Are You Making The Most of Your Instagram Stories and Highlights /
Instagram Stories have been around since 2016, and now five years later, more than 500 million users use Instagram Stories every single day, and 60% of Millennials watch and post Instagram stories. So what can your business do to stand out amongst all these Stories and make the most out of these remarkable statistics?
There’s no denying that Instagram Stories are a great selling tool, as 1 in 4 Millennials and Gen Z-ers browse Stories for products and services they’re considering buying. Most of us know that Stories disappear after 24 hours, so that’s why we’re going to talk about the importance of Instagram Highlights, and give you a few of our tips and recommendations.
Let’s start with Stories…
Your Instagram Stories are great place for showing off your brand’s personality, feel and appearance. They can be used for a range of purposes, such as to increase engagement, or receive instant feedback on your products and services. Here are some of our top-tips for Instagram Stories:
HIDE YOUR HASHTAGS
Didn’t know that you can include hashtags on your Stories? Well now you do! Adding hashtags to your Story can help reach a greater audience, however they can often look messy or confusing. You could try making the hashtags the same colour as the background, hiding the hashtags behind a sticker, or making them really, really small so they’re no longer visible, but still have the same effect!
USE POLLS, QUESTIONS & FUN STICKERS
Polls and questions are not only a free way of gathering market research (for example, asking your followers what their favourite product is) but they can help to massively increase engagement and build more of a community feel. And then you can also use eye-catching stickers (which should reflect your brand) to help create noticeable, visually appealing Stories.
PLAY AROUND WITH FONT, COLOURS & TOOLS
Once you’ve either taken or uploaded a photo from your camera roll, experiment with the different tools Instagram displays at the top of the screen. Below you can see we’ve used the eraser tool to create a fun effect on the photo, and we’ve included some examples of the fonts available. You can also upload your own brand font to Instagram if none of these are suitable for your brand.
LOOK AT YOUR STORY INSIGHTS
Business accounts are able to view insights about their Stories they have posted. For example you can see how many profile visits or follows have occurred as a result of the Story. This allows you to compare your individual Stories and assess what kind of content your followers enjoy and interact with most, which may help you decide which ones to keep ‘permanently’ on your profile.
…Which brings us on to Instagram Highlights.
Highlights are great for grouping testimonials which are easy for users to access (read our blog about how much we love testimonials!). We also use them to include useful information about our business for new followers or potential customers to read.
We also believe they can really help the feel of your Instagram Page, as by choosing tactical cover images you can communicate your brand image or feel more to users, and make your page look for uniform.
If you don’t have the time to manage your own social media or marketing campaigns, or are looking for the help from marketing experts, feel free to contact us for a friendly chat.
