Instagram has grown to be more than a selfie-sharing stage. It has become one of the biggest online business platforms. Nowadays, most people tend to get their work done online; this goes for business owners and customers.

If you’re a business owner, Instagram is a good way to keep in contact with your customers. Sure, you will be looking for more exposure and engagement.

Instagram stories are a good way to show your products in action and gain more reach.

What are Instagram Stories / Insta Stories?

Here’s a quick intro before we get to the ideas.

When you open Instagram app, you find the stories section at the top.

People use stories to share their daily activities. Business owners use Instagram stories to market their brands and reach the target audience.

In 2020, nearly 500 million people use Instagram daily. Imagine how many of them can watch your story. Incredible, isn’t it?

Therefore, having an Instagram story strategy is so important.

Here are some creative ideas for Instagram stories that can help with your business:

1. Go Live:

When you start a live video, push notifications are sent to your followers. After you finish, the video lasts for 24 hours in your story. Live videos are a great idea to boost your engagement. The more engagement you get, the more likely your video will be featured in ‘Top Live’ on Explore page.

Live videos put you in touch with your followers, so you can answer their questions.

You can say whatever you want!

For example, you can talk about your brand, answer your followers’ questions, share your success story, or talk about your routine.

Many options are available. Going live will cost you nothing! Instead, they will see you for real and know a lot about who you are.

2. Time for Questions:

One fact about humans, they are always curious!

You’ve got to use this fact the best way. There’re many ways to do that:

* PollTime:

polls are so interactive and amusing. The process is just like ‘Simple question, simple answer.’

With one tap you can know what is favorite to your customers.

It’s an easy way to get more engagement, develop your brand and reach more audience.

* #Suggestions:

Here’s another trick. You simply encourage people to message you.

Ask your followers about what they prefer, what they are looking for, and what things can be added to your products.

This will promote your brand and add more engagement.

* #Q&A:

You can apply this part in many ways.

For example, tell your followers you’re available for 30 minutes to answer their questions. Use question stickers to encourage them.

Another way, you can show Users’ FAQs and their answers.

People get bored so quickly. Most of them tend to skip any sort of advertising.

Questions are interactive and amusing. Don’t hesitate to try them!

3. Use Stickers:

Instagram is mainly a photo-sharing app, so more writing? Sound a bad idea! I mean, you have all the chances to be creative, just take them! Instagram gives you a lot of options, stickers are one of them.

Stickers are a fun way to get more engagement and interact with your followers.

Many ideas could be expressed in short notes!

You can use location stickers to tag where you are, question stickers, hashtag stickers, contest, reaction slider, etc.

When your followers tap the sticker in your story, more information will be loaded such as the location of your business.

In brief, whatever you’re feeling or doing, you can post a sticker for it!

4. Templates:

Templates and wallpapers help you go viral on Instagram. They allow the followers to share your content.

The idea of templates is to tell a story. Templates provide more interaction with the followers. By taking screenshots, users can fill in the template on their own, and when they share it your account will be appearing.

You can fill in the template and get engaged with your followers.

Also, wallpapers are a great way to express lots of things in a few words.

If you’re a photography fan, you have hundreds of designs to share.

Your followers can screenshot your wallpapers and post them in their stories or use them as a background, so you gain more reputation.

5. EVENTS!

Advertising is boring! People are looking for excitement everywhere in their life.

Keep your followers excited!

Launching a new event? Releasing a new product? Make it happen in the ‘Stay Tuned!‘ way.

Here’re a few tricks:

• What’s coming?

You can post this with a question sticker in your story.

You’ll have more interactions by keeping your followers guessing the new event.

It can be more amusing if you add some teasers like:

“The first 3 to tell the right answer will get our product for free, or enjoy a discount.”

• Countdown:

As if you’re raising a campaign. Start by announcing that a new event is coming in 5 days, and start counting to zero.

You can use a countdown sticker, it’s more exciting.

6. Promote Your Post:

Instagram stories are the best place to promote your work.

Being at the top, users tap it first when they open the app.

You can share any updates you have in your story, and make sure the followers will see them.

If you have a new post, new blog article, or raising a hashtag, adding them to your story is a clever marketing strategy.

Tips:

• If you’re having a new blog post, couple it with the ‘swipe up’ feature in your story, so your followers get more excited.
• Worried about getting lost in the feeds? Screenshot your latest post, add stickers, and share your story with the #NEWPOST
• Instagram stories are perfect for launching events, new products, and hashtags.

Try these tips and you’ll see the difference.

7. Behind the Scenes:

Here’s your space to share your moments of hard work. Do it while raising your campaign, so followers get more excited.

Preparing for an event? Share these moments with the followers.

Show your workplace, time with your team, the materials you’re using, etc.

Let them know that you are a real person with real life.

Nobody was born a hero. Success is a story to tell, and it doesn’t look that easy.

Behind the scenes is a good way to teach your followers something, share funny moments with them, and show your work.

It gives you a personal connection with your followers.

8. Share Your Place:

Adding your location is another way to attract more audience. That helps you get more views and target followers in this location.

You can use this in many ways:

• Location stickers:

As mentioned, stickers are a fun way to interact with the users.

• Product Tagging

Here you’re marketing your products and reaching more audience.

• Mentions of People or Places

Encourage locals to visit these places and discover new things.

It’s a great idea to gain more interaction and reach more followers.

9. Contests:

Hosting a contest is a popular way to get more engagement and have more followers.

It has become more effective, especially during pandemic lockdowns, as people are always looking for something new.

How to host a contest?

• Start by adding some rules like a certain number of shares, hashtags, or comments.
• Tag your account within the story; so people get to follow you before tagging you in their stories.
• Sales season? Make use of special occasions such as valentine’s day, mother day, or welcome spring!
• Launching a new event? Make the event day for special offers, invitations, or free membership.
• Add more excitement, make your followers wonder about the reward. Use simple tricks like photographing the prizes, sharing photos of gift boxes, and giving a hint about your new products.

Tips:

• Contests will cost you nothing. Instagram stories last for 24 hours. Set a time, set your rules, follow them and you’ll see excellent results.
• It’s like a contract, it isn’t a joke. Winners have your word that you’ll reward them. Don’t turn back!
• After all of this is over, show the feedback. Post some screenshots from messages about your customers’ experience.

It isn’t a show-off! You deserve this after all your hard work, and you’ll gain more trust!

10. Story Takeover:

Here we come to the desserts!

A story takeover could be one of the funniest ideas!

What is a takeover? It’s when letting other people use your account, temporarily, and share content with your followers.

How to do it?

There many ways to do that; we’re mentioning some of them:

• Team members:

If you’re the team boss, doing that will be funny. Let your team members talk about their favorites, their days at work, etc.

It’s a nice way to express caring and interact with your followers.

• Customers:

If you run a café, you can share a live video including one of the customers.

Imagine how fun it is! It’s like a surprise to your followers and your café visitors.

• Also, you can make it as a sort of a deal, like the first one to guess what’s coming will have a takeover.

Instagram has millions of active users every day. Everything will be online in the next few years; take advantage of that.

It sounds easy to grow your work online. However, it requires you to stay inspired. We hope these ideas will add more creativity to your stories.

Want us to handle your social media? Contact us!