How Brands can make the most out of Instagram Stories?

Instagram Stories are a big part of many digital marketers social media strategies. Here we share our tips and tricks for upping your brand’s insta-story game.

Be active

Just like physical posts on Instagram, it is important to stay active when uploading Instagram Stories. Stories will expire after 24 hours so make sure you’re uploading at least one story every 24 hours so you can remain in everyone’s story reel.

Repurpose influencer content

Gone are the days where you had to screenshot, crop and then resize posts to share them on your Stories. Sharing a post has been made easy by clicking the arrow next to the comment button on a post and then clicking ‘Add Post to your Story’. Repurposing influencer content is a great way to engage with your and their followers and stay active.

Influencer takeovers

We have seen a lot of brands hosting influencer takeovers on their Stories and it really is an effective way to engage with audience and create brand trust.

Storytelling in the age of ephemeral content creation has given rise to a new form of interactivity. Capturing content in 10-second increments requires certain expertise, and those influencers that do it well can impact business and communities in a positive light.

As it’s important to produce consistent content, the implementation of takeovers — where someone takes over another brand or person’s Instagram account temporarily to share their content — has become a major part of social media strategy. Takeovers are a win-win because brands can diversify their content with user-generated posts and the hosts can expand reach and gain new followers.

A great example of an influencer takeover can be “Show Your Day”. As the adage goes show don’t tell – a beauty brand could engage an influencer to share their morning routine on the brand’s Instagram Stories and showing how they use each product in the range to get ready for the day, from skincare to makeup.

Share Stories you are tagged in

Instagram users and consumers are more frequently turning to Instagram Stories to share their favorite products and/or brands. Pay attention to what you’re getting tagged in and share any relevant stories on your own story reel – your followers will love you for it and it’s extra content that you don’t have to create.

Take advantage of the swipe up feature

In 2017, Instagram launched the swipe up feature for Instagram Stories, allowing users who are on a business account and have over 10,000 to include a link in their content that will take users to a webpage when they swipe up on the Story. This feature has been a huge game changer for marketers and brands. Many have taken advantage of the new feature to make their Instagram strategy drive better results and to be able to track and measure the success of content.

So, how should you be using this feature? You could include a link to your website, a product page or a blog post, or you can also include a link to an influencer blog post about your brand or an event you are running. You can link to anything and everything!

Make the most of your highlights

A highlight is where you save your Instagram Stories to keep them on your profile permanently, even after they expire. Highlights are different “folders” where the stories are kept, so you can categorise them on your Instagram page underneath the bio.

Having highlights gives people the ability to ‘suss’ out your brand and see some of your past content. Some categories for your highlights could be: behind the scenes, new products, tagged content or inspo.