Optimizing the use of social media and their plethora of features is important for any business. Online marketers should know the trend of all of the available social platforms and must know how to navigate their way to success using these tools.
Instagram, for example, has many features that businesses could explore. Posting a photo alone is already an excellent way to expose your brand. How much more if you can add more photos?
But IG Story is different. Instead of multiple photos which your user can simply swipe left, a story is timed and viewable for only a few seconds.
This actually can entice more Instagram users to follow your brand’s account, but only when it’s done right.
Here are a few tips you can use for to help boost your business using Instagram Stories.
Set your IG stories settings.
Different settings work for different businesses. Set your stories settings according to how you want it.
From who can view your IG stories, up to the option of allowing people to save your stories. If you’re handling a business account, you can also opt for Instagram Insights and see important metrics of your post.
This will let you know how your stories and doing and which posts on your IG stories are being received well by your target audience.
Tag accounts and add hashtags.
IG Story has a text tool which does not only allow you to add text, but also tag and account or add hashtags.
Maximize this feature by tagging related accounts especially when your post features your brand ambassador or a partner brand.
Adding hashtags also works like when you add them to your captions. Creating a series of stories for your event? Include a hashtag so it’d be easier for your followers to track and see other related posts.
Including a hashtag on your story will also make your post visible to users who are following that hashtag even if they don’t follow you.
These features help increase your reach and, hopefully, entice others to follow you, too.
Add stickers, doodles, etc.
Add a touch of fun to your every post by using stickers or doodles on them.
You can use location, time, and even temperature stickers on your post when needed. Or simply some fun emojis to add life to your post.
If you’re confident with doodling, you can use the pen tool and add some personal touch to your post. And if you don’t like what you just did, worry not! You have an eraser for that and start all over.
Tell a story.
More than the aesthetics that IG stories can offer, an effective Instagram strategy for your business would rely mostly on your content.
Notice that an IG story lasts for only a few seconds and would only stay on your feed for 24 hours. But this doesn’t mean that it’s only for a short-term, spur-of-the-moment strategy.
When you craft your content, make sure it doesn’t have too much going on in the picture or video. Remember, you only have a few seconds of your audience’s attention. But the beauty of IG stories is that you can add more content. Which means you can create multiple stories to tell one whole story.
Just imagine a collage, only that this one would move from one screen to another!
