Aside from your standard instagram feed where you can post your photos and videos along with short descriptions and tags, Instagram Stories lets you feature a picture or a video for 24 hours. Sort of like short term SnapChat-ish feed. This is intended for a more raw and real time sharing. Aside from the usual filters, you can also add stickers and texts for more creativity. The maximum video length is 15 seconds and you can access your Instagram Story by tapping the camera icon on the upper left side of your home page. Similarly, you can view the stories of your friends by tapping their profile picture if there is an orange highlight.
That’s great! Now how exactly does this help me grow my account?
Well, when you keep your story public it helps increase your profile’s discoverability. Especially if you optimize your story’s content. By optimization, I mean adding hashtags and geotags in your Instagram Story posts. Adding these as often as you can will integrate your story into feeds that other people are also searching for thus, potentially increasing your account’s followers. Of course, you can’t just add any hashtag or geotag. You’ll need to make sure these hashtags and geotags are relevant. This helps your story be discovered by other users who are also searching for topics or issues similar to the content of your story.
You of course have the option to block someone from seeing your story. You will be able to see the number as well as the names of the people who have seen the photo or video in your story. Likewise, other users will also be able to see if you have viewed or seen their story.
Now before you go and post away, here are some tips for you on how to go about in posting your first Instagram Story.
1. Tell a Story – Your Instagram Story should tell more than just random snapshots or video clips. Since Instagram Stories has a slideshow-esque format, you can take advantage of that to tie together pieces of content to tell a much more interesting story.
2. Go Live as often as you can – If you’re providing great content and go live often, more people are bound to tune in to your story and will be looking forward for more fun and interesting stories. One that you will tell. By going live often, this increases the chance of gaining more followers.
3. Creativity is a must – Try and add variety to your posts to entice people to follow you. You already know that instagram has a wide array of filters, stickers and doodle tools go ahead and use them. Try mixing it up to keep your followers interested.
4. Make sure your story has faces in it – Most of the time people are more interested in pictures and stories that have faces in it. Studies show that pictures with at least one face will have a 35 percent increase in likes.
5. Post regularly – Number one rule for social media platforms is that you must post regularly. Admit it, you don’t want to follow someone who posts once in a blue moon. If you do, your last post might get buried in other people’s posts and no one will be able to see it. And yes, people will forget about you. Of course, no one wants a flooder, so one post a day will do.
Best of luck and happy posting!
