When it comes to Instagram features that make it stand far and apart from the crowd, there were none. Initially, the social media platform in question was far away from being an out-of-the-box innovation and nearly nobody recognized its potential of taking the world by storm in the time to come. Back in the days, Instagram was all about uploading photographs after riddling them with polaroid-inspired filters.
That was it – a social media platform banking upon nostalgia, but with time, the brand redid itself – transforming into a playground for other brands, public figures, influencers, and the general populous. When it comes to pulling out a rabbit from the hat, the minds behind Instagram are replete with tricks. Ever since the platform has been widely accepted, Instagram is on a roller-coaster of churning out one feature after the other. Be it new filters, stickers, stories, IGTV, and what not – the brand knows what it takes to keep its target audience engaged.
That’s Instagram in a nutshell.
With innumerable features encircling Instagram, the platform’s audience tends to dote on ‘stories’ like anything else. Why? One may ask. Rewind thy daily schedule – our alarm goes off, we wake up all groggy and after silencing the alarm, most of us log-in to Instagram. However, we can acknowledge the fact that as compared to the number of stories updated overnight, the number of updated posts seem a tad less.
There are two very specific reasons for that: firstly, posts are there to stay on one’s feed until he/she decides to willingly delete them – hence, it’s highly desirable that the posts are engaging as well as relevant. On the other hand, stories tend to expire within twenty-four hours and one can depict anything to everything via them – relevant or not, without hosting the mentioned on their feed. Therefore, with time, Instagram stories not only align with the requirements of the populous but also work wonders for brands. If numbers are to be believed, 62% of people claim to have become interested in a brand or a product, having come across it via Instagram stories.
With brands accounting for 2.5 million Instagram stories a week, here are a few essentials that shall enable you to master the art of Instagram story-telling! Trust us, what follows is going to come in handy to the social media aficionados working in digital marketing agencies:
Brand all the Way
With respect to either stories, posts, or anything else – ingraining your brand’s visual identity in the aforementioned, plays a pivotal role in promoting the necessary. With Instagram stories being immersive to the core, it’s highly desirable that a brand plays on visual aspects, thereby creating benchmarks that not only captivate but also retain the audience. Visual consistency enables you to develop a rapport with your audience and with time, it transforms into a recognizable style that’s thoroughly relatable. Start with stabilizing your colours, fonts et al. Also, do remember that Instagram Story Templates do come in handy when it comes to delivering visual consistency.
Get your Stories on Explore
Algorithms matter and so do the nuances that accompany it. Clicking on the magnifying glass icon on Instagram, leads you to the explore page, where you get to acknowledge an array of posts, stories, and IGTV videos that cater to your taste. In order to increase the chances of your stories being reflected on the explore page, you can adhere to the following:
- Post a video for videos stand a higher chance of making it to the explore page. Make sure it’s well-shot, captivating, and yes – vertical.
- Go easy on the text – bank on the visual aspects.
- Make sure that the posted story represents the best of your brand – from head to toe.
Lock and Engage
Engagement-driven stories are the norm. If you can get your audience to engage with you, then you’re en route to hit the bulls-eye. Instagram stories provide one with a plethora of stickers that not only favour but also evidently garner ample engagement – polls, questions, sliders, mentions et al – all come in handy when it comes to interacting with your audience. Share the results of your polls, share the Instagram handles of the individuals who answered your question correctly and make some noise.
If you have more than 10,000 followers and are verified, then you’re always at the liberty of adding a swipe-up feature to your stories, thereby redirecting your audience to where-so-ever you please. Performance marketing agencies heavily rely on Instagram stories in order to derive the best results for their client. We hope that the above mantras shall come in handy to reap the best out of the same.
