Have you been thinking about using Instagram Stories for business, now is the time!
If you have used Instagram recently, you might have seen the multicolored circle around profile pictures.
That is the Instagram story icon.
Instagram stories are 15 second short videos, text or photos. They are available both to brand and users, and they expire after 24 hours.
Like most brands, you may be awestruck –
“Why do you need to post Instagram stories on your feed regularly?”
The reality is that Instagram stories are the perfect promotional tool for your Instagram branding.
There is an abundance of content on this platform, and brands have to post regularly to keep up with the competition.
Due to overload, your followers might miss your content in their feeds.
Instagram Stories display and populate differently than regular feeds, staging up with a rainbow circle around a brand’s profile picture.
Some Benefits Of Instagram Stories To Your Brand
- Instagram recently launched interactive polls to their Stories.
These polls are a fun, frictionless way to engage with your fans and get their thoughts on any given topics.
It is an excellent opportunity to get your audience’s two cents on a point or decision. And this can possibly save you time and money.
- Stories allow you to go into detail about a promotion, sale or giveaway. You can also add a sneak-peek to a new product or blog post. With a single click, you can direct users to your story using the swipe action.
Unfortunately, this option is available for businesses with 10k followers only.
In case you are not there yet, that is fine. You can still direct the users to the link in your profile. Don’t forget to update it based on the content you are promoting.
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” – @JeffBezos #InstagramStories #socialmediamarketing… Click To Tweet
Innovative Ways To Use Instagram Stories For Business
1. Tease a live stream
Creators notify or tease their followers about live streams on other platforms, such as Facebook.
Instagram Stories can also be used to cross-promote content to build up your audience. Cross promoting can further grow your other platforms where you don’t have a large following.
2. Countdowns
If you have an upcoming event or launching a new product, why not countdown for the big day?
Countdowns build up momentum around the special day and enhance your follower’s interest.
They will be anxious to find more. And when it’s the big day, you have an audience ready to participate in your event or in purchasing your new product or services.
3. Effective Hashtags
On social media, hashtags are an essential factor. Selecting the right hashtag can either break or make your post.
They have a significant impact on the engagement your post receives, and it can be a huge factor in deciding whether your content will reach the targeted audience or not.
4. Offer something exclusive
Using Instagram Stories for business can be an effective way to showcase sales each week. Or offer something unique and influence your follower’s buying intent.
When you make a story, your followers get an alert in their feeds. Alerting them gives you an excellent way to boost your brand engagement.
5. Invite your followers behind the Scenes
Don’t be surprised how much your fans can be interested in peeping behind the curtain.
In this age where consumers are skeptical about traditional marketing, there’s honesty when you peel your layers off and take them behind the scenes.
Providing your fans behind the scenes footage of your brand builds and establishes a solid bond with them.
Uploading engaging videos or photos to your Instagram Stories gives them that unique insight and humanizes your brand. These types of content can be as interactive and valuable as the regular content you share.
6. Take over
What are Instagram takeovers? This is when you and another brand work together and appear in each other’s Instagram stories.
You can send a 10-second video or picture that your partner will upload to promote your brand. It is a great idea that encourages brands to think not only about themselves but also about their competitors.
7. Drive traffic to your website
Your Instagram Bio is the only real state you have to link out from Instagram. It can be challenging to drive people’s attention there. Luckily, there are two conversion principles to get the job done:
a. Call to action and affordance
A Call to Action is a direct instruction as to what move you would like your audience to make. Without this clear Call To Action, the default action of your target audiences will be to swipe to another post.
b. Affordance
Affordance offers a user signal that shows the folks which action should be taken and where their attention should be.
Consider mentioning your own account or using an arrow to pointing to your avatar in the top left of your Instagram Story before telling your audience to check in your bio.
8. Instachat: Short Q&A
People are eager to hear what experts have to say about a situation or a topic.
So, with Instagram stories, you can post a short Q&A. Post a video or photo to let your community be aware of short Q&As, including when it happened and what it’s about.
9. Show off your creative process
Use Instagram Stories for business purposes and show off your latest creativity. It may be a pre-design sketch or a video in which you visit the manufacturer behind your product.
These types of Instagram Stories portray your creativity and builds a new level of credibility with your audience.
10. Deliver special offers
Do you want to know how to reward your followers? Add special offers as part of your Instagram Stories for business strategy.
Instagram reported that Stories has increased the time users spend on the platform. Why not offer them discounts and coupons. Or organize Sweepstakes to increase the engagement they have with your brand?
Post a coupon to your Instagram story and state when the offer will expire. Add the URL to your Story (if you have up to 10k followers) or put it in your BIO.
11. Share Clips or headlines of your long form content
Another profitable way of using Instagram Stories for business is by sharing headlines from your long form content.
Doing this can help in inviting your followers to read and consume your other content (blog post, PDFs, Cheatsheets, etc.) Or use them as a teaser to content on another platform. Always give your users a good reason to find out more and tell them what content is all about.
All in all, we have yet to see many brands take maximum advantage over Instagram stories for business purposes.
This implies that there is less noise to compete with and more opportunities for your brand exposure. It is the perfect place to test out promotions or new ideas and see how things go if a plan fails!
Are you using Instagram Stories For Business? If not why not?
I am so late to this Instagram stories. I have no idea how to use them I just watch some and let it be clearly I am a failure when it comes to Instagram.
It is never too late Joan. I am sure you can still catch up!
I need way more followers to use this. I am a long way from 10,000.
Me too Tara. I am at 8k but do use it weekly.
I haven’t yet used my instagram for my business but after reading this I guess it us worth a try.
I bet it is totally worth it Monidipa.
Good to keep in mind! I’ve been trying to use Instagram stories more often. Sometimes I forget though.
I understand. Most people do even though it is an excellent way to grow your audience.
These are great tips! I must admit I probably don’t do as much as I should with my Instagram. Thank you for these ideas, I will have to implement some.
I am eagerly waiting to hit the 10k followers threshold. Would love to try out these tips on my instagram stories. Thank you.
I use Instagram but I am new to it and didn’t know we could do so many things on Instagram. Recently I learnt how to use hashtags and really saw the difference after using right hashtags.
I love Instagram stories. I can’t link things yet because I am under 10K, but I love being able to show behind the scenes of my life. I LOVE the polls on it too.
I am new to instagram as well and am just getting familiar with the ins and outs. Thank you for helping me understand the stories portion.
I never used instagram stories before! I think that thanks to your useful tips I’ll start doing it soon!
I’ve been rather shy with Instagram stories, but I’ve done some of these things here and there. I have to work on generating content for Instagram stories. I really want to step my game up in that department.
As a blogger, I tend to use my stories more for the personal life. But the great thing is that I can incorporate my blog into my personal life since my blog is all about Motherhood! Thank you for these great tips. I’m definitely going to try a couple of them.
I have not ever made an instastory but it is on my list of things to do! Next year I hope to have a digital product to sell and then this post will be more useful. Will pin it for future use.
Great tips! I am not at all good with insta stories 🙁
Ohh, this is such great tips. I didn’t use instagram stories often but I guess this would be a good idea to try it out to boost my blog.
These are great tips, I am not that good at instagram stories, and also not yet 10k. may be one day I will reach there.
Yeah I know I need to change that link in my profile more often. So often I have just let it go and I could have done some promoting and its just not available for the new stuff I should be promoting. Just means I need to be more with it with my social media.
we’ve been using stories quite a lot lately at work. For Q&As, behind the scenes and takeovers mainly but it’s been quite fun! great tips!
These are great tips! I like watching Instagram stories of my favorite IG users. It could definitely help a business.
Apolline I am totally agree with you if want to grow your instagram channel then you need to do stories on regular basis. Recently Instagram changes their algorithm and we can see the dip in engagement so its better to put stories if you have business account then story is must. Thanks for sharing this blog.
Really? Honestly, sometimes I think that IG stories are useless because they are not saved.
I am so close to gaining 10k organically (yes people still do that) so I can finally get the swipe up feature. I know once I get that swipe up feature it will enhance traffic to my site!
I have just started using Instagram for Business and the stories option scared the hell out of me! Thanks for this.