Are you successful with Instagram Stories? You will find this answer in your business page analytics. If you are new to Instagram Stories as a business owner, you first must know why and how should you use it for your business?
The need for a strategy for Instagram Stories for business promotion
Before getting into the basics of how you can optimize Instagram Stories for your online business marketing campaigns, you first must know why you need a strategy for Instagram Stories?
The statistics below will give you the answer-
There are over a billion active users on Instagram today. Half of them love to upload Instagram Stories every month. This means approximately 500 million people are uploading Instagram Stories daily. There has been an estimate that around 60% of users have become interested in the brand after seeing the Instagram Stories on their feeds.
Popular brands have now understood the significance of Instagram Stories, and they have responded to it quite positively. They now post around 2.5 Instagram Stories every week, and there are about four million business brands who are regular advertisers on Instagram Stories in 2020. The numbers are rising, and it is expected to surge in the future too.
Gearing up for Instagram Stories for marketing your brand
Now, you know why Instagram Stories are highly popular and how successful brands optimize them for their business needs. If you want to get started with Instagram Stories, you first have to know the best practices for using them first. So, here is a rundown on them for your easy convenience-
- Create your Instagram Stories
- Go to the Instagram app and select the icon that looks like a camera located on the top-left side of the screen to access the camera for creating Instagram Stories.
- There is a white circle at the screen’s bottom; tap on it to click a photo or
- Hold and press the white circle to record a video or
- You can add any picture from your mobile gallery for Instagram Stories.
You get a range of formats available at the bottom of your screen to create effects like Super Zoom, Music, Type, Live—Boomerang, and more. Choose any format you wish to for adding the desired effects to Instagram Stories.
- Check the number of views for Instagram Stories
You need to check how many followers have seen your post. This helps you in the Analytics.
- Click on the Instagram Stories icon on the home page located in the top corner on the right.
- Your post has the count of views on the Story
- Swipe up to know the names of users who viewed your Instagram Story
- If you have an Instagram business account, you can tap on the icon with the graph to gather further insights into Analytics for the post.
- Use stickers for Instagram Stories
Business brands should make their Instagram Stories fun and interesting. This is where stickers will help you. You can enhance real likes and followers with them as they add a humorous appeal to the post. You can also buy real views, likes, and followers for your Instagram profile with Blastup. To add stickers to Instagram Stories, first note-
- Choose the variant of stickers that complements Instagram Stories.
- Every sticker serves a specific function, and they change regularly
- Boost reach and views with locations and hashtags
- Use music, gifs, and emojis for expressing a mood
- Use questions, polls, and questions to boost engagement
- Add product stickers to make Instagram Stories shoppable
In April 2020, Instagram added some new stickers small business owners could use. They make it simple for customers to support these small businesses by ordering food or buying gift cards for use in the future.
How can you add stickers to Instagram Stories?
- Share the video or the photo to the Story, or you could use the Create option to work with a blank background
- Tap on the icon for stickers on the top of the screen. It looks like a square with a smile and has a corner that is folded
- Choose the sticker you want to use. Every sticker type has its unique tips and tricks, so experiment a bit to find out what will work for you.
- Add music to Instagram Stories
You can add music to Instagram Stories. This option is much better than having audio playing in its background. The music option captions the lyrics as well.
Consultants in Instagram marketing recommend that you spend some time on Instagram to know more about stickers and how they work. Instagram Stories are more of art over science. It would help if you were prudent to determine what is too much for using Instagram Stories stickers for your business.
- Adding hashtags to Instagram Stories
When you add hashtags to Instagram Stories, you reach a wider audience. It is chosen by the algorithm on Instagram to be displayed on the hashtag page. In case it does, you will know as its page will be displayed in the list of views. You can add a hashtag in the following ways-
- Hashtag sticker where you tap on the icon for stickers at the top of the screen on the square folded sticker with a smile
- Use the function for regular text to click on the icon for the text that reads Aa and press the key for #.
In both of these ways, Instagram will give you some popular ideas for hashtags so that you could get started. You can add about 10 hashtags to Instagram Stories. Here, you should shrink them down a bit and make them hide behind gifs, stickers, and emojis.
Instagram Stories can boost business value and engage your audience better. Use them for business brand promotion and ensure you follow the above guidelines listed above. In this way, you can boost business visibility and reach out to your targeted audience in a more successful way.
