Instagram surpassed almost all the social media platforms right now. A feature that contributed to its far-reaching popularity is Instagram Stories. These are short content formats attracting a widely invested audience. There are 500 million active daily Instagram stories users, and 70% view stories daily. In fact, 36% of businesses use Instagram stories to promote their business. Meaning Instagram Stories could be a goldmine of success if used rightly.
Launched in August 2016, Stories content format first came on Snapchat. But soon, Instagram stole the show with double the audience. Stories become even more special for the audience because it offers an unadulterated peek into an influencer’s life. Who wouldn’t want to see their favorite influencer’s day-to-day life, from morning selfies to unboxing and genuine product reviews? Instagram stories have helped to keep the influencing game strong, where influencers show up every day and engage with their growing community.
Instagram stories are monumental to achieve influencer marketing goals. Stories have added an extra wing to present the content commendably before the audience. These are in-demand by brands too, and acing stories work well in collaborating with the best brands.
Today, Instagram captivates almost every industry. And in this stride, influencers help bridge the gap to connect businesses to a vast pool of audiences. Your stories serve as a befitting platform for brands to showcase their products with more engagement. Hence, they are constantly scouring for influencers who have an original following.
Businesses and influencers are going all charged up to stay ahead with the strategic use of Instagram stories. To make it clear, let’s break down the salient features you can use in your Instagram story strategy to interact with the audience and boost views.
1. Polls
Polls are excellent at creating audience engagement. By incorporating polls in your Instagram Stories, you offer an opportunity for your followers to interact with you directly. Introducing a brand in the stories teases the collaboration authentically.
Also, using a fancy Instagram story template is a promising way for a brand introduction. Instagram story polls could be created interestingly to draw the audience’s attention and organically build a conversation.
2. Q&A Sessions
Conducting “Ask me anything” Q&A sessions is a powerful strategy for boosting engagement in stories. It piques the audience’s interest in knowing the untold side of your life. Answering the audience’s most asked questions offers a path for real-time interactions. You can incorporate brands for genuine reviews in answers too.
3. The “Swipe Up’ Feature
The “Swipe Up” tool feature appears as an interactive text to give users more information about any highlight or latest activity. When you say “swipe up,” it is your gentle way to redirect the audience to another destination. The Instagram swipe-up feature is significant for boosting conversions and clicks, too. However, your account needs to be a business account with around 10,000 followers to get a swipe-up feature. Recently, link stickers have been introduced by Instagram, wherein you can add direct links to your stories. It enables the easy incorporation of brand links in almost every story.
4. BTS Videos
What’s cooking behind the camera always piques the audience’s interest. But seasoning the content strategy with quick BTS videos on the story is exemplary to keep the followers engaged in real-time. You can show a brand’s fun side through BTS videos. You can give a sneak peek from the unfiltered footage behind the camera, from bloopers to unwinding times. It lets your audience witness the genuine you. BTS videos are powerful in getting an array of reactions from your audience and keeping them invested.
5. Live Event Coverage
Conducting events to promote a brand is an effective practice. You can contribute to making it vast by going live with the event coverage. Live event coverage helps to maximize the event reach, and with multiple influencers, those figures go massive. Through live, you can give the snippets of the event on stories and mention it on highlights of the event to keep your audience invested for a long time. It accounts for an impressive content format and represents influencers’ interaction with the masses. It is interesting to note that lately, the authenticity factor is becoming a prerequisite in social media marketing.
6. Branded Takeovers
Branded takeovers are an excellent practice to get more audience by creating the illusion of urgency because of the time-sensitive nature of the event. Amidst creative blocks and constant pressure to develop impeccable content for the audience, branded takeovers on Instagram stories are a proven method to collaborate and cross-promote content. With branded takeovers, you create content on a brand’s behalf and bring in light the brand’s perspective into the picture. It offers the audience a new face and a fresh content format to consume, and a brand gets a new audience too. It also elevates your Instagram story marketing with a fresh take. The idea is to draw traction from your followers and convert them into brands.
A brand that regularly does takeovers is the Beauty brand Summer Fridays. They even have a separate Highlight titled “Takeovers” on their profile.
Benefits Of IG stories For Influencers
When you make your first step to speed up Instagram influencer marketing, Instagram stories could be the stepping stone. The unparalleled benefits of well-positioned IG stories for influencers have unlocked impactful results. Want to know why?
1. Byte Sized Content
Instagram stories are simple to consume with their byte-sized content format. More than the regular posts, Stories have high relevance for the audience. You can finish it quickly, which makes your job easier, wherein you can be casual and fun to interact with your audience. Even your stories with a more simple template are relatable and foster authenticity. These are highly customizable, with prominent features like filters, geotags, stickers, music, and more.
2. Cost-Effective
Stories are short-lived with a 24-hour cycle unless archived or added to highlights. Feed posts have a permanent position on your profile but require a lot of input to maintain a high level of quality. Stories with cost-effectiveness do not tag the baggage of elaborate production budgets. Influencers can quickly churn content in mini formats with no hefty production cost.
3. No Likes to Track
Instagram’s regular updates and algorithms always become the topics of discussions and debates. A recent update on static posts with the option to hide the “likes’ brought a significant change. The new update no longer allows users to see the “likes” on your posts and feed content. This step by Instagram brought a new perspective for influencers. It now doesn’t allow digital marketers to analyze the engagement and impressions on an influencer’s post. However, stories have no feature to track engagement. For stories, only the views represent the reach.
Influencer marketing is touching lives with skyrocketing potential. If you have to venture into this frontier, now is the time. Level up your Instagram marketing with stories that add to your content arsenal and bring in something new every day. Marketing campaigns are no longer only for selling.
They are there to etch a mark in the audience’s memory, and Instagram stories have played a significant role. While you’re at it, you can follow these tips to drive more engagement and audience on the story. All geared up as an influencer and ready to make an unforgettable mark in the influencer industry? In that case, Instagram stories offer a safe place to start.
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