Instagram stories are a great way to grow your community and remind your followers you are there. With tons of people and countless accounts you have to keep up with the Instagram algorithm to maximize your audience. To capture your audience’s attention you need to go the extra mile and using Instagram stories is a great way to do that.
Instagram stories need to be catchy, fun and authentic to keep your followers interested and eager to interact with you. It is a good idea to have your stories informative, fun to watch and sometimes even inspiring. This of course all depends your brand. Never forget the personality of your brand when creating content.
While Instagram stories are always evolving, we have done extensive research and testing to bring you the best tips for you to bring your Instagram stories to the next level.
Tip #1: Have personality and create high quality content
People are following you for a reason and that is what you need to focus on. Create high quality content based on your niche and what you audience has learned to expect from your account. It is important to share useful tips, some behind the scene stories to keep it real and gain trust, and of course something to inspire your followers. We all love to have something inspiring to read or see during a busy day.
Keep your stories real. No one likes to see a perfect life all the times, as it is not realistic and your audience can see right through it. It is good to show all the great things that happen but it is even better when you add that real life story line and show how there are hardships to deal with.
One thing that works well is adding location tags to your stories. This is an added opportunity to show up on the location highlights so more people can find you and let your readers where where you are recording the awesome stories.
Tip #2: Highlight your best Instagram Stories
Remember new people are visiting your profile every day so it is important to keep your most relevant stories alive. A good way to do this is by creating different highlights for each topic or creation. We created one called “About Us”, so every new follower get to know us better. You can create different highlights for each type of occasion, travel destination, recipes or anything you think is worth showing to the world for longer than 24 hours.
Tip 3#: Be consistent and do not over do your stories
No matter your niche it is important to post Instagram stories constantly, but not constantly. No one wants to see 50 stories from your account every time they check Instagram. It is good to pace yourself and your account throughout the day and post a couple of new stories every hour or so. When we have good content we try to post approximately 10-15 Instagram stories throughout the day, so we appear first on our followers feed no matter when they check.
Tip #4: What apps to use to create epic Instagram Stories
Creating nice eye-catching images might take more time to create than just recording a video, but trust me, you will see positive results by investing your time. There are several of our favorite apps to help create Instagram stories.
Unfold or Canvas:
Both Unfold and Canvas have templates to use, so you do not need to create layout from scratch for each new story. You can even save you make to keep your Instagram stories consistent over time.
Hyperlapse or Framelapse
A hyperlapse is a bunch photos pasted together and made into a video. On my trip to Quebec with other bloggers I discovered this gem and truly love what it does. You just have to focus the camera, press record and hold it for at least one minute to get a cool video. This app is great to record walks from point A to B, to record the sunset, or recipes. Anything you think will look cool recording and displaying in a sped up video.
Tip #5: Be precise and straight to the point
For anything important that you are showing in the story, be precise. Iff possible have it written on the story itself, as many of your followers are not going to be watching with their volume on. If it is an important announcement that you want your audience to hear, sure to add a GIF that says volume on or something similar.
Tip #6: Be creative and pop!
You have less than a second to draw someone’s attention to your story. Every story must be unique and catchy, but not time consuming to create. One thing that works well is using GIFs, boomerangs, and artistic stories. Besides using the apps mentioned above you can always create something unique in Instagram that does not consume much of your time. I will share you a couple of simple ideas to help improve the look of your Instagram stories.
Text with shadow:
Creating a text with shadow is possible if you copy the same text twice and give each set of text a different color. Then place one on top of the other with a slight difference in location to create the shadow effect. You can choose any color by holding down on any color of the color wheel and then it will pop up an option with tons of colors as well as using a drop eye tool.
Use the keyboard and your imagination:
Did you know that your keyboard as more than just letters and numbers? Besides the common emojis there are countless symbols you could use to make your story more unique. Also, give yourself a little room to design a unique text layout with the handy Instagram tools like changing fonts, colors, symbols, highlighters, etc.
I hope these six simple and easy Instagram story tips will help you take your Instagram to the next level. It does take time and commitment to grow an active community on Instagram, but an investment in time and learning to create the best Instagram stories possible is completely worth it.
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