Is your Business one of the over 500 million active users on Instagram Stories each day?

If not - maybe it’s time to get on board. Stories offers ridiculous potential for companies to extend their reach and invigorate engagement amongst their fan base as well as those unfamiliar with their Brand.

Sliding through Instagram Stories can be riveting for many people, and it's difficult for them to exit rather than continue watching. Business owners are taking advantage of the Stories feature to reach large audiences with timely content, while boosting Brand awareness.

A Business Instagram account (amongst other things) can post sales, and share exclusive offers to draw in those not familiar with your product, drive visitors to your site, and convert sales. All can be tracked in the Instagram analytics to determine what worked – what didn’t work – and how to create more successful promotions in the coming months.

Quick Catch-Up on Instagram Stories

Stories only last for twenty-four hours, however you do have the ability to save them for re-using in other areas.

Stories can be categorized and shared again through the Stories “Highlights” feature. Highlighted Stories display across the top of your Profile, making it easy for followers to find.

What to Post?

Before a Business starts erratically posting to Instagram Stories, it’s best to evaluate your specific goals first. Once that information is clear – then you’ll create a posting plan and understand which of the Stories features your Business can leverage to your benefit.

Posting Tips for Instagram Stories

1) Polls
Interactive poll stickers allow questions to be asked and vote results to be seen as they happen.

Polls entice interaction and are great for campaigns specific to your brand, local or broad demographic research, and feedback on products, colors, services, etc, etc.

2) Announcements
People who switch Brands or remain Brand loyal become invested, and want to know more about who they’re doing business with.

Businesses can use Stories to regularly filter in personal insight posts about:

• Mission and Goals
• General Updates
• New Products
• Where Products are Manufactured
• How Products are Made
• New Product Packaging
• Job Openings within their Staff
• Website New Design Debut
• Company Changes that Translate to a Customer Perk
• Community Involvement
• Local & Community Events
• etc, etc, etc

3) Highlights
Highlights are permanent. Businesses Highlights can be used to make people aware of what you do and who you are.

A few other ways to use Highlights:

• New Site Content Promotion
• Sharing of Your Other Social Media Channels
• Feature Spots for Products / Services
• Seasonal Tips

Stories (that become Highlights) are listed in chronological order. You can’t switch them around, so be sure they’re posted in the order you want. If sharing a tutorial or recipe, be sure to review after posting to confirm intended display order.

4) Questions
Question stickers let Businesses extend the invitation for people to ask them anything, and visa versa. Q&A sessions build community, increases engagement, and allows people to become more familiar with your Brand and products.

5) Swipe Up (Links)
The Swipe Up feature is available to accounts with 10,000 or more followers. Include the “Swipe” at the end of Stories to motivate people to swipe up to learn or see more.

This feature can direct to a website page, a sales landing page, a free trial download or a make a reservation now type of link.

6) Location
Location stickers increase discovery of Business Stories. Stories are searchable by location. When Stories are tagged with Location or a location #Hashtag, they’re then added to that location’s official Story. People who don’t follow you can view, which opens up a whole new audience to your Brand.

To add a Location, click on the Location sticker. Type in the location of your Story. When entered, your Story then displays at the top of the search results for that Location.

7) Contests
Business promotion of a great product or service can be featured on Instagram as a flash Contest in Stories. “Flash” because on Instagram the Contest will run for just 24 hours. The short time window stirs up a sense of urgency and can create a buzz for your Brand.

You’ll want to:

• Take stunning photos or use a video of the prize.

• Include rules for entering the Contest.

• Announce the Contest on Stories.

• Increase reach by using #Hashtags so those who don’t follow you can discover your Contest.

• Randomly select a winner, then announce the winner with great fanfare.

Online Tools to Brand and Edit Stories include:

Branded Templates

Over
A free app that enables you to easily create templates, upload your own fonts and create a branded color palette.
https://madewithover.com/ (itunes and Google Play)

Story Art
A free app providing hundreds of pre-made templates.

(itunes) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cutstory-for-instagram-stories/id917630934?mt=8
(Google Play app) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ryzenrise.storyart&hl=en_US

Editing Stories

Unfold
Enables you to customize and add elements as desired. Easy drag and drop images.
https://unfoldstori.es/

(itunes) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unfold-create-stories/id1247275033?mt=8
(Google Play app) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moonlab.unfold&hl=en_US

Cut Story
(itunes) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storyart-insta-story-creator/id1403688089?mt=8

Story Cutter
(Google Play app) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=trimmer.story.com.storytrimmer&hl=en_US

Canva Instagram Story Editor
https://www.canva.com/create/instagram-stories/

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