Tips to Make Instagram Stories like a Pro

Advertise your product or services with captivating Instagram Stories

Social media is the new tool to connect with people; you will get the information where the person is, what are they doing, and what their favorite part of the day is. You can get a glimpse of a person’s life via their Instagram stories, which are available for 24 hours. Stop mulling over the importance of it for your business. This blog post will help you to leverage Instagram Stories for your business.

We have created a go-to guide for you; to explore the best features of Instagram Stories and easily create one; if this platform is new for you. Feel free to click on any of the below-mentioned topics and jump to that section of the blog post.

• Instagram Stories –The Need of the Hour
• Comprehend the Working of Instagram Stories
• Length of Instagram Stories
• The Way to View Instagram Stories
• Add the Right Elements to your Instagram Stories
• Instagram Stories –Surefire Way to Promote your Services
• Go-to Instagram Tricks and Hacks
• Capture your Audience Attention with Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories –The Need of the Hour

With the advent of the internet, marketing pundits have leveraged the platform to promote their products, and with the growing user base, it has become the go-to photo-sharing social networking app. According to the reports published by Statista, the estimated social network advertising revenue of Instagram in the U.S. in 2019 was 9.45bn USD, the number of monthly active Instagram users boomed to 1bn, and many daily active Instagram Stories users are 500m. If you are planning to use it for your business, you should be cognizant of the fact that Instagram Stories are ephemeral (it will disappear after 24 hours).

Instagram Story is published separated from the photos and videos found in the tiled gallery of an individual’s Instagram profile. You must be aware of the basics of making a story, but using some hidden tools, which you can create out-of-the-box Instagram Stories.

Comprehend the Working of Instagram Stories 

Instagram Stories act as a fulcrum to attract the audience and enhance the engagement rate irrespective of you using a brand account or personal account.

Instagram Stories was launched in August 2016 and made it easier for users to check the updates of their peers or their favorite brand without much effort (your thumb can rest by avoiding scrolling). And this accelerated the time spent by users in-app/ day from 24 minutes to 32 min.

Instagram stories have catapulted the performance of a plethora of brands, including Teen Vogue, Insider, etc. Irrespective of the motive of publishers, brand awareness, grow traffic to videos outside of Instagram to publish creating disappearing content that surfaces brand voice without taking up too much of the average techie’s dwindling attention span.

Instagram Stories are skyrocketing the massive growth of Instagram Direct, which is private one-to-one messaging between users within the app. And it has grown into the best popular messaging apps globally.

According to the reports published by TechCrunch reports – a gamut of brand stories has allowed brands to connect with their customers directly, which allows them to learn about their client base and their demand on a one-to-one basis.

Length of Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories last for a day (24 hours) on your profile before vanishing. If your story comprises of a video; then your story can be up to 15 seconds long before cutting to the next piece of content.

Alike Instagram Stories, photos, and videos as well as time constrain when users view them.

If you are pondering to put videos to your Instagram Story, then you should be aware that each has a maximum roll time of 15 seconds. And if you choose to add a video to your story, then it will play for up to 15 seconds, irrespective of its length, and then end.

Despite this thumb rule, there are a plethora of ways to play a longer video in your Story. The easiest is to divide the video that has 15 seconds longer duration and add the bifurcated ones into your Instagram Story. This is a prudent way to share your complete video. And if you are scouring for some mobile apps to help you, then ahead:

• CutStory (iOS only)
• Storeo (iOS only)
• Story Cutter for iOS
• Continual (iOS only)
• Story Cutter for Android

The Way to View Instagram Stories

When you’re using the Instagram mobile app, Instagram Stories appear at the top of your phone. These Stories will get a lot of engagement and help you market your daily Instagram photo gallery to more users because they’re always the first pieces of content users see when they open Instagram.

1. Click on Instagram and navigate to the home screen 

You need to open your Instagram app on your phone and click on the home icon on the left-hand-bottom side of your screen. This option is not available on the desktop site.

Once you reach the home screen of Instagram, you will see a series of circular icons on the top, each represents the stories posted by brands and individuals that you follow.

2. Click on the circular icon to view the desirable story

Each circular icon at the top of your home screen displays a small preview of the user’s most recent Story. Tap it to see the user’s Story, which will either be a picture or a video, with the latter playing automatically when you tap it.

3. Flip between a Story’s Photo and Video 

A single Instagram Story may have several images and videos strung together in the order in which they were shared by the user. The most recent piece of content will be shown first. To cut to the next picture or video that a user has posted to their Story, tap the screen of your mobile device.

4. Swipe to jump to another Instagram Story 

You can shuffle between Stories from various users by swiping left and right when viewing an Instagram Post. When you open an Instagram Story for the first time, you’ll see the following menu:

• • Go forward
  • Pause
  • Go back
  • Move between Stories

Did you know? Similarly, you can choose who can view your stories on Instagram. Read further to know more.

• Private Setting 

Your story is based on your account’s privacy settings. Your story is only available to your followers if you set your account to private. And if they pursue you, you can easily conceal your whole story from someone you don’t want to see it.

• Close Friends 

On Instagram and Stories, you can build a close friends list with just the people you’ve added. Go to your profile and tap on “Close Friends” in the side menu to add people to your list. Your close friends’ list is only available to you, and no one can request to be added, so you can make adjustments whenever you want.

Add the Right Elements to your Instagram Stories

Before, we elucidate what elements can beautify your Instagram Stories. Let us first understand how to make a simple one.

• Click on Instagram, and click on the camera icon in the upper left-hand corner of your tablet or phone.
• Share a video or photo you’ve already captured by swiping up on your screen to browse your gallery.
• Or, you can select a camera roll to capture a photo or video in the app.
• Once you’ve made changes to your photo or video, tap “Your Story,” or tap “Next” to share it with your Story and other selected friends at the same time.

You can do the same thing with Instagram Feed Posts, but you’ll need a few more shortcuts and tips to make them look like the one’s major brands and influencers publish.

If you are not sure of how to present your photo in the story, you can look at these options as well:

• Live
• Normal
• Boomerang
• Superzoom
• Rewind
• Stop Motion
• Hands-Free

The option “Live” allows you to broadcast the current place video where you are and connect with all your followers in a single click. Also, if you are looking to add the element of some quirk, then you can make a boomerang and post it. Apart from that, you can use many other options aforementioned.

Instagram Stories –Surefire Way to Promote your Services

There is a multitude of brands present on the digital platform, and it is vital to create a brand voice that stands out from the rest. Also, to survive the prevailing brand banters, you need to have a social media team that can come to your rescue and maintains the online reputation of your brand.

So, posting randomly will not suffice for your brand, and you need to look for a cohesive strategy that saves your brand to float. As a business leader, you need to think of the posts that are in sync with your product and what your customers want to see and interact with.

Here are few suggestions that will keep you covered to interact and increase your client base:

• Share your office footage

Adding only stock images would be futile for your brand. Customers look for brand profiles that have a variety of posts, including their people; brains that boost their brands. You can create relevant video content with your employees or post a brief company party video.

• Be the first to share break news about the industry 

You can use your Instagram Story to report on the latest happenings in your business, just as you would on your company site. Small news items that don’t deserve an entire article can be turned into Instagram Stories with the right design work.

• Familiarize your product 

You can leverage the Instagram Stories option to explain the specialty of your product by creating small videos. All you need to make sure is to use the right video quality to keep your viewer’s attention intact and provide the best visual appearance. Also, you should bear in mind that Instagram Stories’ image dimensions are 1920px high and 1080px wide, with an aspect ratio of 9:16.

• Share your blog post 

This will help to increase your website traffic as the link available on the blog will allow them to redirect to your website. This will also engage your views and enable them to see your expertise and the knowledge of the niche via your blog posts.

It would be correct to say that Instagram Stories can act as your blog’s source of traffic and your followers can later directly read your blog post from the website. Isn’t it a great way to connect with like-minded people?

• Mention your clients and other companies who follow you 

You’ll eventually attract other business accounts that want to join you like your Instagram following increases. Consider giving shout-outs to those accounts on your Instagram Post, whether they’re business partners or simply fans. This is a low-key but successful way to nurture your relationships with the consumers. Consumers are most important to your company’s success.

Go-to Instagram Tricks and Hacks  

Posting a simple story won’t benefit your business as per your expectations, apart from strategizing what to post on your Instagram, it is crucial to understand what tricks and hacks can keep your business online presence sailing.

• Use Stickers
• Experiment with the size of the sticker
• Add selfies, location, and polls

It is crucial to add stickers to jazz up the picture or video on your story. It allows you to create a friendly connection with your clientele and allow to strike of similarity. Also, bear in mind the sticker should not overshadow your main content, there needs to be alignment present.

You can also look for seasonal stickers as they would make a great difference. It will help you stay relevant and allow you to offer content related to the season or ongoing event. Using location stickers enhances connectivity. When people will click on the sticker, then they can explore more content; video, or photo related to the geographical place mentioned by you. Don’t forget to use the soundtracks or gifs to add more fun to your stories.

Capture your Audience Attention with Instagram Stories

With an array of entertainment options present on Instagram, it has become a cumbersome task to keep your users entertained. They have a short span of attention and you need to offer them unique and creative content to seek their attention. In conclusion, this blog post would come to your rescue when you are out of ideas.

If you want to know more ways to boost your followers and engagement rate via Instagram stories, then reach out to our experts at GlobalHunt Technologies.