How to Use Instagram Stories for Business: 2023 Guide
Learn the basics of how to use Instagram Stories, then move on to some Instagram Stories tips and tricks to help you stand out from the crowd.
Learn the basics of how to use Instagram Stories, then move on to some Instagram Stories tips and tricks to help you stand out from the crowd.
More than
500 million people use Instagram Stories every day.And those Instagram users have a keen eye for new products and trends.58% say they’ve become more interested in a product or brand after seeing it in Stories.And half say they’ve actually visited a website to buy a product or service after seeing it in Stories.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that 4 million businesses advertise on Stories every month.
In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to use Instagram Stories for business.
Get your free pack of 72 customizable Instagram Stories templates now.
Save time and look professional while promoting your brand in style.
Instagram Stories are vertical, full-screen photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.They appear at the top of the Instagram app, rather than in the news feed.
They incorporate interactive tools like stickers, polls, and Instagram Story filters to make your content really pop.Here’s how to get started with the format.
On the left of the screen, you can select a format to experiment with: Create, Boomerang, Layout, Multi-Capture, Level, or Hands-Free.
If your Insta Story is still live — meaning less than 24 hours have passed since you posted it, just tap the Your Story icon on the app main page to see a viewer count for your Story.Tap the number in the bottom left to get a list of the people who make up those Instagram Story views.
After 24 hours, once your Instagram Story has disappeared, you can still
access insights, including reach and impressions.
Reach is the number of unique accounts that viewed your Story.
Impressions is the total number of times your Story was viewed.
Here’s how:
Source: Instagram
To add a sticker to your Instagram Story:
Source: Instagram
Adding a
hashtag to your Insta Story makes it discoverable to a wider audience.
There are two ways to add a hashtag to your Story:
Either way, once you start typing, Instagram will suggest some popular hashtag ideas to get you going.You can add up to 10 hashtags to your Stories.
(In which case we recommend shrinking them down and hiding them behind stickers, gifs, or emojis — learn how to do that from our
Instagram Story hacks post.)
Like hashtags, adding a location to your Instagram Story expands its potential reach beyond your follower list.
Places and businesses may have a location page.Users can find the location page under the Places tab when they search, or by tapping on the location in another user’s post.If your Story ends up there, you could end up with a lot more views.
And if you have a brick-and-mortar business, your location page is where your happy customers can showcase their experience with you, and potential customers can check you out.(In order to set up a location page for your business, you’ll need an
Instagram business account.)
To use a location sticker on an Instagram Story:
60% of people watch Instagram Stories with the sound on.That means, of course, that 40% watch with the sound turned off.If you’re posting videos, captions are a great way to make your content more useful to that 40% of people.
Captions are also an important way to help make content more accessible.
Instagram will auto-create captions for your video Stories if you add the captions sticker.
If you use the Music sticker to add music to your story, you can caption your video with music lyrics.
Stories don’t have to disappear after 24 hours.
Highlighting keeps them pinned to your profile until you choose to delete them.This is a great way to showcase your best, brand-defining content.
Each highlight can contain as many Stories as you like, and you can keep adding to them as you post new content.
How to create an Instagram Stories highlight:
Check out our full guide to
Instagram Story highlights, including icons and covers.
The
Instagram Explore page is the collection of algorithm-selected photos and videos that appears when you click the magnifying glass icon.Getting on the Explore page usually means a boost in reach and engagement, because the algorithm is showing your content to fresh, interested eyes.
So how do you increase your Stories’ chance of getting featured there?
Instagram says that the biggest ranking signals of what you’ll see in your Explore feed are:
Here’s some information about how to create content that’s most likely to appear on Instagram’s Explore page.
To create an Instagram Story poll:
Source:
OfficeLadiesPod on Instagram
Like polls, IG Stories questions offer a way to make your Stories interactive.
Instead of asking your followers what they think, the questions sticker allows your followers to ask you questions.Think of it as the Instagram equivalent of an Ask Me Anything.
To use Instagram Stories questions:
You’ll find the questions in your viewers list.Tap any question to share it and reply.
The identity of the asker will not be revealed.
Source:
Team Canada on Instagram
If you haven’t already set your business up for Instagram Shopping, you’ll need to do that first.Check out our
step-by-step guide to setting up Instagram Shopping for all the details.
Once you’ve got your account set up, just use the shopping sticker to make your Stories shoppable.
If you’re designing or editing your Stories on desktop, or uploading a
Stories ad to Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll need to keep these numbers from
If you’re just getting started, there’s nothing wrong with repurposing existing creative assets for IG Stories.In fact, if you want to run Stories ads, Instagram will
automatically optimize existing content for the Stories format.
But realistically, you’ll have better results if you plan and shoot your Stories content in vertical format right from the start.
The good news is you don’t have to get fancy.In fact, Instagram found that Stories ads shot on mobile devices
outperformed studio shot ads by 63%.
That’s because mobile-shot Stories from brands look more like the content regular users post.By blending in with what users expect to see, brands can create a more immersive and less intrusive experience.
For example, KLM’s Stories series Live With Locals uses low-production, mobile-shot videos in which local residents showcase cities KLM flies to.
Source:
KLM on Instagram
Yes, we just said low production value is A-OK.That doesn’t mean you can forget the fundamentals of visual branding.
For example, notice that the KLM Story above uses the airline’s signature colors of blue and white for the text.And, of course, there’s the flight attendant at the bottom of the screen encouraging you to swipe up.
Consistent visuals help nurture your relationship with your audience: they should recognize your style without having to check your username.
Using consistent colors, fonts, gifs, and
Instagram Stories templates is a great start.A style guide is a good place to track all your design decisions so you can keep your brand’s tone unified and your team on the same page.
If you don’t have a design team and you feel a little unsure of where to start, there are plenty of
Stories-focused design apps to help you get this right.
Images are shown for 5 seconds on Stories, and videos last up to 15.But how often have you actually looked at a still image in Stories for a full five seconds? I’m guessing approximately never.And that holds true for your followers, too.
Instagram’s parent company Facebook found that top-performing Stories ads have an average scene length of just 2.8 seconds.For videos, use quick cuts and keep things moving.
For still images, you can create motion that holds your viewer’s attention using stickers like animated GIFs or the new animated text sticker.
Now you can make your story text move ✨
Just tap the animate button when creating your story.
[pic.twitter.com/G7du8SiXrw]
— Instagram (@instagram)
[February 8, 2021]
The most effective Stories convey their key message in the first three seconds.That might sound fast, but count it out — it actually gives you plenty of time to get to the point.
Consistent, branded visuals with a clear unique selling proposition right upfront will give viewers reason to keep watching your Story or, even better, swipe up to learn more.
This ad from Matt & Nat conveys everything right from the start: the brand and brand promise are both clear, the offer is prominent, and there’s a simple call to action.
Source:
MattandNat on Instagram
On that note…
Like all good marketing creative, your Instagram Stories should include a clear call to action.
What do you want viewers to do next?
Swipe up is a perfectly fine CTA, but it can be a good idea to make it even more clear.
For example, the Matt and Nat ad above uses text overlay to specify “Swipe up to shop.”
When you run Instagram Stories ads, you can choose to replace Swipe Up with more specific text like Shop Now or Learn More.
Posting Stories regularly is a good way to keep your audience engaged, But having to interrupt your workflow throughout the day to create and post Stories can become pretty disruptive.
Luckily, you can create and schedule your Stories in advance using the Hootsuite scheduler.You can then work your Stories into your
social media posting schedule so they complement your other social posts and integrate effectively into any ongoing campaigns.
Follow these steps to schedule an Instagram Story using Hootsuite:
Videos must be between 1 second and 60 minutes long, and images must be less than 30MB.Both have a recommended aspect ratio of 9:16.You can only add one file per Story.
Note: If you want to include text or stickers in your Story, make sure they’re part of your image or video file.Text included in the caption field of Composer will not be included in your Story.
You can easily edit your images using Canva without leaving your Hootsuite dashboard.To get started, click on the Canva icon in the bottom right of the Composer window.
Then, select Instagram Story.
Once you’re done editing your image or video, simply click the Add to post button in the top right corner of the screen, and your file will be attached to your post draft.
You can now view, edit, or delete your scheduled Story in your Hootsuite calendar.
Start your free 30-day trial
Ready to start scheduling Instagram Stories and save time? Use Hootsuite to manage all your social networks (and schedule posts) from a single dashboard.
Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels with Hootsuite.Save time and get results..
