How to gain story views on instagram


7 Best Strategies to Increase Instagram Story Views in 2022

Learning how to get more story views on Instagram is easier than you think! Here are 7 effective strategies to increase your Instagram story views.

If you want to learn how to get more story views on Instagram, you have to think about it from a Instagram user’s perspective. This will help you answer some questions like:

  • Why do some Instagram stories get more views?
  • Why are my story views so low on Instagram?
  • How can I increase my Instagram story views strategically?

Getting a base understanding of what the point of Instagram stories is and why they exist will help you create a better Instagram story strategy for your particular account.

If you are not getting the views you want, do not panic. I’m here to show you how you can get more story views on Instagram. Using these easy tricks can dramatically increase your views in a matter of minutes.

Keep reading to learn the best Instagram story view tips I’ve personally tried and have helped increase my engagement on stories.

What are Instagram stories?

What are Instagram story views?

Why do Instagram story views matter?

Why do some Instagram stories get more views?

Why are my story views so low on Instagram?

How to Get More Story Views on Instagram in 2022

#1 Remove Ghost Followers

#2 Quality Over Quantity

#3 Use Videos

#4 Ask Questions with Polls

#5 Find the Right Time to Post

#6 Feature Your Comments

#7 Use Stickers

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What are Instagram stories?

Instagram says that, “Stories are a quick, easy way to share moments and experiences.

For both brands and content creators, a story is like a brief snapshot of your product, service, or brand. 

They give a more personal and genuine way to tell a story beyond what’s on your feed.


What are Instagram story views?

Instagram story views are how many times your story has been viewed by followers.

The higher the number, the more people viewed them.


Why do Instagram story views matter?

Instagram story views matter because they tell a more personal or deeper story than what’s on your feed.

Those watching your Instagram stories tend to be superfans or followers who are better connected with your brand.

Since your most engaged audience is watching your stories, the more people watch them, the more opportunities you’ll have for conversion.

This is especially great if you run on a business on Instagram or want to become a paid influencer on Instagram.

Book Recommendation: Instagram stories is a great way to create Superfans. I recommmend reading Superfans by Pat Flynn to learn how to stand out, grow your tribe and build a successful business (or brand).


Why do some Instagram stories get more views?

Some Instagram stories get more views than others because of how engaging they are or how much value they provide. There is something in those stories that really connect with your audience.


Why are my story views so low on Instagram?

Your Instagram story views might be low for a few reasons.

1. People might not even be seeing them because Instagram is not pushing them out to your followers. I address this issue with tip #1 below.

2. They might not be engaging enough or don’t provide value to your followers. Since they’re not holding people’s interests, Instagram is not pushing them out to people. I address this issue with tips #2, 3, 4, 6 & 7 below.

3. You might not be consistent enough. You only post on Instagram stories once a week so people don’t even realize they should be going to your Instagram stories to watch them.

Make it a habit to post 3-5x a day but if that’s too much, at least show up on consistent days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

You can even plan your Instagram stories out in advance by using an Instagrammer like Planoly, which I’ve used for years.

4. You aren’t posting at the right time when your audience is online. I address this issue with tip #5 below.


How to Get More Story Views on Instagram in 2022

Now that we covered a few basic thing to know about Instagram stories, let’s jump into increasing your story views on Instagram.

These methods are how I was able to go from embarrassingly low numbers in the hundreds to 1000s to in the 2000s and even 3000s!

Ok I know these numbers are still kinda low compared to how many followers I have… but at least they did increase, which shows these strategies can be highly effective for you too.

#1 Remove Ghost Followers 

Ghost followers are usually those Instagram accounts without any activity from the owner. Either they are bots, fake followers or simply people on Instagram who followed you awhile ago but no longer see your posts, engage with them or even use Instagram.

Yes, these accounts dramatically boost your follower count but they can have detrimental effects to your engagement, especially on Instagram story views.

How Instagram works is that it shows your Instagram stories to a batch of people. If they watch your stories and are interested in them, Instagram will keep pushing your stories out to more people.

If you have ghost followers who do not see your stories or even engaged with them, Instagram will think that your stories are not worth pushing out even more.

As a result, removing ghost followers is an effective way to get more story views.

Learn how to remove Instagram ghost followers in this post.

#2 Quality Over Quantity 

You probably heard this phrase repeatedly, but this phrase particularly applies to your stories.  

You might think that you are performing well by posting many stories during the day, but how many of these stories offer quality insights to your viewers?

If your stories are nothing but fluff to your viewers, they will just skip right through it to more interesting stories. In the end, fluff will just damage your exposure even more. 

Try including more quality content instead of worrying about how many you post. Provide insights to your audience that will make them more knowledgeable about your niche.

Not only will this engage your audience, but it instills a level of trust with your brand.

Pro Tip: To instill even more trust, show your face, or if you’re a company, your employees’ faces. People connect better with other people.

#3 Use Videos 

Instagram published the latest article showing that videos receive more views than photos.

Let’s face it, people today are visual creatures. Instead of reading content through a picture, they would rather consume this content through a video.  

If you want to get more views, try including more videos in your stories. 

However, I want to reiterate the second strategy: quality over quantity.

Make sure that your videos provide meaningful insights that can establish your credibility to your audience. You can provide short hacks, debunk misconceptions, give a review, or advertise a product. 

The best part about videos is including a call-to-action prompt. You can prompt your viewers to your website, send a referral code, or encourage them to follow you for more of the same content. 

#4 Ask Questions with Polls 

Instagram users want to feel included in your story. The more story features you use to engage with them will significantly increase the traffic in your Instagram stories.  

You can include a poll in your story where your followers can vote on a more favorable option. 

You do not need to overcomplicate your questions. You can ask simple questions like: 

  • How are you feeling today? 
  • Should I do this thing or that thing? 
  • Should I do an Instagram live session? 

If you get the hang of asking these questions on your story, you will find your stories getting more views from interested followers.  

Need help creating engaging Instagram stories? Get this template and pre-plan stories for the entire month.

#5 Find the Right Time to Post 

You may have the best stories on your account right now, but your audience might not be on Instagram at that time. Sometimes, the mistake is not getting the timing right. 

As your stories get older, newer stories will overlap yours, making it harder for your followers to find your content. 

When posting your stories, make sure that you are posting when most of your followers are online. You can subtly ask your fans when they are most active on Instagram, or you can look at your fanbase demographics to estimate the best time to post your content.

Once you find that sweet spot in the day, concentrate all your stories during this time. If you find the right time correctly, you could experience a significant increase in your Instagram story views. 

Pro Tip: You can go into your Instagram analytics and see when most of your followers are online. Test posting then first.

#6 Feature Your Comments 

If you have a large follower fanbase, you can feature some of the wonderful messages your fans sent you. Create a story that shows your fan’s message and your personal message to them. 

Once they see their Instagram accounts featured on your stories, these fans could also feature your feature story on their Instagram account. This strategy also serves as an indirect advertising strategy to bring more people to your Instagram story. 

As more fans find you featuring other people, they would start interacting with you in the hopes of seeing their names on your Instagram story. 

#7 Use Stickers

We already showed that polls are a good strategy to increase engagement on your Instagram story. However, stickers allow your users to interact with you by placing their personal messages on your stories. 

There are many kinds of stickers on Instagram that you can use. However, the best sticker to get you the best engagement is the question sticker. By prompting a personal question, you allow your viewers to provide their personal answers. 

These responses will go right through your DMs, where you can respond to them directly or through your Instagram story. 


Overall, engagement is the key in learning how to get more story views on Instagram. It is not enough to place quality content on Instagram.

You need to make sure that your clients feel personally connected to you and your brand, and Instagram stories is a great place to do that.

Want to learn more? You can find more helpful blog posts here, get consistent page views to your blog with my SEO course, or follow me on social media to get daily tips:

  • TikTok for blogging + social tips @sarah.chetrit
  • Facebook Group to ask me anything Blog and Make Money
  • Instagram for travel, blogging and Korean food @sarchetrit

Until next time,
Sarah Chetrit

Grow your blog the smart way with my SEO course here.


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How to Get More Story Views on Instagram

How to Get More Instagram Story Views (The Break Strategy)

Alexandra | Feb 25, 2022

This is Part 4 of our series:

“How to use Instagram Stories for your Business”.

Today, let’s talk about how to get more Instagram Story views.

If your views have gone down, let’s recover them.

I’m going to share exactly what I do to go from this… to this:

I call it the “Break Strategy”.

Let’s talk about:

  • Step #1. Stop posting to your Stories
  • Step #2. Choose one of these Instagram Story routines
  • Step #3. Morning question boost
  • Step #4. Optimal number of Instagram Stories per day
  • Step #5. High quality Instagram Story ideas
  • Step #6. What to post after your break
  • Step #7. Posting frequency
  • Step #8. Instagram Story Highlight strategy
  • Bonus: How to plan and pre-watch your Stories

Ready?

Let’s start.

Step #1. Stop posting to your Stories

Yes. You read right.

Stop posting in your Stories.

It’s time to reset your Instagram.

You have 2 choices:

  1. Take a 1 day break from Stories, or
  2. Take a few days break (I like this option because you can come back with a bigger bang. Instagram will desperately want you back and give you views for you to stay. Plus, you can take your time to absorb the information in this blog post – like choosing your routine in Step 2)

Why is a break good?

I have noticed that every single time I have a big break (more than 2 days), Instagram will boost my Stories and give me more views.

They usually do one or both of these:

  • They push your Stories in front of the Insta Story line on people’s home feeds, and / or
  • They send a notification to your followers to tell them that you have posted your first Story in a long time. Naturally, people will be curious and check what you’ve just posted.

See, these are the notifications I receive when someone posts in their Stories for the first time in a while (and I don’t even have the notifications turned on for these people):

Instagram is desperate for you to come back.

And when you come back, they want you to have more views than usual. So they will send these notifications to some of your followers.

Therefore?

Have a break!

Then, let’s make sure that when you come back, your Stories are captivating. This way, people will want to come back again and again, days after you’ve come back.

More about this a bit later.

First, let’s choose your Instagram Story routine.

Step #2. Choose one of these Instagram Story routines

In Part 3, we talked about Instagram Story strategies for your business.

Strategies = routines.

A routine is useful for 2 reasons:

  1. It makes it easier for you to show up consistently, and
  2. It trains your followers to come back to your account for more (you become best buddies).

As you saw in this blog post, there are 5 routines you can try.

Choose one.

Step #3. Morning question boost

This is crucial.

Use the Instagram Story Stickers to boost your engagement. The more engagement you get, the more views.

Use the “Poll” Sticker in your first Story of the day.

Make it related to:

  • What you’re going to do today
  • Ask people a question related to your product / service
  • Ask a question about them (how are they going today)
  • Let people vote
  • Play a game (see Insta Story Game ideas here)

This will start your Stories on a good note, with more engagement than if you had not added a Sticker.

Remember:

More engagement = more views.

Step #4. Optimal number of Instagram Stories per day

When you come back after your break, try not to post too many Stories.

The more Stories you post, the less people will watch all the Stories until the end.

Which means, your engagement rate will drop.

Which means, your views will drop.

No bueno.

You want to keep your engagement rate as stable as possible.

This means, post 5 to 10 Instagram Stories max when you come back.

Note: 

Of course, there are cases when it’s completely fine to post a lot of Stories when you come back.

For example, you might have had a personal situation happening and you feel like you really want to share it with your followers.

You will still get views, because people care.

They want to know what happened and they want to support you.

For example, you could say you took a break because you wanted to re-evaluate what to post in your Stories, you wanted to feel inspired again. And you can share how good to feel now and how excited you are for the next Stories. This will get your followers excited to come back tomorrow to watch more.

Let’s say you took a break because you burnt out. You have no idea how many people will relate to you. Being open about it will actually make people feel good and be happy that they are not alone.

Or maybe you want to share how it felt taking a break from your Stories and how refreshed you feel. This will also inspire others to do the same, if they feel like they need a break.

Your story can inspire people. They can bring them closer to you. So if you feel like you want to post longer Stories go ahead. Just know that in the future, if your views drop, you can always come back to this tip: post 5 – 10 Stories max.

When you are on a mission to recover your Instagram Story views: Post 5 – 10 Stories max.

Make these Stories count.

These Stories need to be captivating, so that the majority of people want to watch all 5.

The more Stories you have, the more your views will drop.

So the less Stories you have, and the higher quality they are, the more people will watch. This increases your engagement.

This increase in engagement will signal to the Instagram algorithm that your content is valuable. And it will want to show your content to more people.

Therefore, it will start pushing your Story circle to the beginning of the line.

So, what is “high quality” Stories?

Step #5. High quality Instagram Story ideas

High quality = interactive Instagram Stories.

“Interactive” means something different for different accounts, in different industries.

For a personal brand, interactive can be as simple as doing a Q&A or sharing your day-to-day life. For a shop, it can be a “Would You Rather” game.

See the next step for more ideas.

But basically:

More interactions = more views.

I’ve noticed that the more interactive my Stories are, the more views I get. 

Use the interactive tools Instagram gives you:

The Instagram Story Stickers.

Step #6. What to post after your break

Use the Stickers to interact with your followers, by posting Stories like:

  • This and That games
  • Would you rather
  • 2 truths and a lie
  • Guessing games
  • Have you ever _
  • Q&A
  • Give maximum value (with tutorials, tips, hacks) that will leave your followers checking your Stories again the next day to get more amazing tips from you

See more Instagram Story ideas for business here.

Step #7. Posting frequency

Post one or twice a day.

I always say:

“Make Instagram fit your life, not your life fit Instagram”.

I find that it is the key to avoiding burnout.

Here are examples:

  • Post in the morning – and you’re done for the day. Or,
  • Post in the morning – then in the afternoon or evening.

Both options work.

In the morning, make your Stories count. Use those Stickers!

If you post twice a day, you could get more Instagram Story views because your Stories will be pushed to the beginning of the Story feed, twice (once in the morning, and once in the afternoon). Which means more engagement. Which means more views.

Step #8. Instagram Story Highlight strategy

This step is to get more views for your core, essential Instagram Stories.

As you know, Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours.

All your hard work or amazing Stories don’t have to go to waste.

Keep strategic Instagram Stories in your Highlights, under your bio.

As more new customers or clients find your account, they will discover your Highlights.

Which means, you will get more Instagram Story views – for these key Stories. Amazing!

BONUS: How to plan and pre-watch your Instagram Stories

As a business owner, there are key Instagram Stories you can schedule.

Like:

  • Product promotions
  • Product launches
  • Product sneak peeks
  • Games
  • Sales
  • Reviews
  • FAQs
  • Q&A
  • Best Sellers
  • Partnerships

You can plan these Stories with Preview App, on your phone and computer:

You can even watch your Instagram Stories BEFORE you post them on Instagram.

This is so useful to confirm your designs and the flow of your Stories.

Your turn!

I hope you found this blog post helpful.

Your turn to use the “Break” Strategy.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. 

Otherwise, enjoy your break and planning your next Instagram Stories!

Click here to use it

How to appear more often in the Stories list and increase views

Updated

Stories on Instagram are of interest to users no less than publications in the account feed.
Understanding how the Stories ranking algorithms work and how to be the first in the list of your subscribers, which in turn will help to significantly increase views.

A horizontal feed of Stories is formed according to the same principles as a regular news feed. Algorithms score:

  • Your interests - what kind of content do you usually watch and rate.
  • Relevance of the publication.
  • Your relationship with the author of the post: how often do you visit his page, like and comment on posts. More often in your feed there will be posts of people whose content you are interested in.

How to apply this knowledge to Stories, and how to generally create Stories that get a lot of views:

1. Only post interesting things

Low-quality content will quickly scroll through or completely scroll (long swipe to the right) of your stories. After that, you will rank worse with people who have not shown interest in you. Therefore, try to make each published story interesting.

2. Don't post too often

When the bar representing the number of stories turns into dots - this happens when more than ten stories are published - it's scary. Stories is a format where content is consumed very quickly, people do not expect to spend a lot of time on your publications. So limit yourself to 4-6 stories a day.

3. Add hashtags and locations

A new audience from the hashtag and geo-tag can come to you if you get into the top stories. Previously, accounts were promoted in this way, reaching the top by hashtag.

4. Livestream

Instagram notifies subscribers about live broadcasts, and shows the profile of the broadcaster in front of the entire list of stories.
Therefore, organize a broadcast to remind old subscribers of yourself.
But do not abuse this method - constant notifications can cause people to unfollow you altogether.

5. Analyze efficiency

Connect your business account to Instagram to analyze Stories and see which topics and formats (photos, polls, videos) get the most views, and which ones, on the contrary, are scrolled through.

For deeper analytics on Instagram, Popsters will be useful. The service will help analyze any accounts, in a couple of clicks it will find the most popular content, the most suitable time for publication, and other analytics data.

Keep in mind the quality of the content - recommendations on how to make original and interesting Stories are often published on the Instagram blog and on specialized resources for marketers. Experiment with new features and formats - pioneers get more attention and reach.

Useful articles on a related topic:

  • How to make creative stories on Instagram;
  • Main metrics in Instagram Stories, ways to improve them;
  • How to successfully blog on Instagram, practical tips.

Try Popsters free trial plan to get activity statistics for up to 10 pages in the next 7 days

Try for free

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5 Ways to Increase Stories Views on Instagram

Hello, Igor Zuevich is in touch ✋ Let's talk about how to increase Stories views on Instagram.

⚡️ As you already know, Stories on Instagram is one of the most powerful account promotion tools. In order to increase coverage and bring new readers, it is necessary that your subscribers watch Stories.

There are 5 ways. Use all:

1️⃣ Take breaks between uploads

✅ For example, you usually post 3 stories daily. Don't upload everything at the same time. Take a break: load one in the morning, another a few hours later, a third in the evening.

❗️The first story plays a big role. If it is interesting, the rest will definitely look, try to make it as catchy as possible!

⚡️ Why it will help increase views:

  • ✔ Instagram algorithm automatically promotes fresh content in the first hour after posting;
  • ✔ Not all followers log into Instagram at the same time. By posting your Stories at different times, you can reach more people: those who watch Instagram in the morning, afternoon and evening.

2️⃣ Post more stories

✅ The same principle works here as in the previous method. Instagram promotes those profiles that have more content. This is how you will be watched. But there is a difficulty: it takes a long time. You can hire an assistant who will shoot Stories for you. You can add speech to the video later when you edit.

❌ Important: do not post more than 10-15 Stories per day. Your viewers won't watch all the stories if there are too many of them!


3️⃣ Get feedback

✅ Your story should keep viewers as long as possible. The algorithm will consider Stories that collect good feedback interesting and will show it to more people.

⚡️ In addition to increasing Stories impressions, this method is good because you can analyze what is interesting for your audience and in the future give them the content that will cause the maximum number of views and feedback.

❓ What will help collect feedback? Use stickers:

✔ Polls. Ask questions that have 2 possible answers. Readers love to respond, they like to express their opinions, to compare with other people's opinions;

✔ Emoji slider. I have said more than once that people respond better to information if it is emotional. Arouse emotion in readers and they will definitely not pass by;

✔ Tests. Here you can write a question and several answers, one of which is correct. A very interesting option for readers: they have the opportunity to show off their erudition;

✔ Questions. You can ask a question, which people will answer in any form. The upside is that usually the number of questions asked is large. Minus - sometimes readers use this opportunity to advertise their goods and services;

✔ Geolocation. Indicate geolocation and this will help your Stories to reach the top for a specific city, street or place. Mentioning popular cafes or exotic countries works well;

✔ Hashtags. People can find your story by hashtags as well as geolocation;

✔ GIFs. Original animation attracts and views increase;

✔ Masks. There is a standard set of masks, but you can create your own. It is unusual, interesting and fun, and therefore people like it.


4️⃣ Post quality content

✅ As with post texts, photos and videos, your Instagram Stories should be of high quality and interesting to the target audience.

⚡️ Sometimes bloggers post things that seem impossible to watch. But they are watching! Because it is designed for a certain group of people. This means that there should be not only a beautiful photo or video, but also the right content that your readers will “get into”.

⚡️ Stories should be bright, interesting and dynamic.

⚡️ Don't make your Stories too complicated. It can be an educational video or entertainment content, but accessible, understandable and humorous.

⚡️ You can make a video of how you work and then post it in a fast-forward mode, or with a modified voice. It is original and interesting to the audience. People get the impression of friendly communication: easy and fun.


5️⃣ Organize games, contests, interactive activities

✅ This is a great engagement tool, especially if you come up with prizes for the winners.

What can be offered to readers:

✔ make a word from the letters that are posted in Stories during the day. The Instagram algorithm takes into account not only the number of views of Stories, but also other parameters: whether the story was watched to the end and how many times the same person watched the story. When readers scroll through your stories several times in search of a letter, Stories will rise to the first places in the feed;

✔ Find differences between two photos in adjacent Stories. People will scroll back and forth and the views will grow, the stories will go to the top;

✔ participate in a quest in which everyone can influence the course of events. This method is not easy to perform, but it perfectly involves. For example, post a quiz at regular intervals: What's the next step I should take? The option with the most responses is selected. The main thing here is to clearly think over the scenario!

❗️ Your main goal is to attract attention with your Stories, so be sure to add a video, because sometimes stories are watched in the background and the phone can “fall asleep”. Also, don't forget to include subtitles, since many people watch videos in Stories without sound. This way people don't miss anything important.

⚡️ And don't forget that account must be open, otherwise only subscribers will be able to see your Stories!


As you can see, if you already know how to increase Stories views on Instagram, then use all the methods. Keep in mind that stories will help you not only increase your reach and increase engagement, but also reduce the cost of advertising. With an increase in views of Stories, Instagram algorithms will promote not only stories, but also other content in the user feed.


Learn more