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8 Ideas for Instagram Stories
Standing out with Instagram Stories is difficult and challenging but not impossible. We have put together 8 ideas for your Instagram Stories that will help you gain followers, increase engagement and even attract new customers.
According to Statista in a study between 2016 and 2019, around 500 million people uses Instagram Stories. For this reason, it’s crucial that you include this format in your marketing strategy.
Do you need inspiration for your stories? Keep this article handy and turn to it when your ideas are on vacation, it will definitely help you find inspiration.
Ideas for Instagram Stories: Uncover your creativity
Regretfully, there is not a magic formula for the perfect Instagram story.
However, if you follow these tips when your ideas are to a minimum, it can help you to guide your steps and create a memorable Instagram story. A story that might even go viral.
You can create a story with the objective to receive replies or promote a product or service that you offer.
1 Involve your audience in your stories
Making your audience feel part of your stories is a very effective way to keep your community active. In other words, make them feel important.
For instance, you can share stories where they have to complete a test about their favorite tv shows or their playlists on Spotify and after, ask them to share it and mention you.
You will generate replies from your audience that you can share on your feed.
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Find a topic related to your sector to make it work. For example, in a coworking place you can talk about music to listen to while working, you can adapt it to music for cooking or going for a run, etc.
2 Let your audience get to know you
Allowing questions has been one of the latest moves on Instagram stories and it has been a categorical success.
Through this option that you can enable when you publish a story, you allow your community to ask any question to get to know you a bit better. If your concern is that they might ask something inappropriate, don’t worry because you can decide which ones will be public or reply to them in private.
It’s a great formula to empathize with you and help them see the person behind the Instagram profile, both for a personal brand and online business.
Remember that you can add any background on the screen when you reply to a question.
3 Sell your products through your stories
Another idea for your Instagram stories is to give visibility to your products. However, bear in mind that you can use Instagram for selling but also for building a community. That is to say, promote your products but not all the time.
We propose two examples:
Another example could be a clothing store that shows you how to wear an accessory.
This is a great option and easy to apply.
First ➡️ It builds trust amongst your audience, proving that your product is useful.
Second ➡️ You will wake the desire of buying and encourage your audience to contact you in private to make any question that they might have.
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It’s better to show your product in the right context, with a story for example, rather than showing the product by itself.
4 Create unique and creative stories
Photoshop is not your thing? You have multiple options on the Internet. Our recommendation is to edit your stories before you upload them.
If your goal is to create stories that stand out over others and you don’t want to use predetermined Instagram filters, you have several options:
✅ Canva offers a great deal of different templates for your stories (for instance, you can include the content you want, edit them and create a text adapted to your goals) and you can create striking videos with WeVideo.
✅ Unleash your creativity with Colorcinch, a tool to create unique stories for Instagram: edit the text, modify the image, apply filters and effects. With Colorcinch you have everything at your fingertips to get the most out of your stories.
✅ You can go to websites with free images and videos such as Unsplash or Pixabay to use them for your backgrounds, edit them with filters or whatever you need.
This idea to create your Instagram Stories is more an obligation rather than a suggestion. The more unique your stories are, the higher the attraction.
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Use different ways to be unique and be easily identified and stand out from others. If for example you refresh your image, your followers will be curious and be encouraged to check your profile out to see what is new.
5 Use motivational quotes
You might think that motivational quotes are more effective on Instagram accounts related to fitness.
However, they are quite effective in profiles focused on coaching. At the end of the day, you must use quotes that are related to your business.
6 Upload videos with final results
If your content is related to a product from your online store or related to your personal brand, stories that show a ‘before and after’ work very well.
These stories will help you to attract your audience after seeing the final result. They will encourage them to ask you for tips and share their questions.
Mari Luz Santander se dedica al bricolaje y tiene un canal de YouTube, además de tener contenido en su perfil de Instagram. En este destacado enseña cómo era su taller y, tras trajabar en él, como lo dejó.
With these types of stories, you can show the quality of your work and how you do it. They are very useful for make-up artists, cooking profiles or any activity that allows to show a ‘before and after’.
7 Announce giveaways on stories
You can be very creative here. Announce giveaways on your profile with an image or video. Both will work well, but if they see you in person communicating the giveaway, it will generate trust amongst your followers.
You can explain the criteria to be included in the giveaways, the prize and the deadline. It’s a very effective way to attract your audience to your Instagram stories. Try to always be creative.
8 Celebrate international dates
San Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Music Day,etc. are great excuses for your Instagram stories.
With an engaging and attractive design you will encourage the interaction of your followers. They will feel identified with the current moment. However, don’t forget to share the hashtag when you upload your story.
As you see, there isn’t a magic formula. However, there are great ideas out there that can help create wonderful stories.
Do you have any other idea that we could add? ☺