8 Ways to Use Instagram Stories to Boost Engagement for Your Business
We’re no stranger to Instagram Stories, and we’d venture to guess that you might not be either. Even if you aren’t utilizing Stories in the way that you could, they’ve been around for almost 5 years now, and over 500 million people use them each day (source). Their popularity is only increasing, regardless of the new takeover by Reels. Stories are, you could say, a classic!
They’re the perfect way to connect with your followers on a more personal level than just a static feed post, or really even an IGTV video. Stories are more real-time, with photos and videos posted having usually been taken right there on the spot. The plus of also being able to see your face and mannerisms and hear your voice gives your audience the opportunity to see the face behind the brand, which can be so essential for small businesses.
They hold a great power for business owners to build relationships and trust with their followers. But sometimes, they almost seem like a strange artform that some have perfected and some haven’t, so that’s why we want to share with you 8 ways to use Stories to boost engagement for your business!
Ask Questions
The best and most valuable advice you’ll ever get for your business is straight from your audience! If you’re stuck on what the heck to post or you’re unsure what your audience likes, ask them. If you have a few ideas for a new thing to put out but don’t know which will best benefit your audience, ask them. What better way to know that your audience enjoys what you’re creating than to hear it straight from them?
Your questions don’t always have to be so intentional, though. It’s perfectly fine to ask something in order to start a conversation with your followers. Just remember to actually follow up! Conversations aren’t one-sided, so even if you’re asking questions and getting them engaged with your Stories, it’s now on your part to continue it in their inbox. Encouraging a reply to your questions is even easier now if you...
Use Instagram Stickers
Instagram has a multitude of stickers to help you boost your engagement with posts, including the Q&A box, where they can easily type their answer in right there on your Story. They also have stickers for:
Adding a location
Adding a hashtag
Mentioning someone
Donating to a nonprofit organization
Adding music
Polling your audience
Counting down to something, and
Quizzing your followers
The best part about the hashtag and location stickers is that, while adding an extra pizazz to your Story, it will also be added to the Story feed of the location or hashtag that you added, expanding your reach to more places on Instagram!
Share Pieces of Your Personal Day
You can do this by posting a behind-the-scenes of something you’re working on, sharing a day in the life, asking for your followers’ opinions on one blouse over another for a photoshoot, whatever it may be. Letting them inside the life of the person behind the business gives them a deeper connection to you because now they can relate to you. You’re just another human being after all, and people like to do business with people.
Shoutout Your Followers
If you’ve received a great testimonial or review for something, shout that person out. If you have a Facebook group and notice that person always goes above and beyond to be helpful to others, shout them out. Just giving a simple shout out to someone can make their whole day, while encouraging others to follow in suit. The thing with shoutouts, though, is that we want you to make sure you’re doing because you genuinely want to, not just because it will make you more personable and likeable to your followers. It’s okay that it’s an added plus, but any interactions with your audience should be genuine!
Share Exclusive Promotions or Giveaways
Sharing an exclusive promo code or deal to just your IG Story watchers is a double whammy. For one, it lets you get a gauge on how many people that watch your Stories are truly engaged followers because you’ll be able to see how many times that code was used. Secondly, it will make your followers want to watch your Stories more in hopes that they’ll get another deal.
On that same note, you can incorporate Stories into your giveaways as well! You can do this one of two ways:
Post your giveaway in your feed, but have one of the rules of entry be that they have to share that post to their Stories and tag you
Host a small giveaway exclusively in Stories.
The entry rules for option number two could vary depending on what you feel like. They could reshare your Story announcement to their Stories, reply to a question of your choosing using the Story sticker, guess a number that is or is close to the one in your head, the options are endless. Just be mindful of the rule:prize ratio. For a small prize, like 50% off of a product or service, simply resharing the Story can suffice because it’s minimal effort. However, if you’re judging the winner based on the answers to a question, for example, or if there are multiple steps involved, the prize should be worth the extra effort.
Add Text to Your Videos
We live in the age of quick consumption and short attention spans when it comes to digital content. One of the ways you can help with this is to make sure your videos have some sort of text on them. If you’re about to talk about a certain topic via video, the least you can do is add text that lets your followers know what it’s going to be about.
To be even more helpful, add captions to your videos. It makes it more accessible to the deaf community, and there are also people who either just don’t like listening to stuff or aren’t able to at that particular moment. Captions allow them to read through quickly, and it lowers the chances of your videos just clicked through or completely swiped over to another person’s Story.
Tease a New Feed Post
Some people prefer to watch Stories more than they’ll view your feed, or they may miss a new post of yours. You can either go to your post and click “Share to Story” or you can take a screenshot of your feed and use a sticker to cover up the new post. Give a little teaser description with some text to get them to want to view it, and you’re good to go! Highlight the recent shop drop template of the stickers they could use here.
Give Call to Actions
Most of the things you post in your Stories should have some call to action in them, whether it’s just utilizing one of the stickers for engagement, visiting a website, sharing the Story, etc. If there’s a way you can take it to the inbox, that’s even better because that will make your new Stories show up at the beginning of your follower’s Story feed, increasing the likelihood that they’ll be viewed.
Those are 8 of our favorite ways to use Instagram Stories to boost engagement! We love Stories because, for one, there’s less pressure to post on your feed. Stories are quick and easy, yet still count as content. They also allow conversations to happen off the feed, broadening the ways in which you can communicate with and build relationships with your audience.
Remember that not everything you post on Instagram has to go on your feed. Utilize the other places you can have your content show up, and the benefits you reap will pay off!
