How to get more engagement on instagram stories
8 Instagram Stories Features That Boost Engagement and Examples
Back in 2016, when Instagram copied Snapchat’s idea of short-lived content and introduced Instagram Stories, no one could have predicted the booming popularity of ephemeral content on the platform.
Just within three years, the number of Instagram Stories daily active users has reached 500 million people, as specified in one report by TechCrunch.
With a lifespan of 24 hours, Instagram Stories create a sense of urgency that encourages users to watch ephemeral content to avoid missing out on something important. Instagram Stories have also increased the average time spent on Instagram from 15 to 54 minutes a day.
Simply put, Instagram Stories help to boost engagement and many brands have realized the power of short-lived content on the platform.
Any proof needed? According to Business Instagram, 50% of businesses on Instagram create at least one Instagram story a month, ⅓ of the most-viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses, and 96% of marketers surveyed plan to continue using Instagram Stories ads to achieve their goals. In other words, there’s no need to get math help from digital experts to understand that Instagram Stories help to achieve business results.
If you use Instagram Stories for business, that’s great. But if you want to make the most out of this content type, check out 8 Instagram Stories features that boost engagement and examples from popular brands on how to use these features. Let’s dive in!
8 Instagram Stories features that boost engagement
1. Geolocation and Location Hashtags
One of the easiest ways to boost engagement is to increase organic reach and interact with your target audience. The more people see your content, the higher engagement you can achieve. Since engagement is the level of user involvement with your content, it’s important to make sure that your Stories reach the right audience.
Thus, using geotags and location Instagram hashtags increases local discovery and leads to 79% more engagement. Let’s take a look at how Shake Shack uses a geolocation sticker to spread the word about its new location:
Want to know the best part? Using geotags in Instagram Stories allows you to reach people outside of your following which means you can attract more people who are interested in your product or services.
As a result, you can get higher engagement rates as you reach the right audience.
2. Polls
It’s in our nature to keep a focus on ourselves, so it’s no wonder that users dedicate 80% of their social media posts to their thoughts and beliefs.
Modern people are not shy to express their thoughts on social media and they are happy to share their opinions with others. Thus, the poll sticker–a one-question poll for Stories–is a great way to start a conversation with your followers and increase user engagement.
Check out how ASOS uses polls to interact with followers:
When users tap on the poll, not only can respondents choose from two options to share their thoughts, but they can also see which choice is in the lead after voting or they can also see updated results by watching the Story again later on (the poll is available for 24 hours).
The possibility to learn more about other customers’ preferences also motivates viewers to take part in polls and therefore the poll sticker boosts engagement.
3. Quiz Sticker
People love taking quizzes as they can learn more about themselves and test themselves, so they are more likely to engage with your brand if you use the quiz sticker.
This sticker allows you to write out your question and provide multiple-choice options (2-4 answer choices). Once users have voted, the “right” answer will be highlighted green, so they can see whether they got it right.
Whether you want to learn more about your followers or see whether they know your company well, there are many ways to use the quiz sticker. Let’s take Booking.com, for example. The company posts clues and includes the quiz sticker to test its followers. Here’s how it looks:
Not only does Booking.com keep its audience engaged, but the company also increases brand awareness by including its brand logo.
If you want to create similar eye-catching Stories, you can use an online graphic design tool like Crello to find amazing Instagram Story templates that suit your brand identity.
4. Questions
Having a solid following doesn’t mean interacting with your potential customers. Once you’ve grabbed the attention of your target audience, it’s important to ease the mind of worried customers and answer all questions.
The discovery phase is one of the most important in the customer lifecycle as people learn more about your company and product to decide whether you can suit their needs.
The solution? Questions in Instagram Stories!
More and more brands use the question sticker to collect frequently-asked questions about their company and products to answer them in Instagram Stories. Here’s this strategy in action from Dunkin’:
Modern people follow businesses on social media if they are interested in their products or services. When you invite your followers to ask questions about your company or product, you show that you put your customers first and it encourages viewers to interact with your company. Simply put, it’s another actionable way to boost engagement with Instagram Stories.
5. Emoji Slider
Back in 2018, Instagram announced its new Instagram Stories feature, the emoji slider. This feature allows you to ask more nuanced questions and find out how your followers feel about something by dragging the emoji to the left or right to make your decision. Since people vote with the emoji, it adds an emotional context that encourages users to participate.
For brands, this means a new opportunity to interact with your followers and boost engagement. For instance, Tommy Hilfiger included the emoji slider when the company announced its new campaign #TOMMYNOW in Milan (Italy) to see whether its target audience was excited about the launch:
Notably, it’s you who chooses the emoji for your question, so it’s easy to customize your question and help your followers understand your tone and answer accordingly. For example, you can upload multiple photos/videos of a new product and invite followers to share their thoughts about it with the emoji slider.
6. Shoppable Sticker
It’s no secret that you can engage better with your customers if you satisfy their needs and wants. Thus, including shoppable stickers is important. Why? Over the last few years, Instagram has become a powerful sales machine and 83% of people use this platform to discover new products.
Since people are ready to find and buy products on the platform, it’s important to help them make the shopping process easier and bring your ecommerce business to the next level.
Here’s how Calvin Klein uses shoppable stickers:
Not only does shoppable stickers allow viewers to discover featured products with ease, but they also help to improve customer experience.
One study by GetVoIP found that people are 3.5x more likely to make additional purchases and they are 5x more likely to recommend a company to a friend after having a positive customer experience.
In other words, when you help your customers discover and buy your products in-app, it helps to increase engagement.
7. Countdown Sticker
It’s no secret that creating a sense of urgency is one of the best ways to motivate your followers to take the desired action faster.
With the countdown sticker, you can promote something important and allow your audience to set a reminder for any day and time (up to 1 year later) to get notified. Since people are afraid of missing out on something important, they tap on the sticker to get the countdown notification on time.?
Just take a look at an example from TailWindApp:
The combination of eye-catching design and the FOMO effect encourages followers to swipe up to learn more and turn on reminders or notifications.
If you don’t have an in-house team of graphic designers, you can find and repurpose stock photos to use them as background images for your Instagram Stories. Once you’ve grabbed your target audience’s attention with the design, it’s easier to interest your followers in learning more about your time-sensitive offer.
8. Swipe Up Link
If you use Instagram for business, it’s more likely your aim is to grow your Instagram account. Having a solid following is great for businesses of any size and shape, but reaching a 10k milestone allows you to access the swipe up Instagram Stories feature.
Once you can add a swipe up link, you can redirect your interested viewers to your target website page, whether you want to take your viewers to a lead generation landing page or your blog post. This means you can help your followers learn more about your company and its products without leaving the app.
Big companies like MadeWell use the swipe up link. For example, MadeWell ran an influencer campaign to spread the word about its products and invited opinion leaders to share their thoughts. Once the company published the campaign on its website, it included the clickable link to let viewers learn more about it:
The Swipe up link lets your creativity run wild as you can add a link to any website page.
If you want to promote your new product launch, you can include a link to your homepage. And if you want to collect customer feedback, you can link back to a customer survey. Want to know the best part?
This feature helps to provide your followers with more information which makes your following more engaged and interested.
The Bottom Line
Instagram is growing in popularity among people and businesses, so it’s getting harder to cut through the noise. If you want to attract your target audience and interact with potential customers on the platform, it’s important to boost engagement and using Instagram Stories isn’t optional these days.
Do you use Instagram Stories to boost engagement? What is your favorite feature? Let us know in the comment section below.
Guest Author: Hugh Beaulac
Social Media Manager and Content Strategist—MC2
With over 7 years of digital marketing experience, Hugh Beaulac is passionate about social media marketing and blogging.
He helps SMBs grow online, runs MC2 blog, and writes for top-notch websites to share his marketing tips.
Twitter: @HughBeaulac
9 Instagram Story Tips to Boost Traffic and Engagement
Instagram Stories: We can’t get enough. In fact, according to TechCrunch, as of January this year, roughly 500 million users were posting Stories each and every day. (And it’s safe to assume that number has gone up.) This feature isn’t just for personal profiles. Your brand stands to gain a lot from them, too. If you want to find success here, keep scrolling for nine Instagram Story tips that’ll help you crush it on IG.
Perhaps taking a page out of Snapchat’s book (and giving Snapchat a real run for its money), IG created Stories to last 24 hours. After that point, they disappear from your page. This is unless, of course, you save them to your Highlights. More on that later, though.
As is the case across social media in general, Stories have become more savvy and powerful over the months.
Today, they can be an incredible tool to grow your brand on Instagram. Like everything else online, though, this takes careful strategy.
Here are nine Instagram Story tips you should implement in your digital marketing planning.
9 Instagram Story Tips for IG Success
1. Use Hashtags and Location Tags to Expand Your Reach
HashtagsYou’ve likely already seen how in your regular Instagram posts, adding hashtags often brings you more likes, comments, and views.
This is because it makes your post more visible and easily accessible to people who aren’t yet following you, but instead found you when they searched that hashtag.
The same rule applies with Instagram Stories.
One of the best Instagram Story tips we can give you is to add one or two hashtags to your Stories. Don’t go crazy and add 10. You can easily get away with this in a regular post. In Stories, your real estate is much more limited.
If you don’t like the way hashtags look on your Story, try hiding them under a sticker!
There are two ways you can add hashtags.
There’s an actual hashtag feature under the sticker selection (top row, on the right). IG only lets you use this once.
After that, you’ll need to type the hashtag in, using the regular text typing tool.
Location TagsDid you know that when you add your location to your regular Instagram posts, it improves performance?
You might very well experience the same thing when you add a location to your IG Stories. This is also available under the stickers (top row, left side).
This is such a simple way to boost your visibility.
2. Save Important Stories to Your Highlights
Like we said earlier, Instagram Stories stay up for just 24 hours. The only way to avoid this is to save them to your Highlights. We’re talking about these guys right here:
When you do this, the Story will stay there until you decide to take it down, if you ever do.
Don’t stop there, though. Create some consistency with your Highlights by giving them a “cover” that goes with your brand.
You can do this by tapping on one of your Highlights, tapping on the three dots in the bottom right corner, tapping Edit Highlights, and tapping Edit Cover.
Highlights make it so you get the best of both worlds. You can tap into the power of Instagram Stories and hang on to those Stories for more than 24 hours. Win!
Organize your Highlights by topic, so they’re easy for your followers to navigate.
3. Post at Least Once a Day So That You Stay at the Top of People’s News Feeds
One of the reasons Stories are so powerful is that they put you at the very top of people’s news feeds. Your brand is so much more visible here. It’s very different from a regular post, which might be buried in someone’s feed. Even if it doesn’t, they could easily scroll past it without a second look.
But — and this is important — to reiterate, your Stories will disappear from the top of the page after 24 hours, even if you save them to your Highlights. This means if you want to stay up there, you need to be posting a new Story at least once every 24 hours.
You already know that consistency is key when it comes to your social media. Your Instagram Stories are no exception. Using the feature once a week isn’t going to produce many results. Make it a regular habit, and you’ll reap the rewards.
4. Increase Engagement by Asking Questions and Running Polls
People love an opportunity to chime in on the conversation. This is why inviting them to share their thoughts with you can be so helpful. Thankfully, IG Stories make this easy.
Under your stickers, there are five options you should check out:
- Poll
- Questions
- Quiz
- Chat
- The slider
All five of these invite the user to participate and engage with you in some capacity. They give people a reason to stop and take a closer look.
IG Stories are a dynamic tool that you can use to really connect with your audience. Use these five features to get people communicating with your brand.
5. Use Stories to Send Traffic Back to Your Site
We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.
Social media is a tool to send people back to your website. That’s where the magic usually happens.
The easiest way to do this with Stories is by using the “swipe up” feature. This is where you can add a link, and when people swipe up, IG will send them to that page.
However, you need at least 10,000 followers to have access to this feature. Most of us don’t have 10,000+ followers. Then what?
Answer: The link you use in your bio becomes even more crucial.
In your Stories (and your regular posts, for that matter), you should always direct people’s attention to the link in your bio, when applicable. But take note: IG only gives you that one link. That’s the only clickable link you get on your page. Even if you type a URL out in full in a post or Story, it will not be clickable!
Thankfully, there are third-party services you can use that will give you one “master” link to put in your bio. When people click that, they’ll be taken to a page with a list of links you can provide.
In other words, you won’t be limited to just one. Crisis averted.
Takeaway: Mention “link in bio” in your Stories.
6. Plan Several Stories at a Time to Maintain Your Brand Voice and Aesthetics
Because Stories are more casual than regular posts and almost made to be done spur-of-the-moment, it’s easy to share them without much thought.
To be clear, Stories are indeed much more casual than regular posts. They don’t really require the same attention to detail and editing. That’s just not their nature.
However, that doesn’t mean you should post them without a care in the world.
It helps to create or at least plan out several at a time. This way, you can make sure your branding and messaging are consistent and cohesive across numerous Stories.
Pay attention to the fonts, colors, backgrounds, stickers, and music you use. Do they go together from one Story to the next? Remember: You want Instagrammers to watch your Stories and know that they belong to your brand.
7. Share Other People’s Posts to Your Stories
Don’t only post all of your own content. There’s actually something called “brand fatigue,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. People eventually get tired of seeing posts that exist solely to promote your own brand.
Sharing other people’s posts is an excellent way to network, build new relationships, and grow your traffic and engagement over time.
To share someone’s post, simply tap on the icon on the right under their photo. This will open up a new window, where you’ll see the option, “Add post to your story.”
Although that person will get a notification that you shared their post to your Story, go the extra mile and tag them again in it. This gives them a little extra exposure and makes it clear where you got the content from.
Side note: This is the perfect opportunity to share user-generated content (UGC). Let’s say you have a clothing brand, and a shopper posts a selfie in your apparel and tags you or uses a branded hashtag (or both).
This is UGC, and it’s basically free advertising.
Take advantage of this moment! Share that person’s image to your Story. People love being featured and will appreciate the recognition. And, you get to show your followers that you have loyal shoppers who love your brand.
It’s a win-win situation.
Be sure to add a quick thank-you note to the Story, expressing gratitude for the kind words.
8. Try Using Your Phone’s Camera Instead of Instagram’s
True, recording right in Instagram saves you a little time, but you might very well find that your phone’s camera produces better quality and higher resolution. Plus, you’ll have a little more freedom to edit the content before posting to Instagram, especially if you use any additional third-party apps.
Remember to record vertically, since that’s how IG Stories are situated. It’s more pleasing to the eye.
9. Go Live on Instagram
We know that going live can be super intimidating. What if you mess up? What if you trip on your words? What if you accidentally spit when you talk?
Worry not, because nobody is expecting you to be perfect.
In fact, one of the reasons live videos are so powerful is because they’re authentic and organic. Your followers want to see the real people behind your brand.
As an added bonus, when you go live, Instagram sends a notification to your followers letting them know that they should tune in.
Live Stories are a smart way to connect with your audience and engage in an entirely different way.
You can do behind-the-scenes videos, interviews, Q&As, demos or tutorials, and anything else you can think of that would be of value and importance to your target audience.
There might be a slight learning curve, but it’s totally manageable — and completely worth it. Start spending more time on the platform using these Instagram Story tips, and leave us a comment to let us know how it goes!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Instagram stories be promoted?
Yes. By boosting your active Instagram Stories, you can reach a larger audience and promote your brand or product.
When you boost an Instagram Story, it will be shown to people who don’t follow you but do follow similar accounts. This will help increase the reach of your story and expose more people to your brand or product.
Why can’t I promote my Instagram story?
In order to promote an Instagram Story, you’ll need a professional account. With a professional account, you can purchase promoted Stories that will show up in the “Stories” section of people’s feeds.
Is it better to promote story or post on Instagram?
Posts are better for reaching new audiences on Instagram. When you post, your followers will see it in their feeds, and their friends who don’t follow you will be able to see it if they search for your name. If you promote a story, only people who already follow you will see it.
Can you promote story with poll?
Yes, you can add a polling sticker to your story to promote voting on the question. Polling stickers are a great way to get input from your followers and generate engagement on your story.
The Bottom Line
By now you should have a good understanding of how to use Instagram stories to increase traffic to your business or website. The key is to be creative and experiment with different types of content, as well as use hashtags and mentions to get in front of new audiences. What type of story will you create today?
Authors
- Gil Salamander
- Berna Ceguerra
How to Attract Readers' Attention on Instagram: 5 Working Techniques
Hello, Igor Zuevich is in touch ✋Each of us, when we start blogging or promoting a commercial account on Instagram, wants to attract readers' attention. This is very important because it contributes to the growth of the account and increase in sales.
⚡To attract attention, it is not enough just to post cool photos, videos, Stories or write useful expert texts.
👉🔗 What Instagram Posts Get Customers: 3 Little Secrets
❓How to do it?
👇Today I will talk about 5 tricks that work, using at least 1 of which you can grab the reader's attention from the first lines of a post, at the very beginning of a video or live conversation.
1️⃣History
✅ In this regard, the English-speaking market is very indicative. Just look at some training or a speech by an English-speaking speaker. I promise you won't regret it!
⚡️How do they do it?! And 9 out of 10 speakers, and maybe all 10, start their speech with a fascinating story.
⚡️Stories capture everyone, it's a fact! Remember, once you start listening to a story, you get so involved that it's impossible to stop.
⚡️It's like in childhood, when mom or dad told you some story from life, perhaps fictional, you asked them to continue more and more. After all, that's how it was, wasn't it?!
⚡️And as adults, we do not lose interest in stories.
So give them to your readers, keep them interested and involved so that they can't put it down!
2️⃣ Links to a powerful source
✅ I was watching a live broadcast of a SnapChat investor here, which has almost 1.5 million subscribers.
⚡️This person told how he managed to gather such an audience only due to the useful content that he gives out daily.
⚡️Do you think this is a fairly authoritative and weighty source? Of course, because this is an investor who has 1.5 million readers and he tells how he developed his profile.
⚡️If you have a problem that this person's advice will help solve, then you will listen to the video for 40 minutes, and even 1 hour. After all, the main thing for you is that this is a really significant source of information.
3️⃣Interesting fact
✅Tell your readers something interesting and unusual.
⚡️For example, I can tell how one boy became a popular and famous blogger when he posted only 1 useful post.
And this boy was only 7 years old.
⚡️What is the secret? And that the Hollywood star liked the publication.
⚡️Search for and publish some interesting facts, perhaps even if they are from your life or from the life of your friends and acquaintances. A lot of extraordinary events take place in the world every day, you just need to be able to notice them and convey them to readers in an interesting way.
4️⃣Impressive number
✅Numbers work very powerfully. When we write some words that are not supported by specific figures, it is not a fact that they will believe us and be interested. And the numbers are fascinating and inspire confidence. If, of course, they are true.
⚡️According to Instagram statistics and analytics, a year ago there were already almost 60 million Russians among users of the site, and their number is growing every day.
⚡️I think you yourself understand that among such a huge audience there are your potential readers, clients, buyers.
You will surely be interested in many of them.
⚡️ An impressive number affects our brain, which reproduces the corresponding picture and agrees that the information has real value.
⚡️Even the most elementary example will help you understand that this is so. For example: The Dali-Picasso exhibition from 2006 to 2011 was visited by about a million people in different countries. Impressive, isn't it? And I want to go and look at these masterpieces. Especially if you are really interested in the art of these masters.
👉🔗 Urgently Introducing Social Proof On Instagram
5️⃣Your feelings
✅ You can just talk about some expert issue or topic. It will be useful to readers, but on the other hand, almost every topic, every event has already been discussed, and more than once, unless it is the latest news.
⚡️No one will be interested in re-reading and reviewing similar information a hundred times. And it’s a completely different matter if you talk about something, even if it is well-known, from your own point of view.
⚡️Tell us about your feelings, experiences, and your opinion on the topic that you cover in the publication. And it is not necessary that your point of view coincides with the generally accepted one. It may be fundamentally different from the opinions of other people. And it will generate interest and attract attention.
⚡️People will feel that you are a person, an individual, and not one of many spineless beings. After all, no one is interested in communicating with the gray mass, be different. Just please don’t overdo it: don’t defend your opinion aggressively, don’t evoke negative emotions in people.
👉🔗 9 Ways To Get Readers Attention Back On Instagram
❗️ All of these tricks that I told you about are often used by speakers to attract the attention of viewers to their speeches. And also bloggers have already adopted methods that work to ensure that their text or video is watched to the end. Try my advice and you will surely like some of them, and perhaps all of them.
Experiment, look for your own, and you will surely succeed!
As you can see, if you already know 5 working methods that will help you get the attention of readers on Instagram, then you will test them. This way you can find the most effective techniques that will work for you. Use my recommendations and your knowledge to achieve the best results. Love what you do and do what you love. Do not forget that it is better to act together and together with those people who already have experience and results. Come to our programs, at the same time and earn more!
With you,
- Igor Zuevich.
Be sure to download:
- Content Plan (post calendar) for publications in social networks
- Bestselling book on creating sales and advertising texts
- READ in Telegram
If you can invest in self-education for the next 5 minutes, then follow the link and read our next article: The Smart Method - A Goal Setting Method That Works
Leave a Comment on This Article Below
How to Increase Stories Views and Grab Your Audience | Free Business Alliance
Still not sure what the future of Instagram Stories is?
Come on, get out of your tank and look into it.
In this article, you'll learn how to increase Stories views and get your audience's attention on your brand.
After all, stories are not just a way to share the brightest moments of your life, but also a great marketing tool!
Why do business accounts need Stories?
For those who are not in the know, Stories (stories, stories) is a temporary feed in full screen format. In stories, you can share photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours (if not saved).
Some business accounts do not use Stories, considering them to be a tool for bloggers. In vain! Stories are not lost in the general feed, they attract attention and inspire confidence in the company among customers.
Through regular use of stories, you can give your customers the feeling that they know your business from the inside. But there is one condition - you need to upload not glossy processed photos, but ordinary pictures from the life of the company, taken right now.
Show your “kitchen” from the inside, here are a couple of examples for you:
1.
Do you have a cafe or a restaurant? Exhibit the process of cooking (maybe one of the subscribers will have time to run by the time the steak is fried).
2. Do you play in a band? Film rehearsals, share funny jokes and comments (maybe one of the subscribers will fall in love with you and bring a crowd of their girlfriends to the concert).
3. Do you have a business account for an advertising agency? Then post videos from meetings on the development of a new project, share tips with subscribers directly in stories.
How can I improve the performance and reach of Instagram Stories?
Fighting for audience attention with stories is far from easy. But it has already begun! Are you afraid of difficulties? Then go ahead!
So, stories can be very different, it all depends on your imagination and the interests of customers. We have collected important tips for using stories on Instagram for you:
1. Add “Place” to your story. Indicate your city and region, so your photos and videos can be viewed not only by subscribers, but also by people who search for stories by geotags.
2. Use hashtags. Instagram is a paradise for hashtags, everyone uses them. They increase reach and attract new subscribers.
3. Don't know what to tell? Ask. Your followers can send you a private message while viewing your story. This is a great alternative to comments, because not everyone likes public communication. And here the person can communicate personally with you.
4. Take surveys. Instagram users love this, because all they have to do is just click “Yes” or “No”. Be interested in anything, it is not necessary to tie surveys to your brand, ask about the weather outside, find out about the mood of subscribers.
5. Turn on live broadcasts. Your followers will immediately receive a notification about the broadcast, and your profile will appear in front of the list of all other stories.
With the help of live broadcasts, you can increase the views of Stories on Instagram, remind customers about yourself and chat with them in real time.
6.
Run promotions and sweepstakes. Stories is a great place for any promotional offers, interesting sweepstakes and dizzying discounts.
7. Entertain your subscribers. Set up funny puzzles, tell funny stories. Make your customers smile and they will definitely love your company.
8. Be trendy! Use everything that Instagram has to offer: stickers, gifs, filters, masks, background music (but not all at once!).
9. Save your stories. Users like it when a profile can immediately find what they are interested in. Stories can become a kind of catalog of your products, the main thing is to arrange everything beautifully and do not impose your product.
10. Don't overuse Stories. The story format is designed to absorb information quickly, people won't want to waste their time looking at all your photos and videos. Limit yourself to 2-4 posts per day.
So, the popularity of your brand depends only on you and your imagination. If you create a comfortable and interesting business account, then they will follow you, wait for new stories and be interested in the life of your company.
