Instagram Stories: How to make them worth watching.
With Instagram Stories now being adopted on a massive scale by brands, we’ll show you how to stand out from everyone else.
What are Instagram Stories?
Instagram Stories are a feature that lets users post photos and videos that vanish after 24 hours. According to Facebook stats, Instagram Stories have now surpassed the popularity of Snapchat Stories, with over 250 million people using the feature every single day, compared to Snapchat’s 166 million daily active users.
How can you interact with Instagram Stories?
Given that Instagram Stories don’t let individuals ‘like’ or publicly comment, the only way of communicating with stories is by sending the user a private message on Instagram Direct. Alternatively, you can interact by reposting other people’s stories. This can be achieved using the App ‘Instant Repost for Instagram-Stories Repost Upload’.
How can you make your Instagram Stories more interactive?
Here’s Ality’s Top 5 Tips on how to utilise the new range of creative tools for Instagram Stories which make it easier to collaborate with other users and to engage followers:
Tag other Instagram accounts in your stories.
Show another brand or account a little love by tagging or mentioning them in your story, whether they are featured in it or not. This ability to cross-promote is an invaluable tool, and allows you to use others popularity to boost your own!
Add a 'Click to Reveal' (CTR).
A CTR brings more interaction by allowing the user to click to expose information, images, codes etc. A CTR can be added by inserting a solid background over your original image (choose colour, press and hold the screen with your thumb for 3 seconds, and the entire screen should fill with colour) and then using the eraser brush (4th icon at the top of the screen) to create something like…
Digestives or doughnuts – that age-old question.
Add a poll.
Instagram now allows users to share ‘two-option’ polls in their Instagram Stories.
One. Add polls to a Story post by selecting the “Poll” sticker from the sticker menu
Two. From there, you can type a question, as well as two responses
Three. Creators of the poll can later view the results by watching their own Stories and ‘swiping up’ on posts containing polls.
Four. Whatever your pressing question of the moment, be it the meaning of life, doughnuts vs digestives, dark side vs light side – get an easy answer.
Add stickers (locations, hashtags & more).
Spice up your Stories with a sticker or two
After uploading your Story, click the square smiley face at the top of the screen and scroll through the options
Applying a Location sticker allows your Story to be seen by a wider number of users, as Instagram now compiles all the Stories from specific locations. This feature not only encourages interaction but also provides a boost for your views
Add a link.
Adding links is a huge step towards driving traffic from your Instagram account to your website, when used effectively and creatively.
When you are creating your Story, simply tap the white ‘chain’ icon at the top right of your screen, then type in the URL you wish to use. Once you upload the story and play it back, you’ll see text at the bottom of the screen that says, “See More.” When a viewer swipes up on the text they’ll automatically be taken to your related content
If you add a clickable link to a photo, it will only be visible on the screen for a second before the next Story appears, so don’t forget to remind your audience to swipe up to click the link. Eg ‘Swipe up for more’, ‘Swipe up to shop’, ‘See more here!”
Alternatively, you can add doodle arrows that point them in the right direction as a visual CTA
With this option, not only can you alert people to the fact that you have a new blog post/page, but you can also include a direct link
NB – to measure your traffic and conversions, remember to use a link that you can track separately as Instagram Story Analytics doesn’t currently track URL clicks.
Instagram stories: who's doing it best?
In the US, the 15 public figures with the most views are a mix of singers, models, actresses, and comedians. The names that you might expect to see at the top are nowhere to be found, which suggests that having more followers doesn’t always equate to more views when it comes to Stories.
Dior and Louis Vuitton are the fashion brands with the best Instagram Stories engagement. In terms of fashion industry users, Emily Ratajkowski (@EmRata) tops it with the most Story views, followed by blogger-turned-designer Chiara Ferragni (@chiaraferragni).
