Instagram Stories are ridiculously fun, and by now you’ve probably had a good chance to play with the Snapchat-esque filters that can turn you into puppies, cute-widdle-bunnies or even a cool ice queen!
Although the filters and effects can like feel more of a novelty than anything else, there are great benefits to using them strategically, so to help you get your mind around why you need them we’re explaining our top 13 reasons why Instagram Stories need to be a part of your Instagram Strategy.
1. 200M Daily Active Users
Every day, over 200 million people view Instagram Stories. That’s now more than SnapChat – making it one of the fastest-growing platforms, ever!
(Snapchat’s user experience was clunky and hard to learn, a downfall that led to many users completely abandoning the app in favour of a platform they were comfortable using.)
What does this mean for you? There are a HUGEMONGUS amount of eyeballs already on the platform.
2. Instagram Stories are Discoverable.
‘Discoverable’ means that people who don’t follow you can see your posts too!
Your stories last for 24hrs, however, it’s not only those who follow you who will see them, in fact, they’re also discoverable so in the same way you might see accounts you’re not used to in your stories feed, other users will see yours!
A great opportunity to create new raving fans!
3. Adding hashtags to Instagram Stories
If you haven’t noticed it yet, you can now add hashtags to your IG stories!
When someone is searching through a hashtag, your Instagram stories with that hashtag appear at the top of the feed, making you even more discoverable!
Haven’t seen it yet? Here’s what it looks like!
Check it out when you’re trawling through your favourite hashtags.
4. Include an outbound Link.
If you have more than 10,000+* followers, there’s a ‘swipe up’ option inside your Instagram Stories to include an outbound link (for example, sending someone directly to your website, shop item or blog article!)
* This linking feature was only for those with 10,000+ followers and above at the time of writing this post.
However, if you’re below that, don’t feel disheartened because when they first released this feature it was only for those with over 1M users and has been quickly dropping.
Alternatively, here’s how to add multiple links into your Instagram bio!
To see if you have this feature, there’ll be a little ‘link/paperclip’ icon at the top screen that allows you to add a URL off to another source, for example, the recipe for those delicious cupcakes you just baked!
If you’re tempted to splash out on a few followers to push you over the mark, please have a read of this first before you make any decisions: should you buy followers to give your account a boost?
5. Grow your community
Tagging other users in your Instagram Stories makes them feel valued, strengthens your relationships – and even starts new ones!
For example, when we quietly soft-launched our Analytics feature to our existing users to see what they thought, we were tagged in hundreds of Instagram Stories!
It was great because it introduced us to amazing new users and we’ve since reached out to interview a whole bunch of inspirational people for our blog and has definitely grown our community.
6. Promote Exclusivity
By showing people ‘what you’re working on’, and giving them ‘sneak peaks’ of what’s happening behind the scenes shots gives a sense of exclusivity. Everyone loves to feel like they’re special – and you’re also creating a bit of hype behind what you’re working on.
7. Add a personalised approach to engagement.
Showing your beautiful face, the loves of your lives (I’m talking favourite mugs, cats, faces and places!) helps people relate to you much faster. People love buying from people and knowing they’re part of something bigger, here’s where your Instagram Stories helps everyone understand more about you.
Explaining the passion behind your brand and why you love it so much can help create raving fans for your business!
@JennaKutcher is someone we’ve been in love with forever and does a superb
job at growing her loyal fanbase using Instagram Stories.
8. Keeps You Top of Mind (Brand Awareness)
With the Instagrams algorithm regularly changing, and regular tweaks to who appears in your newsfeed, some users have noticed their engagement rates have dropped.
The best part of Instagram Stories is that if you’re continually engaging with your audience. By using an Instagram Story Viewer and Instagram Story Ad Maker you now have the opportunity to be seen more often – keeping you front of mind.
9. There’s no ‘Best Time To Post’ because they’re visible for 24hrs!
We’d recommending using Instagram Stories at least twice a day, at a good 10-12 hours apart (which also gives you a break from Social Media), so that you’ve always got something in the stories newsfeed within any 24hr timeframe.
