Here at Travel To Blank we are big fans of Instagram stories for two reasons. First, it connects you with your audience and builds a more personal relationship and two, it helps grow your account. Instagram stories are less work than posting a beautiful well-edited photo to your profile and can help you grow your account just as much. The key to Instagram stories is that you are producing fresh content all the time. This way you are always giving your audience another reason to follow you and your adventures.
Instagram stories is a good tool to use to as it shows up at the top of your audience’s news feeds and the explore page. It is a good way to remind your audience you are there and to bring potential followers to your account. The more stories you post the more chances you have to be featured on the used hashtags or locations.
How to use Instagram Stories to grow your audience
The best way to use Instagram stories is not just through constantly posting fresh content. It is also important use the tools Instagram has available for you and to watch other account’s stories as well.
Properly using the story feature means tagging your location, adding hashtags, using polls, posting stickers and of course interacting with other people stories. We recommend to post every time you are doing something throughout the day. This way you have a higher chance to get featured in that location’s story. Instagram knows where you are and if you add a different location, the story will show it as much as if you were right there.
We post every couple of hours and when we have something cool we feel our audience will enjoy. The more stories you post throughout the day the more chances you will have to be feature on the hashtags, locations and exploring page, so the more chances you have of gaining new followers.
Instagram Stories best practices
Do not post all your Instagram stories at once. It is better to spread them out to keep showing up first on your followers new feed. Always use the location tag, it is under stickers, in your stories for the chance to be featured on that location’s stories.
Every time you post a story you can use up to 10 different hashtags. Write them with the type option, Aa, and then make them super small so they do not take too much space on your photo. You can even hide them by using the color drop to make the text the same color as the background.
Once again, the more hashtags you use the more likely you will be feature on one of the hashtag’s stories. Polls are a good feature to interact and to get to know your audience better and see what type of content they are more interested in getting from you. A poll might not help directly grow your account but it will increase engagement.
If you have any other tips or recommendations about maximizing Instagram Stories feel free to leave us a comment below, we want to hear from you!
How to best use Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is a big game changer. Simply, it helps grow your Instagram account and many companies and personal brands do not understand why. Well, it is pretty simple. The fresh stories show up on the top of your followers feed, so it is a constant reminder that you exist.
We have some tips to help you grow as fast as possible on Instagram without investing money or too much time.
1. Be you!
Use a more personal language in your stories. Try to show the behind the scene of the well edited photos and videos you post on your profile. People like to connect with brands and bloggers in a more personal way. If you treat stories as a way of doing ads it will not last, people will simply stop watching your content.
2. Create good content
Not because you want to create fresh content does that mean share absolutely anything on your Instagram stories. Even though you need to keep it fresh and authentic do not sacrifice the quality of your stories. People get tired pretty fast and they start skipping your content. Try to show interesting things each time, not just what you think is interesting, but what your audience cares about and it they will keep watching and learning more.
3. Use videos
Video stories do better than photos as it is easier to capture the moment. Your audience does not just want to see more photos of you, they also want to hear you and what you have to say.
4. Generate a need for you
This might sound odd but creating a need for your content to your followers is key. If you upload stories constantly people will get use to see you every day and will want to see more. There is always something you can say, it can be a reflection, a story, a promotion, exploring a new place, etc. Be creative in you Instagram stories; do challenges, ask questions, anything you want. The closer your followers feel to you, the more invested they will become in your stories and profile in general.