Stories are our favorite part of Instagram.
Stories are where we see the behind-the-scenes in people’s businesses. Stories are where we get to know people outside of their business. Stories is where you can post and it’s gone in 24 hours so you can be a bit more vulnerable. Stories are just where it’s at!
We like to say, “do what you want” when it comes to stories. Have fun!
However, there are some tips and tricks you can do to get more story views and increase your story engagement.
Wait 24 Hours
You have a chance to increase your story views and engagement if you let your stories expire for a full 24 hours. Then when you come back post an interactive sticker. Ask a question. Do a poll. Something that will get people to engage with you. This helps you increase your story views. We love to do this on Sunday and come back on Monday with an engagement sticker.
Then throughout the day keep posting in stories.
Story Strategy
Just like you have a strategy for your feed posts you should have one for stories. We find that most people don’t. Yes, stories should be fun to post on a whim when the inspiration comes to you but if you want to increase your story views create a story strategy.
You can even steal our strategy:
- The first post of the day is an engagement post. Let’s start off by getting people to engage with us so Instagram can keep showing it to people so when we continue to post stories it will pop on people’s first couple of stories.
- We wait 2-3 hours then we post a personal photo. Maybe it’s of our CEO drinking coffee and doing her daily devotion. Or going for a walk.
- Another 2-3 hours we do a 4-frame talk going deeper into something we posted, educating, selling, etc. We may even add a link to click on or another engagement sticker.
- Last we wait another 2-3 hours and then we post a business question, share someone’s post, or share something motivational (It depends on the day).
As you can see we now have 7+ stories that we posted in one day. You may think “who has time for that.” Remember content is everywhere!
Content is Everywhere
You may be asking yourself how you come up with content or stories. Remember that content is everywhere.
If you are out and about get in the habit of taking pictures and videos. Going for a walk take a video of your trail. If you see a beautiful sunset, take a pic. If you have a team meeting take a screenshot. You are out with your family take a quick photo or video then spend the rest of the day enjoying them. Made an amazing meal from the recipe? Post it then add the link to the recipe. Working on a project, do a sneak peek. Have a certain way you do things record a video showing people. Need something to read use the question sticker and ask everyone what they are reading or their favorite podcast. FYI we use this one a lot and get a lot of engagement. If it’s Monday ask people to name one thing they did that weekend. It’s Friday ask people what are their weekend plans.
Before you know it you have a ton of content on your phone that you can post on a whim.
Biggest Mistake
One of the biggest mistakes we see people make with stories is their story being so long that you have to keep hitting your phone, next, next, next, next, etc. Remember we have short attention spans. No one wants to listen to a long story. We know that was blunt, but we are being real and honest with you.
If you are doing a story for more than 3 frames turn it into a video. Just go live at this point! Even if you only go live for 3 minutes. Or break it up over a couple of days. You can create a true story. So for example on Monday, you do a story and then say, “stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2.” People do this all the time on Tik-Tok, and it keeps people engaged. Will it work on Instagram? Try it. Experiment with social media.
Engage With Other Stories
You can’t expect to get story engagement if you aren’t giving engagement to others.
Your engagement strategy should include stories. We like to look at the first couple of stories which are usually people we connect with the most but are they our ideal clients? Or your business friends? Doesn’t matter we still want to connect with the first couple of stories.
We then like to act like we are on the Price is Right. You know they take that big wheel and scroll. Well, we like to do that on stories. Let’s have fun. So go to your stories and just do a big scroll left and when it stops start engaging with those people. Then do it again.
If someone answers your poll connect with them in the DM’s after all we do want to get people into the DM’s so we can continue the conversation.
Story Highlights
Are you adding value to your stories and you don’t want them to go away? Add it as a highlight. For example, we have a tutorial highlight. Whenever people have a question and we have a tutorial we can direct them there.
Just don’t forget to every and then go through your highlights and get rid of highlights that aren’t relevant or old.
Add Subtitles
When talking in stories make sure to either turn on subtitles or write out your captions. You want your content to be accessible to everyone. There may be people who have hearing loss, people who are putting their kids to bed, and people who are on public transportation, so can’t have the volume on. You don’t want to lose out on people consuming your content because you didn’t make it accessible.
When using the subtitles, it makes it easier on you to just talk and whatever words are coming out of your mouth (do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth!..lol. If you don’t get it well then you just don’t).
Just have fun with stories. Engage with your community. Let people into your world. Ask questions, answer questions. With these tips and tricks, you are going to increase your story views.
We’ll love it if you come to hang out with us on Instagram. After all, that is where we spend the majority of our time. Let’s support each other in stories.
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