In August of 2016, Instagram had announced a brand-new way to share daily snippets that disappear in just 24 hours. Introducing Instagram Stories! Similar to Snapchat, Instagram Stories lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile.
Instagram Stories Features
While Instagram Grid posts are a great way to market your business or your brand, Instagram stories can help increase your engagement and reach through its many features. To help you keep up with Instagram Stories latest features, here is a quick guide to all the features Instagram Stories offers:
- Boomerangs: A boomerang takes a burst of photos and combines them together into a mini-video that plays forward and backward. Similar to a GIF, this feature is extremely popular around the Instagram community!
- Layout: Users don’t have to decide between just one image to post per story slide! Now, you can use the layout feature on Instagram story to combine a collage of photos without having to create multiple stories.
- Create Mode: Don’t want to upload a photo? Try Create Mode! Create mode on Instagram is a way for users to use stickers, drawings, and/or text on their Instagram stories without having to upload a photo. This is a great way to highlight any specials or news for business owners or influencers. (Zolpidem)
- Close Friends List: Keep things private by posting a story only your close friends can see! When going to post a story, Instagram users can now choose between making their story public or sharing with their close friends. You can create your close friend’s list by visiting your settings on your Story page.
- Shoppable Tags: For influencers and businesses with over 10,000 followers, you now have the option to include a swipe up option on your Instagram stories. This will allow followers to visit a link directly from your story with just one swipe! Bonus: these shoppable tags are also available to use on your main grid posts on Instagram.
- Filters: We all remember the infamous dog filter from Snapchat. Now, Instagram has included a variety of filters similar to those found on Snapchat. The main difference? Instagram allows users to create their own filters and share publicly through profiles or through a search on their story filters catalog!
- Stickers: Make your stories more enticing by adding stickers to them! These graphic elements can be added to both images or video stories and make users more likely to engage! However, because there are so many different stickers, we think it’s best to break them down:
- Location sticker: Let your audience know where you’re located by including this sticker into your story! Simply tap and place the sticker where you’d like and choose the desired location based on a search or based on your current surroundings.
- Hashtag sticker: Using a hashtag sticker is great for public accounts who want to get noticed. Simply type in the hashtag into this sticker and it might just show up on Instagram’s explore page.
- Donation sticker: Instagram now allows eligible nonprofits and supporters to raise money for charity directly on Instagram through their donation sticker. Add the sticker to your story, select your charity, and allow your followers to donate directly to the charity of your choice.
- GIF stickers: Search Giphy and include fun and creative GIFs to your stories!
- Question sticker: Ask your followers a question and receive responses that you can answer via story or private direct message.
- DM sticker: Let your audience interact with you directly by adding a “direct message” sticker to your story slide. This increases engagement and makes it easier for followers to message you and your business about any question they may have.
- Music stickers: Make your stories even more engaging by adding in music to images, videos, or boomerangs!
- Quiz sticker: Let your audience get to know you better or get to know your audience better by adding in a multiple-choice quiz sticker.
- Emoji slider sticker: Ask questions in a fun way! Combine create mode with the emoji slider sticker to let your audience drag the emoji from left to right to show how they feel about a certain special or product.
- Countdown sticker: If you are looking forward to a launch of a new service or product or want to share something exciting about to happen in your life, you can now include a countdown sticker to your stories! Let your audience follow along your journey or launch by adding a countdown sticker to your story.
Instagram Story Highlights
Don’t want your story to be gone forever? Create a profile story highlights to let your audience and followers go back to previous stories that you have posted. To create a new highlight on your profile, all you have to do is:
- Tap the “New” circle at the far left of your Instagram profile.
- Choose any stories from your archived stories to include in your highlight.
- Select a cover and name for your highlight.
Once you’ve finished creating a highlight, you should see a circle pop up on your profile. You can have as many highlights as you like to showcase a variety of topics such as travel, food, fashion, about, specials, and many more!
At Miss Ink, LLC, our Ink Stars are ready to help you increase your business and brand through innovative social media strategies. If you would like to set up a consultation today, please visit our contact form online or call us directly at (305) 537-6465 and let us help your online presence shine!
