Since their inception in 2016, Instagram Stories have exploded. With 500 million stories being created every day, Instagram stories are a great way to regularly engage existing and potential customers from your profile. What are Instagram Stories? Instagram stories are an image or short-form video that will remain on the top of your follower’s home feed for 24 hours. To help you get started, we have put together some of our favourite ways that you can stay connected to your audience through Instagram stories.
Use Stickers
Using Stickers and GIF’s on Instagram stories allow you to connect with your audience and express your brands personality in a fun and unique way.
There are many uses for GIF’s on Instagram stories. Whether you are using a moving arrow to direct your audience to your next story or featuring a whale splashing on the surface for visuals, GIFs are an easy way to increase your story engagement.
Stickers and GIF’s can be accessed by swiping up or clicking the ‘sticker’ button on your Instagram stories. Some of our favourite stickers include:
- Create a game of trivia using the quiz sticker. This could be centered on local marine life, scuba history or fun facts about diving.
- Use the question or poll stickers to find out more about your followers and the kinds of content they would like to see from you. For example, Learn to Dive Q&A’s, asking followers about their favourite dive site/marine animal, or even just asking if they have any questions for you and your staff!
- The countdown sticker is an excellent hype builder and is useful if you have a dive trip, event or Instagram Live you are promoting. Every time you refer to that event, you can place the countdown sticker in your story to create a sense of excitement and urgency for your customers. Your followers can also opt to receive a reminder notification for when your countdown ends.
Add Hashtags and Location Tags
Using hashtags and location tags on your stories is a fantastic way to increase your chances of your stories being seen by new audiences who don’t follow you…yet. When people search for a hashtag, for example a location based tag like #visitqld or #travelthailand, they will be able to tap through real-time stories with that hashtag – including your own.
These features can also be accessed by swiping up on your story or clicking the ‘sticker’ button circled in red in the below image.
Post Consistently and Optimally
Posting consistently is one of the simplest tips to increase your story views. Every time you post a new story, your page will be bumped to the front of your followers story feed. This means your story will be at the front of their page and they will be more likely to view your content – giving you the chance to side-step Instagram’s algorithm.
We recommend that you optimize your posting methods by taking the time to review your post insights on Instagram to find out when your audience is most active. Posting when your audience is online will increase the chances of your stories being engaged with.
Use Canva’s Free Templates
Make use of resources such as Canva. Canva is a free graphic design tool that has hundreds of Instagram templates for you to choose from. The PADI social team uses Canva to create fun and interactive stories such as ‘diving bingo’ and challenge templates as you can see below.
To learn more about Canva and how you can access these templates, you can check out the ‘Introduction to Canva and Facebook Creator Studio’ webinar recording.
Repost Stories You Have Been Tagged In
Reposting stories from your followers are a great way to engage with your audience. Try setting up an Instagram story game, or asking your followers a question, such as ‘What is your favourite place to dive?’ and repost any fun answers you receive to your story. You can find stories you have been tagged in, in your direct messages on Instagram.
This is beneficial as Instagram’s algorithm rewards you when you ‘build relationships’ with other accounts on the platform. So when it sees that you have interacted with your followers via Direct Messages, your stories will be pushed higher up the algorithm when you next post!
Repost Your Feed Posts to Your Story
Earlier in this blog we mentioned that, posting stories automatically bumps you to the front of your followers feed. So, why not use this feature on Instagram to your advantage? Take this great opportunity to inform your followers that you have a new post on your feed by sharing the post directly to your story. This will also give you an easy way to maximize the content you have already created by cross-promoting your posts and encouraging your followers to engage more with your feed. To do this, you simply click the arrow next to the comment button on the bottom of your feed post. Give it a try for yourself!
View our webinar recordings to learn more about Canva, Facebook Creator Studio as well as Instagram and Facebook Best Practices.
If you have any questions regarding the above blog content, please contact PADI Marketing directly with any questions that arise.
