Photo Credit: oursocialtimes.com
Instagram continues to be one of the top social media networks today. Since its launch in 2010, it has already hit the 1 billion users milestone earlier this year. More users, including brands or marketers, are taking advantage of this photo and video-sharing network since it started Instagram Stories in August 2016.
With this Instagram feature, businesses like yours have a greater opportunity to reach a wider audience and increase online presence. Here are some key things you need to know about Instagram Stories if you’re looking to include it in your social media marketing strategy:
Steps to Creating “Your Story”
- Open the Instagram app and tap the plus button on the top of the screen. You can also swipe right from the main screen to quickly launch Your Story.
- You can choose from the different post features or modes at the bottom of the screen. Aside from Normal (default mode), there’s Live, Type, Boomerang, Focus, Superzoom, Rewind, and Hands-free.
- You can also use the editing tools, filters, and add text and emojis.
- Tap the circle button to take a picture or video.
- Tap on the plus icon at the bottom once you’re ready to post or you can save it first and post later.
* Instagram Stories also allows you to access your Camera Roll and post a photo or video you’ve taken the last 24 hours.
Accessing Viewers and Stats
Although Instagram stories will be visible for only 24 hours, there’s a good side to it. If you would consider posting regular Instagram posts the time when your followers are most active, Your Story will be at the top of your followers’ feeds for 24 hours. So even if you post it when they’re not using Instagram, they will easily see Your Story when they become active again during the 24-hour period.
You will also be able to see who viewed Your Story by clicking the eyeball icon. Through these stats or analytics, you’ll know who your frequent viewers are and have the chance to check out their profiles. This helps boost engagement and improve your personalization strategy for your followers or customers.
Adding Location and Hashtags
Instagram Stories’ location function and hashtag stickers are fun and very useful, too! Through the Explore Page, Your Story can be searched by location and hashtag. This means any Instagram user, not only your followers, can search for and view your stories. It’s a great tool to increase your discoverability.
Inserting Links and Tagging
Adding links to content is an effective tactic for increasing traffic and sales. Instagram now allows you to add links to your stories to reach those goals. You can also tag other accounts or businesses in your stories, which is a great strategy to attract new followers and increase engagement, especially when you’re running contests or influencer campaigns.
Using Interactive Stickers and Sliders
Interactive poll and question stickers and emoji sliders are new Instagram Stories features, and it’s not surprising that more businesses are optimizing them. Through these features, you can get your followers’ feedbacks about your product or brand in general, ask for their ideas, and entertain them. In other words, these features help boost audience engagement, which is great for your business.
Social media has again proven to be a powerful tool through Instagram Stories. This promising and innovative feature makes business promotion more entertaining. Use it to your advantage to grow your business.
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Thanks a lot for this. Awesome content.
Great article, Myan! Very cool.