How to make your Insta Stories stand out?

Instagram Stories became more popular than Snapchat’s alternative, with more than 200 million people using it on any given day. To compete with the "little ghost", Stories were upgraded with a host of new features, like selfie stickers, a color wheel for drawing and “hands-free” mode, all to create a fun medium for communication.

When it comes to livestreaming your brand's life, Instagram Stories are the best choice, but only if you know how to use it like a pro!

We have some tips for you an how to pimp your Stories and stay true to your brand at the same time:

1.) Stay relevant, make it consistent - use Instagram Stories when it's needed!

If you have an exclusive event you want to broadcast, if you want to show behind the scenes secrets, if the conditions of shooting are not the best - create Insta Stories instead of a bunch of separate posts on Instagram. Do not spam your audience's newsfeed.

2.) Always have a strategy!

They are called "Stories" for a reason: always think about a story, a message you wish to share with your followers and stay consistent. Create a great "intro" to impress your audience, explain what is happening with a variety of formats and never forget to give proper closure. Each Story has to work as a standalone, but there should always be a shared theme across each piece of content.

3.) Be creative, mix it up!

Using different content formats (photo, video, boomerang, slow-mo) helps you grab your audience and keep their attention. Insta Stories made up of just a bunch of photos or only videos tend to get boring, and users uaully quit halfway through. Another way to pimp up your content is using stickers, filters an other fun tools, not to mention that they can actually help your followers to understand details better (mark your location, link other Instagram accounts, emphasise a hashtag etc.)

4.) Use links - finally not just in the bio! :)

If you have a verified account, you can link to an external website from your Stories, driving your followers to your webshop or website for example. It's a great way to create teasers, raise attention and then make people watch the full video, read the full article, purchase something "outside of Instagram". The only golden rule is: emphasise as much as you can that users have to swipe up.

5.) Never stop exploring!

Instagram is updated quite often, so there is always room for development. Always bee on the lookout for new solutions, options and never forget to check statistics to understand what’s working for your audience.

Happy story-telling! :)

Author: Nora Ormoshegyi