Instagram Stories: How To Use It Like A Pro For Marketing (And Why You Should)
Instagram is one of the hottest social networks right now. Besides being visually appealing and easy to access on the go, it’s also pretty simple to learn how to use Instagram. Consider these seven fresh ideas to spice up your Stories and use them in a way your competitors haven’t yet thought of!
1. Story Highlights to introduce to your brand
When new users land on your Instagram profile, they probably don’t know who you are (yet). Most accounts usually rely on a short bio to make that first impression – you’ve heard a million times before how important it is to have a great Insta bio that catches the eye, quickly explains what your business does, and convinces new visitors to click that follow button.
2. Post Interesting, Colorful Photos and Videos
Instagram is all about providing value to your followers, especially if you want more engagement. In this case, your goal should be to post photos and videos that evoke some kind of emotion – happiness, humor, motivation, nostalgia, love or anything else. High-quality photos with a lot of colors tend to get the most action on Instagram.
3. Don’t Overdo It with the Filter Effects
Instagram provides you with a bunch of filters you can apply to your photos to automatically enhance the look and style, but that trend seems to have already hit its peak. People want photos and videos that are colorful, but relatively natural looking. Although filter effects may be tempting, try to limit your use of them to keep the color and contrast normal in most of your photos.
4. Brainstorm and try different ideas
It’s a simple rule which is not that easy to follow.
I’d begin with planning what you can do around your activities and what resources you can use to create every piece of your future Instagram for business content. Come up with two or three best ideas.
5. Polls for audience research
While polls are a great tool to engage your audience, you can also use them strategically for audience research to create better content that resonates with your followers. Instead of asking something for the pure entertainment, find out what kind of content your audience wants to see on your account.
6. Shoutouts to competitors
Highly competitive and the fastest growing platform, Instagram was touted as “all about community,” but the harsh reality was few people really wanted to help anybody. Brands wanting to be featured need to pay for every single mention, every single shoutout.
7. Hashtags
While they’re typically used for discoverability on social media, hashtags are more likely to take viewers away from your Stores and to others’ posts.
Hashtags in stories are best used only if you own them—if you’re running a contest or you’re getting customers to submit photos of themselves using your product under a branded hashtag. This way, if the hashtag is used in a Story, it’ll at least take people to a collection of posts related to your brand.
Conclusion
So that’s it from me! I highly encourage you to use Instagram Stories for your business. With over 300 million people on the conveyor belt every day, it’s a no-brainer to include in your social media marketing strategy. Utilise the temporary and laid-back nature of Stories to show off how awesome your company and product/service is!
