Instagram once was the biggest social network but those days are over, for now. A while ago Snapchat ate their competitors, and Instagram needed to change something to keep up. Even though Insta Stories share a lot of similarities with Snapchat, it took some of the best features of their competitor and refined them to make something entirely new.
Since their debut in 2016, every day more users prefer Insta Stories than just share perfect, curated pictures. Not only it is a better way to gain more engagement from your followers, many followers feel that stories are more real, and show a more truthful version of their icons. So, if you are an influencer and you are not used to using them, we will give you some tips down below.
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What exactly is Insta Stories?
This is quite simple; Insta Stories is a function that allows you to share videos or pictures made on the spot or the ones you have saved on your camera roll, and all of this for 15 seconds. Big brands like Teen Vogue, Insider, Buzzfeed, and many more are aware that, by sharing content this way, they reach more people, make the brand more approachable and give more personality to it.
Everything you upload this way will disappear after 24 hours, giving a sense of novelty to all of your content. You can share as many as you want, but we recommend you not to overkill this function, this might be just harmful. So, if you don’t have a cured or aesthetic Instagram, or your brand doesn’t fill a theme, this is your way to go if you want to reach tons of people.
How to use Instagram Stories?
You can see the Insta Stories Icon in the bar at the top left and open the camera. On the camera screen, at the bottom you will see the options, such as go live – and make a live video – normal, just to take normal pictures, boomerang, superzoom, rewind, hands-free, or stop-motion. Those are techniques or effects that if you wish; you can explore on videos.
Down below, to the left, you will see the option that lets you upload something from your camera roll. If you want to take a new picture, you just need to tap the big white button, for a new video, press it and hold. Keep in mind that you can only share 15 seconds segments, so you might want to split a longer video.
You can edit or use filters in everything you do – This is what Instagram took from Snapchat and improved. There are things you can also add such as stickers, polls, gifts, locations, and hashtags, this way you can make pictures more dynamic or share funnier videos. After you finish with the editing, tap the save image option and add it to your story.
If you want to watch someone’s Insta Storie, just click on the red circle on their profile or in any of the red circles on top of your feed. In case you want to go to another, you can just swipe or tap to the right, or swipe or tap to the left if you want to repeat one. The more you watch, the more you can realize stories are more engaging – and the interactive ones, even more.
How to add stickers on Insta Stories
Stickers are super versatile and change a lot so you can always use the season ones for special occasions. This way you can add extra content to pictures or videos to make them more relatable or even catchier. With every season Instagram adds a new pack of stickers so you can create content for every occasion.
How to add locations on Insta Stories
Adding a location might help you reach more people near you or expand yourself a little bit further if you move. This is also really useful if you want to make your business more relevant online; by using the location sticker you can bring more customers over and ask the ones you have and are happy to share it too in their stories.
How to add hashtags on Insta Stories
The hashtags are a powerful tool that can help you to be more discoverable to everyone who is exploring Instagram. By using those, you can make more relevant some of your published pictures, reaching more people. This is also useful if you want to use a trend in your favour and boost a photo.
What are the Highlights?
In 2017 Instagram made it possible to keep some stories embedded on your profile by using highlights. This function allows you to keep stories for more than 24 hours on your profile – specifically under your bio or on top of your feed – so everyone can watch it again and again. You can also archive stories you post and repost some of them later.
To create a highlight you will open the Stories menu and tap “new”, pick one from your archive and select a cover. The cover can be an image or a still frame of any of the stories you choose, every highlight can have only 100 videos or photos, but all of the interactions will be the same and you can edit any of the ones you spick.
How to keep your Insta Stories private?
You don’t have to share everything you do, we know how important is to have some privacy and keep some things between friends. Instagram has an option to have a Close Friends list where you can share videos and pictures only with the people on the list. This way you can keep stories more personal with your best friends or loved ones.
To create and add people to this list, you just need to go to your profile, tap on a close friend in the menu on the side. This is an option only you can see; nobody can send you a request to be part of this list and only the people on the list will know they’re in there, so you can feel free to add the ones you truly want to add.
