How to set a countdown on instagram
How to Add a Countdown to an Instagram Story for Events
- You can add a countdown to your Instagram story after capturing a new photo or video, or selecting one from your photo library and setting it as your background.
- To add a countdown to your Instagram story, tap the square smiley face button — used to add gifs, stickers, and more — at the top of the screen, or swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access the same menu.
- Any countdown you add to a published Instagram story will be saved and available to reuse in the future.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories
Whether it's a birthday celebration, a friend's wedding, or an upcoming family vacation, you may want to make a countdown to tell your Instagram followers about your next big calendar event.
Unfortunately, you can only add countdowns to Instagram stories. However, you can customize them along with the rest of the post by changing the countdown color and giving your ticker a title. Once you create a countdown, Instagram will save it, making it available for reuse later on.
Here's how to do it.
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How to add a countdown on Instagram
1. Open the Instagram app.
2. Swipe to the right to add a photo or video to your story.
3. Use the capture button to take a photo or video.
You can also tap the small square in the lower left-hand corner to upload a photo or video you've already saved. Abbey White/Business Insider4.
Once your background for the countdown is set, tap the square smiley face icon in the top menu bar.
5. Scroll and tap the "Countdown" option.
The countdown for Instagram stories appears almost like a white calendar icon with purple text. Abbey White/Business Insider6.
Tap "Countdown name" and enter the title of your Countdown.
7. If you've previously created countdowns, they will appear in a pop-up box. Select which one you want to use.
You can tap the three dots icon in the upper-right of any previously made Countdown to delete it. Abbey White/Business Insider8.
Toggle the "All Day" button to set a general date or exact date and time.
9. Tap the circular color palette at the top of your story screen to change the color of the countdown.
Continuously tap to view all of the solid and gradient color options for the countdown. Abbey White/Business Insider10.
Tap "Done" in the upper right-hand corner.
11. Once back on the story draft, use two fingers to resize the countdown and reposition it on your story.
Add filters, text, or stickers to finalize your story. Abbey White/Business Insider12. Tap "Your Story" or "Close Friends" to post the Instagram story featuring your countdown.
You can also send your story post to specific people using the "Send To" option on the bottom of the screen. Abbey White/Business Insider
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Marissa Perino
Marissa Perino is a former editorial intern covering executive lifestyle.
She previously worked at Cold Lips in London and Creative Nonfiction in Pittsburgh. She studied journalism and communications at the University of Pittsburgh, along with creative writing. Find her on Twitter: @mlperino.
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Instagram Stories Countdown Stickers 101
Today’s social media users are constantly bombarded with notifications. Whenever you discover a way to cut through the noise, we recommend jumping on it.
Countdown stickers for Instagram Stories are one of those ways. When used strategically, they put your business at the top of your audience’s notification page – real estate most brands would kill for. You can even take it one step further and use countdown stickers to directly drive sales for your small business!
Needless to say, there are countless ways that Instagram Stories can be used to keep followers engaged with your business.
Whether it’s promoting an upcoming event or counting down to a new product launch, combining your countdown with other Instagram features like link stickers and other action buttons can drive signups, sales and more!
Here’s quick overview of what’s inside:
Contents
- 1 How to Create a Countdown Sticker for Instagram Story (with screenshots)
- 1.1 How the Instagram Countdown Sticker Works
- 2 What are the benefits of doing a countdown?
- 3 3 Ways to Use Countdown Stickers to Drive Conversions for Your Business
- 4 Conclusion
How to Create a Countdown Sticker for Instagram Story (with screenshots)
To create your first Instagram Countdown Sticker, follow these simple steps:
- Open your Instagram app on your iOs or Android device, click the “+” button in the upper right hand corner, then click on Story from the pop-up menu to create a new Story.
Alt text: how to create an Instagram Story
You can also use your finger or thumb to swipe right which will open the Instagram Story creator.
- Upload your media. Snap a quick pic or upload your own image or video from your camera roll using the button in the bottom left corner.
Alt text: how to create an Instagram Story
- Next, go up to the top right-hand corner and click the sticker icon. You’ll see a wide range of stickers to choose from, including location, polls, links, and more. Scroll down until you see the Countdown Sticker.
Alt text: where to find the Instagram countdown sticker
- Once you’ve clicked the Countdown sticker, Instagram will prompt you to set your countdown name and countdown end date. To set a specific time, switch off the All Day toggle and set the time that your countdown will end.
Alt text: how to use Countdown on Instagram Story
Customize your new countdown using the color wheel at the top of the page to change your sticker color to fit your brand colors.
Alt text: how to set up an Instagram countdown
- Hit Done and the sticker should show up on your Instagram Story. Move your countdown clock around on your screen to make sure it’s not blocking any important elements on your image or video.
Alt text: setting up an Instagram countdown
*Note: An alternative way to add the countdown timer to your story is to open a new story from scratch, click on the Create option from the stacked menu on the left-hand side of the screen, and scroll through the options on the bottom bar until you see the Countdown option.
Alt text: how to create an Instagram Countdown using the Create feature
While this method gets the job done, keep in mind you will have to use the gradient backgrounds that Instagram provides and won’t be able to upload your own media.
That’s it! It’s that simple.
How the Instagram Countdown Sticker Works
Once you’ve created your Instagram countdown, anyone that comes across your story can interact with it.
Alt text: how to turn on reminders for Instagram countdowns
The countdown sticker functionality is great for a few reasons. When viewers click the arrow on the top right corner of the sticker, they can click Remind me to receive a reminder when the countdown ends. They’ll also have the option to share the countdown to their story. Your job as a marketer is to make your countdown story engaging enough to make people turn on those reminders.
As a nice bonus, the sticker functionality also lets you see which Instagram followers turn on reminders for your countdown. This gives you insight into who’s interested in your event and which followers are most engaged with your brand. Keep these people in mind for the next section where we share how to turn countdown subscribers into new leads for your business.
Image source: Social Media Examiner
What are the benefits of doing a countdown?
Like all of Instagram’s interactive story elements, the countdown sticker is a tool you can use to increase engagement. When a follower engages with a story element like a countdown, it signals to the Instagram algorithm that they’re interested in seeing more from you. This increases your odds of showing up more frequently in both the Stories bar at the top of the screen and their Instagram feed.
Beyond getting more face time with your audience, interactive elements like countdowns are a smart way to identify new business leads. Let’s talk about sales for a second. As we mentioned above, you can see when a viewer or Insta follower turns on reminders for your countdown. This not only indicates that these people are interested in the product or service you’re selling, but that they’ve actually gone out of their way to get notified.
If Instagram is a key part of your sales cycle, brainstorm ways you can reach out to these leads and seal the deal.
Whether it’s a special offer code, a free resource, or even just a conversation in the DMs, these are the people you want to be talking to.
3 Ways to Use Countdown Stickers to Drive Conversions for Your Business
The countdown sticker can be used for businesses in a wide variety of ways. The more creative, the better! Here are a few of our favorite ways that we’ve seen brands utilize countdowns in their social media marketing:
- Build Excitement for Product Drops
Got a new collection dropping for fall? If you’re a small business with limited inventory, create a sense of urgency by letting people know to grab their favorite limited-edition items before they’re gone.
Check out how Vitae Apparel incorporated the countdown sticker into their story series promoting their newest swim collection:
Alt text: How to use countdown stickers in your story
Products don’t always have to be physical. Countdowns are also a great way to promote the launch of digital products like courses, guides or ebooks.
If you’re using a countdown to promote your product, include sales elements like link stickers or shop tags that direct people where to buy. This not only makes your customers’ lives easier, but also increases the odds of your countdown leading to a sale.
- Promote Upcoming Events
If you have an upcoming event, Instagram Live Show or webinar, promote it with a countdown! Your followers lead busy lives, so a little nudge the day of the event is a great way to boost attendance and keep your event top of mind.
We love how fitness brand Bala used a countdown to promote their livestream panel for the followers who couldn’t make their event IRL:
Alt text: How to use countdown stickers in your story
To increase the likelihood of people registering, add the event registration link to your story and put it in your bio. Include details about the location and venue as part of your story set so your audience knows what to expect!
- Time-Sensitive Contests or Sales
Things like contests and sales typically have a set deadline or lifespan.
Create a sense of urgency of time constraints with a countdown sticker. Once your offer or sale goes live, add a countdown to when the event ends. This will let people know they only have a limited time to take advantage and participate.
This works especially well for digital products like courses. Set your countdown to end when registration closes and encourage followers to sign up before the deadline. Make sure to promote the urgency with other stories in your series explaining the details of the event and the value your audience will get by registering.
Social media manager and coach Laura (@bsquared.social) used this tactic to promote her upcoming Reels course:
Alt text: How to use countdown stickers in your story
Laura paired testimonials from past students with countdown and link stickers to motivate viewers to sign up before registration closed.
Sked Tip: Always share your countdown stories to a story highlight. This extends its lifespan past the usual 24 hours of a story post.
As long as the countdown date hasn’t passed, your audience will be able to view it and participate.
Conclusion
While many of Instagram’s stickers are fun to use, the countdown sticker might just be one of the most valuable for businesses. It allows you to engage with your followers and even drive conversions and sales directly from Instagram.
Your countdown sticker is most effective when it gets seen, so do your best to get it out to as many people as possible. As we mentioned, when turning on notifications for the countdown, your audience can also share the countdown to their own stories. By encouraging your audience to share your countdown with their own followers, you can create more buzz and get even more eyes on your business.
Make sure your next countdown story is ready to go with Sked Social’s all-in-one Instagram tool!
Uploading your story assets ahead of time with Sked means all you have to do is add your countdown sticker and hit send.
Yes, it’s really that easy. Schedule Instagram posts alongside your stories to complete your social media marketing strategy. Include the right Instagram hashtags, and while you’re at it – post to your Facebook Page or Twitter account. Test it out for yourself with our free 7-day trial.
How to make a countdown on Instagram* - Web Center, blog
How to remind subscribers about an important date of a webinar, live broadcast, sales start or any other event?
Publishing posts, talking about it in stories is a must, but someone will mix up the day or time and miss everything.
The Instagram* functionality allows us to gather even the most forgetful subscribers to the event with the help of the “Countdown Timer” sticker in Stories.
In this article, we will give step-by-step instructions on how to make a countdown on Instagram, its features and how to use it correctly.
Contents
How to add a countdown timer to Instagram*
- If all you want is a countdown and nothing else
- If you have prepared Stories with a photo or video and want to add a Countdown to it.
Subscriber Countdown Timer Features
How to Use Instagram* Countdown Timer for Marketer and Social Media Specialist
Results
How to add a countdown timer to Instagram*
There are 2 ways.
1. If all you want is a countdown and nothing else.
You need to open Stories, click "Create" on the right and scroll down to "Countdown" at the bottom.
Here you can select the background color. To do this, click on the circle in the lower right corner. There are 8 colors to choose from.
If you click on the cubes, you will come across a random timer. For example, how much time is left until the weekend or until the end of the lessons.
When you click on the timer itself, it becomes possible to change its color using the spectrum button. Here the choice is larger - 16 colors.
Change the name, date and timer to suit your goals.
The peculiarity of this method is that you cannot change the location of the timer.
See also Taplink for Instagram* – a complete guide to setting up a multilink
2. If you have prepared Stories with a photo or video and want to add a Countdown to it.
If you have prepared a picture or video and want to add a timer to it, then proceed as follows:
Open Stories, take our prepared photo/video and click on the stickers button.
Next, select the countdown
We write the name, the end date, arrange it as we want and choose the appropriate color for the sticker.
By choosing the end date of the timer, you can move the "All day" slider and set a specific end time for the countdown.
Done, your subscribers will not miss an important event!
Subscriber countdown timer features
We figured out how to set and configure the timer, but how will subscribers see it?
When a user comes across your countdown timer, they can click on it and set a reminder.
Therefore, do not forget to make the appropriate call.
If the event has ended, and stories are still hanging in the feed, subscribers will see the festive fireworks when viewing. And if the user set a reminder, he will receive a notification about the end of the timer.
How to use the Instagram* countdown timer for a marketer and SMM specialist
A countdown timer is great for announcing an event or marking a deadline.
Here are some ideas for when to use a timer:
1. Live/Webinar
Add a timer to stories announcing a live broadcast or webinar and make a call to set a reminder about it, so you will gather more people.
2. Start of sales
Do you want orders to pour in from the first minutes of the start of sales of your new product? Make high-quality warm-ups, work with the sales funnel and… set a timer in stories :)
3. Online course start
Perhaps before the start of sales of a new course, you decided to conduct a small online course in the form of a warm-up.
Be sure to indicate the start date and allow the subscriber to set a reminder, make a timer.
4. Draw
The timer will help to rush users to take part in the draw.
5. Validity of the discount/promo code/sale
In this case, you can set a timer both before the start of discounts or the promotional code, or set a countdown until they end. So you limit the time, motivate users to hurry up and purchase your product.
6. Announcements of events and achievements
The countdown timer is great for challenges.
Often bloggers talk about their goals. Therefore, you can set a timer with a question, for example, “Will I open 3 branches of my store in six months?” And within 6 months, show your way to achieve the goal, and when the timer runs out, summarize in stories, share your experience.
See also How to promote Instagram * on your own from scratch: detailed instructions
To summarize
The countdown timer is a cool tool that will not only make your stories look more interesting, but also remind subscribers of an important event in time.
And to know everything about the functionality of Instagram, subscribe to the newsletter of our blog and to the telegram channel. There are many interesting things ahead :)
- Entrust the maintenance of your social networks to professionals. Leave a request and our managers will contact you within an hour.
what it is and how to add it
Instagram's latest update has brought us a countdown timer that can be used in Stories.
This is a cool thing, because there is not only the date, time and name of the event, but also the ability to subscribe to some event and follow its start. Let's figure out how the countdown timer in Instagram Stories works and how to use it in your work.
Instagram guide: what it is and how to use it >>
What is a countdown timer and how to add it
To add a countdown timer, you need to go to Stories, select a picture or video for the background, and then go to the "Stickers" section, where you can select one of the widgets.
From past experience, SMMs should be familiar with polls, questions, and other widgets that are also in this section.
The countdown timer is a new option and is a very recent addition. So if suddenly you don’t have a timer in this section yet, don’t worry, you just didn’t get into this wave of testing. After a short time, the timer will appear for absolutely all users who have updated Instagram.
After clicking on the “Countdown” icon, the timer itself will appear on the screen. You can enter a name for the timer, set an end date and time for the event, and choose whether to specify a specific time or the entire day.
To add a timer to Stories, go to the widget section and select "Countdown" there
How to set up a countdown timer in Instagram Stories other people to include reminders of your timer and share it in their Stories.
For most SMM projects, this slider should be left enabled (after all, the more people share publications, the better for the SMM manager), but for something personal, it might be worth turning it off.
For example, if you're counting down the days until your vacation (and don't want some evil colleague to repost this to your boss).
You can also customize the colors for the timer by clicking on the palette at the top of the screen. There are both bright options, and quite restrained.
Only one countdown timer can be added to a story: if you try to add more than one, Instagram will warn you that it's not possible.
You can choose the background color of the countdown timer and enter a name for it
How subscribers see the countdown timer
When subscribers open Stories with a timer, they will see a prompt "Tap to get a reminder".
If they click on the timer, more detailed information about the date and time of the event appears at the bottom of the page, as well as two more buttons: remind about the event and share it in their Stories.
By selecting "Event Remind", followers allow Instagram to send notifications as the event's start date approaches.
But choosing to share an event, they publish the timer on their own, with an active link (nickname) of the author of the timer or the page where it was posted.
Followers can add a reminder of your event or share your timer in their Stories post
Other features of
countdown timersAn important point: the author of Stories with a timer can find out which of the subscribers turned on notifications and who shared the timer in Stories. He receives notifications about all these actions.
You might be wondering what happens when the countdown timer reaches zero? If the entry is still hanging in Stories, then when it is opened, festive fireworks will appear.
All your countdown timers are saved. To view them, you need to go to the widgets and then click "Countdown Timer" and you will see all your timers. Thus, you can add the same timer to Stories several times.
You can view all your timers: both active and completed
Disadvantages of Instagram Stories countdown timers Storis), but not until she showed up.
It would be logical to report not only the time, but also the place of the event, but this is also impossible, and a lot of information simply does not fit in the title field. So this is what they will definitely ask in a personal.
When you see the phrase about reminders, it seems that it will be possible to add the deadline date to your calendar - for example, Google or the built-in calendar on your phone - but this is also impossible. At the same time, for Instagram reminders, it is impossible to set a schedule and understand what time they will come at all.
How SMMs can use the countdown timer
It is clear that while this is a novelty, and people will actively react to the innovation, so it is worth testing the timers as soon as possible.
And here are some ideas on how you can use countdown timers in SMM:
- Event announcements. Timers are perfect for everything related to the event industry. Show how much time is left before your event and motivate people to come.
- Announcements of events and achievements. Remember the "I'll make a million in one year" stuff? Similar goals will now begin to appear in the format of timers for many bloggers. In the same way, you can present the opening of a new store or branch of the network, the time before the start of a sale or the appearance of a new collection.
- Deadline discounts. Good old "This discount is only valid until Monday!" - a technique that only the lazy did not use on their site. Now the same will happen on Instagram. The meaning is clear - if the terms of the promotion are limited, there is more motivation to buy something.
- Promo codes. And here the call to share the promotional code in your Stories will work perfectly - any promotional codes will be great distributed among the audience.
- Quick contests. By the same mechanics - place a timer with a contest in your Stories, and when the time runs out, one of the participants will receive a prize or a discount.
