Many businesses out there are not fully utilizing the opportunities available through Instagram Stories. The reason? Stories are often an afterthought and don’t have much strategy behind them. People think, “they only last for 24 hours, how important can they be?”
They can be really important and have huge benefits when they are used strategically.
A few stats to back it up:
- 500 million people watch stories every day
- 58% of people say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories
- 50% of people have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product or service in Stories
Instagram Stories feature photos or short video loops that followers can view at the top of their app for 24 hours. Stories are a great way to show up consistently and to reinforce your brand, personality and offering. Instagram Stories are also a great way to encourage more interaction and engagement thanks to things like polls, questions, sliders, etc.
6 Benefits Of Showing Up On Instagram Stories
⚡️ Increase engagement: By using built-in features like polls, question stickers, reaction sliders, and quizzes, you can engage your followers in a fun, interactive way. This is also a great way to tap into your most engaged audience and learn more about what is important to them. ⠀
⚡️ Stay top of mind: Story bubbles live at the top of a user’s feed. Showing up in those first bubbles is a gold mine. Don’t rely just on feed posts or think that all of your followers will see all of your feed posts. It just isn’t possible. Showing up consistently in Stories allows you reach followers in multiple places.
⚡️ Generate & qualify leads: By looking at your most engaged Story viewers and those that engage with your content, you can prequalify leads.⠀
⚡️ Get instant feedback on products & services: If you ask the right questions, you can gauge interest in a product or service before bringing it to life. Ask your audience what they want, what they struggle with, and how you can help them. Then direct them to your products or services that solve those problems.
⚡️ Repurpose content: You know I love repurposing content. If you published a post to your feed with 3 tips about something…share those 3 tips on Stories. Did you write a blog post or create a video on a certain topic? Give a few highlights on Stories, and then direct them to the long-form content for more.
⚡️ Build the know, like and trust factor with your audience: Stories has the unique ability to both humanize brands and establish them as authorities. You can be more real, let people in behind the scenes, but can also serve up some extremely helpful information. Balance your Stories content with “get to know me” content and “showcasing your expertise”.
Stories is where you can have more fun, add value, promote your products and services without worrying about how it will fit into your feed. Stories is also a great place to share content that isn’t evergreen. Have an event or specific launch date you want to promote? Focus on promoting that in your stories.
Ideas of What To Share on Stories
Convinced about the benefits but now sure what to post? Try some of these:
- Introduction: share 4-5 slides introducing (or reintroducing) yourself to your audience.
- Try using the quiz sticker to make it interactive
- Use a this or that quiz template from another account (or design your own)
- Share a few fun facts about yourself
- Behind The Scenes
- Take followers along for a day in the life
- Share your daily to-do list
- What’s on your desk?
- Your favorites
- Share your favorite local businesses
- Favorite tools
- Must-have products
- Poll: Ask simple “this or that” poll questions.
- Quiz: Quiz your audience’s knowledge on facts about your industry.
- Highlight a product or service
- Ask a question: use the question sticker to start a conversation with your audience. This can be related to your product or service or just a personal question.
- Social proof: share a testimonial, screen shot of DMs, etc.
- Teach Something: what is something you can teach in just a minute or two? Give your audience a quick win so the next time they see your Story bubble at the top of their feed, they want to see what you have to share.
- Trend report. What is something you see a lot of in your industry or your client’s industry? Give your two cents.
- Your Routine
- What’s your morning routine?
- What’s your evening routine?
- What do you do on the weekend?
- Create a special/limited time offer: Something just for your Stories audience. Discount? Special guide? Free call with you?
- Time-saving hack: spill your secret sauce to being productive.
- Solve a problem. Talk about a common problem your clients face. How do you solve it?
What are you feelings about Stories?
amanda holliday 