell your tales may be totally different from anybody else’s. That being said, it is critical to ensure that what you are doing is effective. Keep track of who is watching your Instagram Story and modify your tactics as necessary until you reach the audience you want to target!