They’re time-sensitive, tap-friendly, and engaging – the perfect mix to take your Instagram strategy to the next level: Stories!
Almost 60 percent of Instagram users say they’ve become more interested in a product or brand after seeing it in Stories. Stories act as an interactive slideshow, where users can tap through their followers’ photos and videos that will disappear after 24 hours. While we’ve seen multiple algorithm changes come to the app, Stories are a great way to boost your brand’s reach and visibility on Instagram.
Why Use Instagram Stories?
Beyond showing your audience that you are active and engaged with your account, there are many perks to integrating Instagram Stories into your strategy.
Different from an in-feed post, Instagram Stories allow any users to add a link directly to the story. This streamlines the process to help increase conversions on Instagram – rather than sending your followers to a link in your bio, your audience can click through the link directly from the story.
Additionally, the Stories feed is at the top of the screen as soon as a user opens the app. If used consistently, Stories give you the power to “skip the line” in your followers’ feeds by allowing them to see your account immediately rather than scrolling to find your most recent post amidst the chaos of their home screens.
How Does the Algorithm Work?
The Instagram Story and Feed algorithms are similar. Each use four top signals to predict what a user might be most interested in:
- The content: What kind of content is it – photo or video? How long is the video? How many people have already interacted with the content?
- Who posted it: Does the content come from an account the user regularly interacts with?
- The user’s activity: What kind of posts does the user typically interact with?
The user’s interaction history: Does the user interact with certain accounts more than others?
Instagram Stories Best Practices
- Always be sure to shoot Story content vertically.
- Use the interactive features Instagram offers. Location tags, mentioning other users, adding a link, relevant polls or quizzes, questions – get creative (but don’t make it too busy)!
- Stay true to your brand, but feel comfortable being a bit more casual. Stories are a powerful tool for humanizing your brand – for example, showing the face-first content that brings familiarity to your brand.
- Share posts to your story. A low-effort but high-impact tactic is sharing posts to your stories. You can share content your audience might find relatable; or share your own feed posts directly to your story.
- Pro tip: Sharing a feed post that directs people to a link in your bio? Post it to your story and add the link directly in the story to increase link clicks.
There you have some of our best tips and tricks for implementing Stories into your social media strategy. It might take some trial and error, but we hope this helps you kick off using Stories with confidence.
