How to Use Instagram Stories Effectively.

Instagram Stories allow you to connect with your followers in a quick and approachable way. You can use them for endless purposes - for example, to showcase your products, give a behind-the-scenes look or ask your followers questions. 

Whereas reels and posts mainly help to increase your reach, Instagram Stories are actually made to strengthen the engagement of your existing followers. But how do you make sure your stories achieve the desired effect? In this blog, we share 7 strategies to use your Instagram Stories effectively and keep your followers engaged!

1. Post Consistently
If you want to stay visible to your followers, regularity is incredibly important. Therefore, try to post a few stories daily so that you always appear at the top of your followers' timeline. Some handy tips:

• Choose a fixed number of stories per day (e.g. 3-5) and keep it up
• Experiment with different times of day to see when your followers are most active
• Use a content schedule or stories template to stay consistent without having to rethink what you're going to post every day
• Vary between different types of content: informational, personal, promotional and entertainment

2. Make Your Stories Interactive
Is your account getting a lot of interaction? If so, Instagram rewards this by making stories appear more often to your followers. So make sure you actively engage your followers with your content by using interactive features, such as:

• Polls: Get followers to vote on a topic relevant to your niche. 
• Question stickers: invite people to ask questions or ask a question yourself to elicit responses
• Quizzes: Create fun knowledge questions about your area of expertise
• Emoji slider: Let followers show their opinions by using an emoji slider

And the convenient thing is: this way you not only increase your engagement, but you also receive valuable insights about what your target audience likes and where their interests lie.

3. Share Exclusive Content
Instagram Stories are perfect for giving your followers an exclusive look behind the scenes! People love authentic and spontaneous content that they can't find anywhere else:

• Include your followers in your daily routine. Show what you are doing and what a regular work day looks like for you
• Show the process. Are you working on a new project? Then this is a great opportunity to show step-by-step how you proceed
• Share exclusive offers. Offer discounts or deals only available through stories
• Behind-the-scenes. Share images of your event, workshop or collaboration with other entrepreneurs 
• Tell a personal story. This helps build a deeper connection with your followers and humanize your brand

4. Use Text
Keep in mind that a large portion of people use Instagram without audio. Therefore, it is helpful to make your stories understandable even without audio by adding short texts or subtitles to your videos.

• Keep it short and to the point. Stories are not made for long pieces of text. Therefore, use keywords and short sentences
• Use eye-catching fonts and colors to attract attention
• Highlight important words. Use emojis or a different color to highlight key words

5. Highlight Your Best Stories
The unique thing about stories is that they disappear after 24 hours. Want them to be visible longer? Store them in your Highlights! That way you can keep important information available to new and existing followers for longer.

• Create a clear structure. Consider categories such as "Reviews," "Tips," "Behind the Scenes" or "FAQ.
• Use attractive covers. Create uniform and recognizable highlight covers with your corporate colors and icons
• Keep your highlights up to date. Delete old stories that are no longer relevant and add new ones regularly

6. Use Hashtags
To reach a larger audience, it is helpful to use relevant hashtags in your stories. In doing so, use relevant and niche-specific hashtags rather than just popular ones. For example: #MindfulBusiness #CreativeEntrepreneur #SocialMediaTips.

Tip: Want to keep your story looking neat? Then reduce the size of the hashtags or hide them completely behind a sticker or emoji.

7. Call to Action (CTA)
Your stories are not just there to get more interaction with your followers, you can also use them to get your followers to do something. Therefore, regularly add a clear call to action (CTA) that matches your goals.

• Would you like more DMs? ➝ "Send me a DM with your question!"
• Want more website traffic? ➝ "Click the link in bio!"
• Want more engagement? ➝ "Vote in the poll!"
• Want to boost sales? ➝ "Shop through the link now!"

Make Your Stories Effective
As you can see, you can do anything with stories. You can use them to inspire, inform and activate your followers. Make sure you use them in the right way by using interactive stickers, sharing exclusive content or telling a story.

Wondering what else you can do with Instagram Stories? Then contact us and we will be happy to share all the possibilities with you!