Instagram has 250 million daily users and it has incredible potential for your business, especially when your company adopts the Instagram Stories feature. Did you know 20% of businesses receive direct messages as a result of Stories? in fact, 33% of all popular stories are uploaded by businesses!
What is an Instagram Story?
Instagram Stories allow businesses to share a visual story of their day, composed of multiple images and videos.
Facts about Instagram Stories
- How long are Instagram Stories? 15 seconds each.
- How long will before Instagram Stories disappear? They’re viewable for just 24 hours.
- Are Instagram Stories public? They follow the permissions you’ve set for your profile.
- What kind of video can be uploaded for Instagram Stories? MP4 format with H.264 Codec & AAC audio, 3,500 kbps video bitrate, a 30fps frame rate or below, 1080px wide, and a maximum filesize limit of 15mb.
- You can use combinations of images, videos, and boomerangs in your Instagram Story.
Keys to Instagram Story Success
This detailed infographic from Headway Capital walks you through not just making a story, but beyond to building out an Instagram strategy. Here are some tips for success:
- Plan a cohesive strategy to get all the assets you need to create the story you want to.
- Choose a time where your followers are engaged.
- Make an impact in the first 4 seconds so your viewer stays for the rest of the story.
- Shoot your story vertically – how your audience will be watching it.
- Use geotagging to garner 79% more engagement with regional targeting.
- Create a simple arrow for viewers to swipe up on to follow to your website.
- Included focused hashtags so your stories are included in Story rings.
- Use an app like CutStory to slice up your story into a series.
- Finish your story with a solid call-to-action to encourage engagement.
- Think about getting an external influencer to take over your story, this boosts engagement by nearly 20%!
- Use Stories’ informal nature to build rapport and give a behind the scenes look at your business.
- Give Stories viewers unique offers so you can track them and reward them for their loyalty.
- Use Stories to push a poll out to your audience using a poll sticker. Keep it short and sweet, you only have 27 characters!
Instagram Stories has grown substantially since its launch in August 2016, and discovering how to make the most of it will be a huge benefit to your social media marketing efforts. What are you waiting for? Start telling your Story now. Nivine from Headway Capital
Here’s the great infographic, A Small Business Guide to Instagram Stories:
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