Instagram Stories are essential for your brand’s social media success

Instagram Stories is a feature of the popular social media platform Instagram that businesses are taking advantage of nowadays. They are a fun and creative way to promote businesses by engaging followers and brand awareness that drives increased profits. If you’re not using Instagram Stories yet, you’re missing out on an opportunity that can scale your business to new heights. In this article, you’ll find a short guide that can help you jumpstart Instagram Stories to your advantage.  

The popularity of Instagram alone is a good reason why businesses should use this platform. It has half a billion users globally, and a fraction of that is coming from your area waiting to find your product or services. They can potentially join your existing customers if you play your cards right.  

In 2016, Instagram Stories was introduced to the platform, and its popularity grew, leading to a decrease in feed posts ever since. Stories posted stayed for 24 hours because it offers convenience with little production effort. It was a solution for customers who began to yearn for authentic connections with the businesses and brands they support. 

This Instagram format keeps evolving through the following years with elements that can help boost engagement. These aspects can help start conversations and increase interaction that can give brands humanization in real-time feedback. If the audience can get a response to their concerns quickly, they are more likely to stay.  

While the platform and its features continuously evolved, there are also other tools that were created to help individuals and businesses anonymously view accounts. An Instagram story viewer can also be a valuable tool when gathering information and ideas that can help you create and manage your own stories. 

Building Your Instagram Story 

Businesses have been utilizing social media for many years now. Many are familiar with Instagram Stories, and it’s no wonder that it immediately grabs people’s attention because there are improved tools that content creators use now. With creative ideas formed and brought into life, they can stay on top within the platform. 

With stories, you need to be versatile, especially when promoting various products. You can do video shooting outdoors, video shorts that are 10 seconds long-only, or you can also try doing lifestyle shots. Accordingly, you should avoid creating the same content repeatedly because it might lose the interest of your followers.  

To create versatile content with images, you must be knowledgeable in terms of photograph qualities that can make an impact and lasting impression. Keep your photos light as they get noticed 24% more than dark ones. If you’re going for color, go for a simple color palette with a few shades because they can catch more attention. Also, don’t be afraid to use vintage-inspired black and white images that can project character and sophistication.   

Ways To Use Instagram Stories For Business 

The same as your brand, the style you use in your Instagram story should be consistent. Your brand identity should be seen throughout your stories, as well as in coordination with your posts for your business. 

Here are some viable ways that you can make use of Instagram stories for your business:  

• Announcements 

Instagram Stories is created to reach users far and wide. Use it to promote company news, new products or services, new employees, and other updates.  

If you have behind-the-scenes images or videos, you can use Instagram Stories to show them to your followers and pique their interests to engage with your brand. It’s a great way to use content that you can share for a limited time without posting on your primary profile.  

Your followers will feel special and valued because you allow them a short glimpse of what’s happening behind the scenes. Instagram Stories also enable users to post multiple photos and share video clips to engage their following. 

• Polls 

If you want to get the opinion of your followers, you don’t need to prepare boring questionnaires anymore. You need to create a poll with just a tap on the screen. Polls make great data gatherers for market research, customer feedback, or just to know your customers more. Often, business owners make use of various data-gathering tools for market research that can help them decide on choosing from different investment strategies. Likewise, polls for your Stories can help you target a specific demographic when creating brand-specific campaigns.  

• Countdowns 

Getting your audience fired up with countdowns is an exciting way to build momentum when you’re launching a new product or an event. Countdowns are visual reminders that help your followers keep up to date when you’re counting down the days to a specific event. It keeps your followers interested and prepares them to participate when the countdown turns zero.  

• Questions And Answers 

One of the sure-fire ways to measure and improve your engagement is by giving your followers something to interact with, like using Instagram stories to initiate a short Q&A. You can create a quick post or a video informing your followers about the question. Then let them interact with you and among other followers to build rapport and get various answers to your questions. It’s also a more in-depth way of getting customer feedback.  

In Conclusion 

Instagram Stories are not only for regular users but for businesses aiming to capture the interest of potential customers and clients. You can post pictures and videos and style them in ways that allow you to be creative. Considerably, Instagram Stories has been a valuable tool for every platform user since its inception, and it can do wonders for your business when you know how to take advantage of it. Consider the information mentioned above to guide you in maximizing the benefits that Instagram stories can contribute to your growing business.