How does viewers on instagram story work


Instagram Story Viewer: All You Need To Know

Since its inception, Instagram has never stopped surprising us.

While the world continues to fight through challenging times, Instagram constantly adds and removes features faster than ever to its Story section to help creators and brands grow on the platform.

Popularly known as Instagram Story viewers, brands have been able to find their ideal target audience in those who view their Stories actively.

When Instagram launched Stories in 2016, it changed the way users view and interact with content on the photo-sharing platform - while prompting an entirely new question about who is viewing it the most. This is because those who view your Stories are the ones who follow you and are eager to check what's up with you.

This blog post has all that you need to know about Instagram Story viewers and how this feature of Instagram can be leveraged for the betterment of a business. Let's get started!

  • Major Instagram Story Updates In 2021
  • What Is An Instagram Story Viewer?
  • Instagram Story Viewer Order
  • Instagram Highlight Viewer
  • 7 Hacks To Expand Your Instagram Story Viewers Reach

You can directly jump to a section of your choice or keep scrolling.

Major Instagram Story Updates In 2021

Stories are one of the most popular features of Instagram. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri has announced significant updates to Instagram's Stories feature in response to the user feedback. Instagram aims to improve the user experience by introducing these features. Here's a quick rundown of the recent Instagram Story updates.

Update #1: Instagram Introduces "Add Yours" Sticker

After testing in Japan and Indonesia, Instagram just launched the Add Yours sticker globally. It's a new sticker that creates a public thread within Stories.

It's an interactive sticker that is perfect for creating viral content chains through Stories, making it a huge opportunity for community engagement.

It allows users to respond to other users' Stories with their own by following a prompt or a specific topic. This way, a content chain gets created where each user adds their own Story.

After testing in Japan and Indonesia, we just launched the Add Yours sticker globally – a new sticker that creates a public thread in Stories.

Have already seen some really fun prompts out there that are bringing people together. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/nz9QH9HlBx

— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) November 1, 2021

Update #2: Instagram Story Link Sticker Replaces Swipe Up Feature

Earlier, the Swipe-up feature allowed businesses and creators to add a link to their Stories. Story viewers could open the link by swiping up on the Story or by clicking on "See More" at the bottom of the Story.

However, Instagram announced that Link Stickers will now replace the Swipe-up feature in Stories. Story viewers can open the link by tapping on the sticker.

Instagram says that sticker has three significant advantages over the Swipe-up feature:

  • Stickers are more popular and familiar with users who already use them for music, questions, locations, polls, etc.
  • Stickers allow for more creative control over how your Story looks than swipe-up links did.
  • Most importantly, stickers enable viewers to engage with a Story, whereas the swipe-up feature didn't allow replies or reactions.

Today, we’re launching the new Link Sticker 🔗 globally. This allows anyone, regardless of follower count, to easily share links in a story.

We’ve received a lot of feedback over the years on limiting links to accounts with >10k followers, and we heard you, 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/uhJPXLscVo

— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) October 27, 2021

Update #3: Regardless Of Follower Count, Every User Can Add Links To Instagram Stories

Swipe-Up feature was earlier available to business and creator accounts that were verified or had more than 10,000 followers. However, as of October 27th, Instagram announced that all users globally could add links and its predecessor, the Swipe-up feature, to Instagram Stories irrespective of their following.

Today, we’re launching the new Link Sticker 🔗 globally. This allows anyone, regardless of follower count, to easily share links in a story.

We’ve received a lot of feedback over the years on limiting links to accounts with >10k followers, and we heard you, 🙏🏼 pic. twitter.com/uhJPXLscVo

— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) October 27, 2021

Update #4: Instagram Testing A 60-Second Limit For Stories

As Instagram aims to expand its video formats, this development seems like a stepping stone in their journey to keep people engaging with the platform.

Instagram Stories are currently of 15 seconds segment. The developer and social media researcher, Alessandro Paluzz, spotted that Instagram Stories are being tested for a longer duration for as long as 60 seconds.

#Instagram is working on longer stories 👀

ℹ️ Videos up to 60 seconds will no longer be broken up into segments. pic.twitter.com/FihDOTymEL

— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) October 19, 2021

What Is An Instagram Story Viewer?

Instagram Stories are a terrific way to get more exposure and generate views. It's become a fantastic way for businesses to run their visual marketing campaigns, boost follower engagement, and tell stories.

People put out content on social media and give a glimpse into their lives with the intention to have some sort of impact. Hence it shouldn't be surprising that some users actually want to know whether what they posted really had an impact and if there's a method behind the story-views madness.

Instagram Stories actually overtook Snapchat in audience size and have grown to over 500 million daily active users today.

What started as a picture-sharing app has now become a crazy online business tool. Influencers, entrepreneurs, and even multi-billion brands use Instagram to engage with their target audience and get new customers.

People have begun to use Instagram Story viewer feature as a method of measurement. They have started to be strategically intentional about how they post Stories. When Instagram provides a list of people viewing your Stories, its order is not randomized. There's a well-thought strategy behind that order that people have tried to decode and wondered what it meant for their Instagram growth.

Can You See Who Views Your Instagram Story?

Yes.

Once your Instagram Story is up and live, you will start collecting views over the next 24 hours it's available. Unlike Instagram videos, which show a total view count and not the names of the individuals who viewed each video, Instagram Stories let you know exactly who has taken a look at your Stories.

But, you are the only one who can see the Instagram Story viewers list. There's no way to know how many times your Stories have been played back by a single viewer.

Can You See Who Views Your Instagram Story After 24 Hours?

Stories in your archive folder will show your viewers for the next 48 hours after posting your Stories. So if you wish to investigate who viewed your Stories, you will need to act quickly within 48 hours.

Set your account settings on Instagram to archive your Stories. Visit the horizontal three-dot icon from your Profile page to access your Archives section.

You can view who has seen your Stories up to 48 hours after you post them.

Instagram Story Viewer Order

The Instagram Story viewer order refers to the listing arrangement of the people who have seen a particular Story. The list and the order itself are more than just an ordinary queue of people who viewed your Story.

It gives creators an idea of who's most interested in their content. The Instagram Story viewers order isn't arranged chronologically; there's a well-thought-off algorithm behind the list.

Each Story that people see generates views. These views are arranged in an Instagram Story viewer list. To access this list:

Open the Instagram app and tap on your profile picture at the bottom right side to go to your profile.

Step 1: Tap in the top right and tap Archive.

Step 2: Scroll to the Story whose viewers you wish to check.

Step 3: Tap the Story. Swipe-up on the screen to see Instagram Story viewers.

Those who viewed your Stories will appear under "Seen by #. " The "Seen by #" label shows the total number of people who have seen your Story). Tap on "Seen by #" to open the Instagram Story viewers order list

How Does Instagram Sort Story Viewers?

Several Instagram users have experimented with their Stories to know how the viewers are sorted. Most of these experiments suggest that the viewers' list appears in reverse chronological order until your Story gets 50 views. Once your Story has crossed 50 views, Instagram starts sorting the list differently. It pushes the most interacting users with your account towards the top of the list.

A secret algorithm determines the way Instagram sorts the Story viewers. This algorithm considers the profile visits, likes, and comments to rank the viewers of a Story. The order of Story viewers is based on how your followers interact with your profile on the platform instead of how you engage with these profiles. This means those people who visit your profile the most appear at the top of the list.

What Does Instagram Story View Order Mean?

One of the most potent abilities Instagram offers is seeing the list of people who viewed your Stories.

This order is essential for marketers and businesses who rely on Instagram engagement.

Instagram Story viewers order indicates who is more interested in your content. The order of Instagram Story viewers can help you work on improving relationships with the right people. The Instagram Story viewers order provides valuable insights to help marketers leverage the platform for better conversion rates.

How To Take Advantage Of Instagram Story Viewers Order List?

Engage with viewers correctly. Use the order list as a guide on who to engage first among all your Story viewers and get them to interact even more with your content.

These steps will help creators and brands attract even more views to your Stories, make your account a focal point for many of your followers, and drive traffic to your account.

1. Engaging With Higher-Ranked Instagram Story Viewers

The Instagram Stories viewers order serves as a useful tool for creators and brands to determine who among their audiences are the most interested in their content. To fully take advantage of this order list, you should have a good strategy for interacting with those at the top of the list.

  • Determine the most engaged users by tracking those who show up constantly in your list as having viewed a Story.
  • Tag them in content related to Stories they have viewed.
  • Engage with them in conversations on Instagram in both public and private messages.

This strategy aims to bring your Instagram account to the top of their mind when they log in. Since they are already viewing your Stories, a little effort from your side can get them more engaged with your content. This will help you to move them down your sales pipeline or to your website more often.

2. Engaging With Lower-Ranked Instagram Story Viewers

Capturing the people's interest from the bottom of your Instagram Stories viewers order list is also vital for a creator or brand. When you notice people moving up in your list, it indicates their growing interest in your content and will help you deliver more quality content to them.

Profile view frequency is a significant factor for such viewers. Hence, creators need to get viewers moving from their Stories to their profile pages more often. One of the ways to do this is by including a sticker link to your profile in your Stories. This feature lets people head to your profile page or any other link you provide just by tapping on the link in the Story.

Add visual cues and calls to action around the link in your Story to entice viewers to tap on it and visit the profile.

Instagram Highlight Viewer

Instagram Highlights are very similar to Stories, except they are permanently embedded in your profile until you delete them.

Highlights appear on your profile just after your bio section, letting you present what your business is all about. Unlike Instagram Stories, Highlights don't get deleted after 24 hours, and they are more used as an organized repository of your Stories session. You can also edit them periodically to keep your profile fresh and exciting.

Knowledge of Instagram Highlight viewers will let you know when to change or delete them based on their performance. However, Highlight viewing counts and who viewed a particular highlight are limited to a 48-hour window. After that period, these stats are gone forever.

Here's how you can access the list of your Instagram Highlight viewers:

Step 1: Open your Instagram profile.

Step 2: Tap the icon of the Highlight you wish to view the viewers of.

Step 3: Tap on the "Seen by" button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to see the list of Instagram Highlight viewers.

7 Hacks To Expand Your Instagram Story Viewer Reach

While one should know how to make use of their Instagram Story viewer list and order, they should also take steps to increase that list. Here are the top hacks to expand your Instagram Story viewers’ reach organically.

Instagram Story Viewer Hack #1: Convert Your Stories To Highlights

When new people view your posts and Stories, they naturally navigate to your bio to find out more about your brand.

Greet your new profile visitors with a strong bio and engaging Story Highlights that introduce your brand to newcomers. This will help you build a more significant following and expand the reach of your Stories and profile.

Image Source: Statusbrew Instagram

Instagram Story Viewer Hack #2: Create High-Quality Content

Instagram ensures that all the new content is reaching its intended audience at the right time. However, this change in its algorithm has stirred up competition on the platform. While more and more people try to hack and crack the Instagram algorithm, creating quality content remains at the core of a successful strategy.

Instead of spamming your followers' feeds for random views, create engaging content to build a long-lasting relationship with your followers. Instagram prioritizes the best and the most relevant content. Your content should be relevant to your audience and persuade them to comment, like, view, save and share what you put out. The more your followers engage with your content; the more your Stories will be easily accessible on their feed.

Instagram Story Viewer Hack #3: Post Stories Consistently

You should know that your Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours unless you add them in the Highlights section. If you don't post Stories after 24 hours, your profile will disappear from the Stories feed of your followers. To keep your profile active in your follower's Story feed, it's recommended to keep posting Stories consistently.

The most recent Stories on your follower's feed are shown closer to the user's profile logo. Hence, it's advisable to post Stories in different slots rather than post all at once to keep your Stories at the top of your followers' feeds.

Image Source: Convince & Convert

If you want to be consistent with your posting efforts and don't want to miss a single slot, it's better to create and schedule Stories in advance. Statusbrew allows users to create and schedule Stories for Instagram Business Accounts both from the web and mobile apps. And not just Stories; you can even schedule Instagram posts & manage your entire Instagram presence from a single dashboard.

Try Statusbrew

Instagram Story Viewer Hack #4: Ask Questions Using Instagram Polls And Question Stickers

Don't just use polls on your Stories, but make your polls such that everybody can participate.

Questions instigate more people to engage with your Story, telling Instagram that you are a viral content creator, and people want to see more of your stuff.

Ask the right questions using the Instagram Story question box in a way that fosters engagement. To get more people to pay attention to your Stories, give people an opportunity to talk about themselves rather than just asking about your brand, products, and services.

Instagram Story Viewer Hack #5: Use Location Stickers And Geotagging

Location stickers and geotagging are powerful ways to increase your following and drive users to your physical location. Location stickers allow you to tag an address or physical location in your Story.

Instagram location Stories make your Story discoverable under the location tag search to new users. Instagram location Stories are an excellent way to get local exposure for your brand on Instagram. This is excellent for brands with brick-and-mortar locations or those trying to target the audience of a specific area.

Image Source: Hopper

Instagram Story Viewer Hack #6: Edit Photos And Videos Before Sharing In Stories

Add proper effects to images and videos before adding them to your Stories. Making these edits won't take much time as it is done within the app before posting the Stories.

The editing feature is one of the valuable elements that can attract many users to your Instagram Story. Instagram allows you to use AR filters, templates, emojis, stickers, and various other options to enhance your Stories.

Proper editing can make your Stories more unique, attractive, or interesting. These editing options can make your displayed products stand out on Instagram for a better visual and interactive effect. Also, Instagram algorithms like it when you make use of the available features in your Stories rather than posting blank ones.

Instagram Story Viewer Hack #7: Post At The Best Time & Schedule Stories In Advance

It goes without saying that knowing your audience's social habits will get the highest possible engagement for your Stories. The hours before work, lunch breaks, and late afternoons hours will bring you the most views.

While people prefer to post more Stories during the weekend, they are less likely to go through others' Stories at that time. This results in the generation of plenty of Stories and a few of them getting their viewership during the weekend.

The best day to post Instagram Stories is during the weekdays. Avoid the hours when people are busy working or sleeping. 7 to 9 PM is usually a good choice since people are not working and are relaxing from their day.

Statusbrew's Reports Lab extracts your best time to post according to your requirement

After you know your best posting times, all you need to do is ensure that you put them out at those times. A roadblock here would be shifting to different platforms to find your best time and then schedule it to post consistently.

By using the same platform to calculate your best time to post and schedules Stories only during peak hours will make avoid any human error in social media calender.

Statusbrew is a multi-purpose platform that ensures your Instagram profile is updated regularly and that none of the time slots miss out.

Want to discuss more? Snag a free trial today!

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Statusbrew is an all in one social media management tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and even Google My Business.

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  • Social Media Engagement
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How Does Instagram Sort Story Viewers in 2023?

Instagram is more than just a photo and video-sharing platform; it’s a social platform. You’re not just posting into the void. You’re engaging with other users and interacting with them. If you’re like most people, you want to see who’s been stalking your Instagram story. So you go to your story and click on the list of viewers. Suddenly, you’ll see a list that will probably include several familiar faces.

But how exactly does Instagram’s spooky algorithm decide how your story viewers are sorted? The short answer is that it’s super-secret. Instagram isn’t telling anyone, and for good reason. If someone knew Instagram’s algorithm inside and out, they could create a bot to exploit it. That said, we still have a general idea of how it works. Here’s everything you need to know about Instagram story viewers in 2022.

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What Are Instagram Stories?

Instagram first rolled out the story in 2016, and it’s become an incredibly popular feature. Every day, more than 500 million people update their Instagram story. That’s an insane number, and it goes to show just how much people love to post them. But even more people view stories than post them. In other words, any given story will likely have multiple viewers.

Since then, Meta has introduced the story feature on their two other platforms: Facebook and WhatsApp. Stories are pretty much the same on all three services, with similar features. Among those features is the ability to see who viewed your story. This makes stories different from posts, where you can’t see who viewed them. With a post, you’ll only see if someone liked, commented, or otherwise interacted with it.

When you look at who viewed your story, the list will be ordered in a certain way. How does that work?

Recency vs. Engagement

If you’re like most people, you probably assume your story viewers list is sorted chronologically. You’d see the most recent viewer at the top, followed by the second-most recent viewer, and so on. All the way at the bottom, you’d see the first person to view your story.

In fact, this reverse chronological order is exactly how it works, at least until you have over 50 viewers. But at that point, you’re already looking at a fairly long list that likely includes a bunch of strangers. If you were trying to find a particular person, it would be difficult to do so. Instead, Instagram switches things up once your story gets its 51st view.

At that point, the Instagram algorithm kicks in. Instagram is all about engagement, and they want to show you the people you’re most interested in. Furthermore, most people never scroll past the top few story viewers on the list. To drive engagement, Instagram will populate those spots with the people you’re most interested in.

How does Instagram know this? It’s a trade secret, and they’re not telling. But it seems to be related to how much you and the other person have interacted with each other. If someone is a stranger and has never interacted with you before, they’ll be near the bottom of the list.

Outside Interactions

Remember, Instagram doesn’t stand alone as a social media service. While it’s possible to have only an Instagram account, Instagram strongly encourages users to sign up for Facebook. Many Instagram users are also on WhatsApp, and all three of these companies are owned by Meta.

As a result, Instagram has access to your interactions on Facebook and WhatsApp. If you’re friends with somebody on one of those services, Instagram takes those interactions into account. Maybe you haven’t interacted with them much on Instagram. But if you’re constantly commenting on each-others’ Facebook accounts, they’ll show up higher in your story viewers list.

Once again, this is done with the intention of boosting engagement and connecting you with real friends. Instagram wants you to see the people you’re most interested in.

Along those lines, think twice if you can’t find someone you interact with a lot. They may not have seen your story because their account was temporarily or permanently deleted. See if you can find your most recent chat with them in your DMs. If their name has been changed to “Instagram User,” their account has probably been deleted.

Instagram Story View Order Myths

As we’ve discussed, your story viewers are sometimes ordered in reverse chronological order. But when you have more than 50 views, the order changes. This, combined with Instagram’s secrecy about their algorithm, has led to a number of myths. Here are two of the most common ones.

People at the top have viewed your story multiple times

This myth is all over the internet, and it makes intuitive sense. Someone views your story, then falls down the list as more people view it. That same person views your story again and comes back to the top. Unfortunately, this is completely false. Someone may rise higher if they’ve viewed your story a lot in the past. But that’s only one measure of engagement.

The people on top of the list are stalking you

Some people say that when someone views your story but doesn’t interact, they come to the top. That’s 100% false. If anything, they’d rise higher by liking or sharing, because that’s a form of engagement. But once again, these are just a couple measures of how often you engage.

If you’re trying to view someone else’s story and can’t find it, they may never have accepted your follow request. Or, maybe you forgot to request to follow them in the first place. If you’re not sure, check out our guide on how to see who you requested to follow on Instagram.

Do Instagram Story View Orders Matter?

It depends. If you’re an individual, story view order doesn’t really matter. It’s mostly a matter of personal interest and finding people who viewed your story. But we can’t think of a reason why story view order would be important for your personal life.

That said, you might be an influencer, or you might be running an Instagram account for your business. In those situations, story view order can be very important, but not in the way you might think. In point of fact, it doesn’t matter what order people viewed your story in. So keeping track of the first 50 views is pointless.

But once you exceed 50 views, things change. Remember what we said about driving engagement? Well, the people at the top of your views list will be the ones Instagram thinks are most likely to engage. Basically, you can look at those peoples profiles to get a profile for your most engaged followers.

Can an Instagram Bot Help?

Many people use bots called mass story viewers to view as many stories as possible. The idea is simple enough. By viewing a bunch of people’s stories, you show up in their viewers lists. This can expose you to people who otherwise never would have found your page. There are a couple of caveats to this.

To begin with, mass story viewing only really works for exposing yourself to smaller accounts. Remember, once a story gets 50 views, the algorithm kicks in. If someone hasn’t followed you, you’ll be way down at the bottom of their viewers list. It doesn’t matter how influential they are if they never see that they viewed your story. If you view stories from less well-followed pages, you may end up at the top.

Another issue is that mass story viewers may or may not work. They’re technically a type of bot, so you won’t get them from a reputable source. When you pay for one, you’re just trusting some random stranger that their software will work. If you must use a story viewer, do lots of research and find out what previous users are saying.

Finally, the use of bots is against Instagram’s terms of service. If you get caught using one, you can get a lifetime ban. Obviously you can create a new account with a new email address. But you’ll have to start over from square one with zero followers.

The Same Person Is Always at the Bottom of my Story Views – Why?

We’ve talked a lot about the people at the top of your story views. But what about the people at the bottom of the list? If the same person keeps appearing at the bottom, there’s a simple explanation. They follow you, but you don’t follow them. Since you don’t follow them, Instagram thinks you’re unlikely to engage, so they fall to the bottom.

If you’re not sure whether you follow that person or not, check your following and followers lists. If you’re not sure how those lists are ordered, read our complete guide to how the Instagram following and followers list is ordered.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, Instagram sorts your story viewers in two ways. When you have 50 views or fewer, they will be listed in reverse chronological order. When you have 51 or more, they will be listed according to Instagram’s secret algorithm. We hope we’ve given you a good explanation, and helped to dispel some myths.

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Instagram Stories: Everything you wanted to know about them but were afraid to ask

How to add, view, share, and delete a story

Click on Instagram's signature camera icon in the top left corner of the screen, or simply swipe right across the screen anywhere in your feed. To take a photo, tap the circle icon at the bottom of the screen (Normal) - for video, you need to hold it with your finger. To select an existing photo/video from the gallery on your phone, tap on the gallery thumbnail at the bottom left, or simply swipe up anywhere on the screen. You can select multiple photos and videos at once.

After taking or selecting a photo, you can apply one of the filters to it by swiping right or left on the photo. To add typed text, a freehand drawing (or again text), a sticker (on Instagram in Russia it is called a “sticker”) and emoji, tap the corresponding images at the top right of the screen. By selecting the sticker icon, you can also specify a location, mention a user with the @ tag, add a hashtag, add a gif, take and add a photo from the front camera of the phone, ask a question or invite other users to ask you a question, conduct a poll with two answer options (instead of the default "yes" and "no" you can write your own).

You can delete an added item by dragging it down to the trash can icon at the bottom of the screen.

Then you can either save your story or publish it right away by clicking on "Your story" below the "+" sign in a dashed circle. This will make it available to all subscribers. Or you can pre-select a particular recipient or a group of recipients at the bottom right.

To share a published story in Direct, tap the paper airplane icon in the bottom right corner of a photo or video, select the people you want to share, and click Share. In order for a story to be seen on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler or Odnoklassniki, your account there must be linked to Instagram. Then, after creating a story, click on it and click "More", select "Share in the publication ...", "Next" and mark the desired social network. In the "Advanced settings" you can select "Share posts on Facebook" - then your photo and video stories will appear on this social network automatically.

In a hurry, accidentally submitted a story for publication, or just changed your mind? No problem - just click on your own story, tap the vertical ellipsis "More" icon in the bottom right corner of a photo or video, and then select "Delete".

If, on the contrary, you want to save what you have created (not only in the feed and then in the archive), in the same "More" select "Save photo / video" - this is how it will appear in the gallery on your phone.

How to repost a story

In your story, you can repost someone else's post from the feed - but only if the user's account is public and reposts of his posts are allowed. Click on the paper airplane icon below the photo or video in the feed and select "Add post to your story." At the same time, everyone who views your story will see the signature of the real author of the content (Instagram profile name).

Stories can only be reposted using a third-party app — search Google Play or the App Store using story saver, story repost, etc. You can only repost other people's stories on Instagram if you are tagged there with the @ tag. In this case, you will receive a corresponding message in Direct and you will be able to add this story to yourself, editing, if necessary, in preview mode.

Is it possible to add multiple stories

You can add multiple photos and videos, repeating the algorithm from the previous section over and over again, but they will all be combined into one common "Your Story" and displayed sequentially. You can switch between stories by touching the screen on the left or right side.

How to add a link in history

Not all users can add a link in history - only owners of verified accounts and business accounts with at least 10 thousand subscribers (if you have a personal account, when you reach this number of subscribers, it will automatically get business status).

In this case, when you create a story, at the top right, in addition to the usual icons, you will see an image of a pair of chain links. After clicking on it, a new window will open where you can add the URL. In the history, the link itself will not be visible, but a label will appear at the bottom: “More”, “More”, “Install”, “Register”, etc. , depending on the content. You can go to the address only by swiping up on this mark with your finger.

In this case, the user viewing your story will be able to follow the link only by swiping up on it.

Keep in mind that Instagram does not track conversions and does not analyze URLs, so either put a link with a redirect or shorten the link with a UTM tag using a special service: Google URL Shortener, "Clicker" from "Yandex" , vk.cc from VKontakte, Bitly, etc.

How to tag a person in your story

The easiest way to tag another Instagram user in your story is to click on the sticker icon in the upper right when creating a story and select the ready-made @mention sticker ': All you have to do is enter your username.

But you can type the name in a different font size and/or highlight it in a different color (by clicking on the eyedropper image — any available on the photo/video). To do this, click on the text icon in the upper right, select the desired font size and color, and then put the @ symbol immediately before the username.

After that, you can click on the username in the story and follow the link to his profile page, and the person himself will receive a notification that he was mentioned. In total, no more than 10 people can be mentioned in one story.

How to add story covers

The photo or first frame of the video of the stories that you have added to the Highlights section automatically becomes the cover (and this can be done when viewing a story by clicking on Select at the bottom right). If you want a different cover, click on the story in the "Actual" and select "Edit cover" - this way you can change the look of the photo or video frame (for example, zoom in and move) or select any photo from your own photo gallery on your phone.

Music for stories - what is it? Is it possible to add in Russia?

At the end of June, Instagram added a new feature to the app - the ability to add music to a story right at the moment the story is created. To do this, click on the sticker icon at the top right, and then select the appropriate Music sticker. This will open the audio library, where you can search for tracks or select something in the categories “Popular” (Popular), “Moods” (Moods) and “Genres” (Genres). The track can be trimmed and added to the story with a passage lasting from 5 to 15 seconds. At the same time, while viewing a story, a person, by clicking on a music sticker, will see the name of the track and the name of the artist.

The feature is currently unstable and not available at all in many regions, including Russia, due to music licensing issues. Therefore, not only will you not be able to add music when creating your story, but you will not be able to listen to it in the stories of other users. In this case, the only way to make a musical story is to record a video with music playing behind the scenes or choose a finished video with music already overdubbed on it. Well, or use a good old VPN so that the application does not recognize your region ;-)

However, even in the US, many users complain that even the latest iPhone and the latest version of Instagram do not have a music sticker, and contacting Instagram support remains unanswered.

Hidden stories - what is it? How to hide someone else's story, find out who watched yours, and hide it from a specific person

Tired of the intrusive flow of stories in the feed from overly active users? You can easily cover it up. To do this, tap and hold on the photo of the person whose stories you no longer want to see at the top of the feed, select "Temporarily block" and then "Hide story." The same can be done in the user profile by opening the context menu at the top right. To turn back stories, repeat and select Unblock Story (Android) or Show Stories (iPhone).

If you want to hide your own stories from someone, click on the context menu icon, select "Settings" at the bottom left, find "Story Settings" (Android) or "Manage Stories" (iPhone), and then tap "Hide My stories from. Here you will see a list of your subscribers, among which you can select those from whom you want to hide your stories. To show them your stories again, do the same and uncheck the box.

To find out who actually viewed your story (and this information is only available to you), open it and swipe up. Here, in the list of users that appears, you can also block unwanted viewers - click on the context menu icon to the right of the person's name and select "Hide my stories from username". In the same way, you can hide your story from the page of the place or hashtag that you tagged in it.


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Why Instagram story views have increased, why do stars watch stories

What is happening? Why have users on Instagram seen a dramatic increase in story views? This event is of interest and provokes a lot of questions. Who does this, why and how to protect your account from unwanted impressions, the article will tell.

Stories views skyrocketed – what’s going on

In 2019, frequent Instagram users were surprised by a strange phenomenon. The number of views of the story has increased dramatically and no one knows from where. If the average impression statistics was 50, now it is 500. At the same time, the accounts do not contain anything exclusive. People dreaming of popularity rejoiced. Others became thoughtful.

Who is to blame, spammers or masslooking

Users who suspected something was wrong began to look at the list of visitors. They found out that the majority of viewers are commercial accounts (“Cilia Smolensk” or “Flowers Barnaul”). Among them there are also live profiles, and sometimes celebrities.

Social media marketers have confirmed that the surge in impressions is mass looking. The technique lies in the inducement to go to the account and scroll through the history.

Such visitors are not real. Actions are performed automatically. Therefore, it is unlikely that a person will respond to masslooking, subscribe or view someone else's story.

The usefulness of this method is not more than 3%, but for some reason the SMM managers who provide this service claim to be effective. The victims demand that the perpetrators be punished.

What is masslooking and how it works

Masslooking is a daily automated story view used to promote an Instagram profile, but the efficiency of this method has not been proven. The principle of operation is that from your account they view the history of a specific group of people. In reality, it should work for response and audience reach. When the profile owner sees an unfamiliar visitor, he often goes to his page and views the content.

The author of this method, Lilit Voskanyan, advertised the cheat service in 2017. She assured that according to her method, up to 12 thousand other people's stories are viewed daily.

Today, automatic technology makes it possible to view a million stories every day. The new technique was intensively used in the spring of 2019. Users are more likely to complain about spam. Instagram has not yet provided for the fight against the new way of cheating. Therefore, to protect against uninvited guests, users are increasingly closing their accounts.

Media managers claim that masslooking is the only cheap way to grow celebrity reach.

Profile security

Instagram keeps order, so it has limited actions on the number of messages, likes and comments sent to combat dishonest cheating. In case of suspicion, the account is sent to the ban.

Viewing other people's stories is limited to 500 thousand daily. A lot of services easily overcome these limits, since it is impossible to get a ban for views.

Bulk story viewers should choose a reliable, highly specialized service. These platforms work for results and guarantee up to 1 million views.

Limits and settings for mass viewing stories

There are many sites on the Internet that offer mass looking services with a free trial period. The largest service offers up to 100 million views daily. The figure has not been refuted by anyone. Daily attraction of live subscribers from 3 to 5 thousand.

How to set up bulk viewing:

  1. Register. You will need an email address and a password for authorization.
  2. Link an Instagram profile to a cloud program.
  3. Enter your login, password and confirmation code (sent to your phone). The service protects the personal data of customers.
  4. Enable by target audience. Specify one person or a list and start the search.

Important. Do not neglect the setting.

Rules for performance:

  1. Review the stories of your potential target audience.
  2. Set the search setting to competitors or region. Viewing all in a row will not give the desired result and will not exceed the limit of 1 million.

If the setting is correct, this figure will provide between 100 and 500 daily live subscribers.

Do not violate the time break. Set adult profiles to 30 seconds between views, teen profiles to 50 seconds.

Run 10 story reviews per account. According to statistics, 7 news are published daily. Therefore, this figure will be optimal.

Purchase a proxy to secure your profile. Since Instagram employees can easily determine IP.

By following the recommendations, the number of subscribers will increase, and the account will not fall under the sanctions of the social network.

How to protect your account from unwanted impressions

It will not be possible to completely rid your account of unwanted views. Daily history review by new spam bots will be a must. They use 2 methods to protect the profile from a sharp increase in impressions:

  1. Close the account by changing the privacy setting.
  2. Only show posts to best friends. Having previously included your subscribers in this list. From time to time, this list is corrected by adding new friends.

Instagram technical support has not yet figured out how to counter this type of spam. There are few methods of protection, but they work.

If your views on Instagram have increased dramatically, then this is the work of masslooking.


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