7 Powerful Instagram Stories Tips You’ll Want to Steal for your Business

If you’ve ever thought about using Instagram Stories for business, now is the time!

Not only are Instagram Stories fun and creative, but they’re great for growing your engagement, building brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, and even generating leads.

Thanks to Later, here are seven ways tested-and-proven by Pencil Rocket to boost your business using Instagram Stories!

Also, write to us for a free social media audit and take your business to a whole new level!

1. DON’T BE AFRAID TO SHOW BEHIND-THE-SCENES MOMENTS

Consider that followers crave a sense of authenticity from the brands they support. What better way to “get real” with your followers than by showcasing project progress, taking them to your office or showing off your events?

For example, our client Pascon Group, a Melbourne based construction company, shoots a series of site progress stories. Each story highlights the construction progress of luxury homes in different sites, providing a behind-the-scenes moments for their followers.

Also, do check out the amazing content Pascon Group’s director - George Passas has been sharing. He is a huge believer of engaging audience through Instagram Stories and providing value to his audience.

If your business host events or conferences, chances are your followers would be interested too.

For example, our client The 11th Space, a co-working space on Collins Street, shares about events they host and other happenings that their followers can marvel about.

2. COLLABORATION IS KING - TAG OTHER ACCOUNTS IN YOUR STORIES

If you are talking about another person or brand or they are in your Instagram Story, mention them! You’ll be surprised at the relationship you’ll build from tagging them and the amount of reach you can help them to achieve.

Have a look at how our client Pascon Group gave a shoutout and tagged company partners. And don’t be shocked by the high amount of followers who clicked on their partners’ Instagram accounts!

On the other side, Instagram Stories now has a new feature that easily allows others to add content they've been tagged in to their own Instagram Story. Do this and help increase your engagement and expand your reach!

Check out how The 11th space, the co-working space, reposted Instagram Stories they were ‘mentioned’ during their official launch event, created valuable user-generated-content (UGC).

3. USE LOCATION & HASHTAG STICKERS TO INCREASE DISCOVERABILITY

Instagram introduced tons of new functionalities to stickers, including the ability to search for stories by location and hashtag.

Check out how our client Pascon Group added the location sticker of the construction site, then tagged the architect they’re working with in this project, and you’ll be surprised at the amount of people who’ll click on your location and hashtag stickers!

That’s why we recommend always using location and hashtag stickers in your stories. Because not only can your followers view your stories, your stories are now searchable by location and hashtag, meaning anyone can see your stories now!

4. ADD POLLS & EMOJI SLIDERS TO UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

Have you ever wanted to survey your Instagram audience about their interests, likes, dislikes, and more? Well, now you can!

Instagram recently launched new interactive poll stickers on Instagram Stories which lets you ask questions and see results from your followers as they vote.

Look at how our client Outcome.Life, an internship provider for international student community, survey their Instagram audience demographics using polls.

Whether you want to collect feedback on your products, crowdsource ideas, or simply entertain your followers, poll stickers offer an entirely new way to engage with your Instagram audience!

5. INSERT GIFS IN YOUR INSTAGRAM STORIES

Last year, Instagram teamed up with GIPHY to build a library of high-quality GIFs on Instagram Stories. Now you can add fun, expressive GIF stickers to any photo or video in your story!

Adding GIFs on Instagram Stories is easy — when you tap to add a sticker to a photo or video in stories, you’ll now see a new GIF option. Tap it and you’ll find a library full of hundreds of thousands of moving stickers powered by GIPHY. And by using GIFs, you can definitely add personality to your business’ Instagram Stories.

For instance, by adding the GIF of clinking beer mugs, it makes our Instagram story below which features the beer tap more attention-grabbing and fun.

6. SHARE IGTV & INSTAGRAM FEED POST ON INSTAGRAM STORIES

Did you know you can share IGTV and Instagram feed posts in Stories too?

Feed posts or IGTV videos shared to Instagram Stories will display the original poster’s username, letting users tap it to check out the original post.

Also, when you have a new feed post, share a screenshot of your feed and actively tell your Instagram Stories audience about your new post to redirect them to your profile. You’ll be surprised at the amount of additional likes you’ll get on that post by doing this!

Similarly like what is done above, you can either directly share a new post in your story or post a screenshot of their feed when a new post is up, ultimately prompting followers to check out the new feed post in their profile.

7. STORIES HIGHLIGHTS

Instagram Stories Highlights are an awesome way to share important information front and center on your profile.

You will be able to re-share your best Instagram Stories content for your business and these stories appear directly under your bio and above your Instagram feed.  

Just like the example above, grouping your Instagram Stories Highlights together into categories makes it super easy for your audience to watch the stories content that they’re interested in.

There you have it! 7 powerful Instagram Stories tips that’ll help to boost your business’ Instagram profile engagement.

Want to learn how to use your Instagram to grow your business and get more followers? Write to us for a free social media audit and take your business to a whole new level!