Long gone are the days when your Instagram stories were just that place you posted things that weren’t pretty enough for your grid. Now, they’re a crucial part of your social media strategy — to the point where many people spend more time browsing on stories than grid! From educational carousels to Instagram lives, there’s no shortage of different ways for businesses to wow their customers on stories.
But, amidst all the beautifully-designed story templates, dare we say we’ve lost a bit of the fun along the way? While there’s certainly a time and place for thought leadership and professional-looking graphics, stories don’t always have to be so dang serious!
Don’t be afraid to have some fun with your audience on your stories. One great way to do that? Instagram story games! These are perfect for boosting your stories engagement, getting to know your followers a little better and striking up direct conversations with your audience. Plus, Instagram story games tend to get tons of reshares, which works wonders for your reach and visibility!
Read on for 8 Instagram story game ideas your audience will love!
Instagram Story Game Idea #1: This or that
Engage your audience with this fun interactive Instagram game idea. Pick a topic and encourage your followers to reshare it to their stories with their choices circled or underlined. Bonus points if you include a call-to-action to tag some of their friends to do the challenge, too.
Plann pointer: Be sure to watermark your stories template with your brand name, so that people will know it’s yours when it’s reposted! This will explode your brand visibility!
Instagram Story Game Idea #2: Bingo
Nope, bingo isn’t just a game your grandmother plays! You can make your own bingo game by picking a topic, then filling in the squares with things that are relevant to that topic. For example, at Plann we created a Christmas bingo with words like mistletoe, eggnog etc. Then, your followers have to mark off as many that are relevant to them, then share it to their stories. Whoever has the most squares crossed off wins! You can make this as cute, funny or playful as you like — Coffee and Carry On’s story above is a great idea of how you can have a bit of fun with it.
Instagram Story Game Idea #3: Gif challenge
This is such a fun way to boost your engagement and reshares. After all, who doesn’t love gifs!? Pick your topics or occasion (such as Valentine’s Day, in our example above) and leave squares for gifs relevant to themes within those. Then, your followers have to repost your story, with relevant gifs dragged onto those squares. Be sure to reshare the best and funniest responses to your story — it’s great for community engagement, and encourages more people to participate!
Instagram Story Game Idea #4: Favorites
The best Instagram games for stories are the ones that help you get to know your followers a little better. Posting a ‘favorites’ template to your stories will do exactly that! Pick some categories, like ‘favorite book’ or ‘favorite holiday destination’, and leave space for your followers to add their own answers when they repost. By resharing the answers to your stories, it will help make your followers feel valued and like you truly care about who they are as a person (because, you do!)
Instagram Story Game Idea #5: Truths and a lie
This Instagram stories poll game is about helping your followers get to know you a little better! Come up with three truth facts about yourself, and one cheeky lie. Then, ask your followers to guess which one is the lie!
To make it more interactive, consider creating an Instagram stories poll, using the the ‘poll’ sticker on stories for your followers to cast their vote. Reshare their answers to your stories with emoji stickers to build anticipation of the big reveal, then announce which one was the lie in your stories (and, share a little more info about the truths!) Your followers will love getting this inside glimpse into the person behind the brand.
Instagram Story Game Idea #6: Animated stories roulette
This one is like a Chinese fortune cookie, but in Instagram stories form! Here’s how it works. Use a series of graphics to create a gif that flicks rapidly through the graphics. So, for example, you might create one around the theme ‘take what you need’,’ and include graphics with text like ‘a nap’, ‘a hug’, ‘a slice of pizza’ etc.
Then, post it to your stories, and ask your followers to screenshot to reveal their ‘fortune.’ Naturally, they’ll be eager to share it to their stories to show off what they got — which will encourage others to check out your stories to do the same!
Instagram Story Game Idea #7: The first letters game
Your followers will love this fun and lighthearted game. Pick a series of categories, then challenge your followers to answer the question using the first letter of their name. So, for example, if their name starts with ‘E’, you might do ‘elephant’ for animal, ‘Euphoria’ for TV show and so forth. It’s a great way to entertain your followers who might be bored and procrastinating!
Instagram Story Game Idea #8: Challenge games
Challenge games are excellent for building a more intimate connection with your community. Whether it’s a good-old-fashioned game of Tik-Tak-Toe or a round of Pictionary, publicly nominate a friend to play with you. You can do this with many different games, using the drawing tool on stories to fill out your answer. Then, share each of your ‘rounds’ to your stories, so your followers can take part in the fun, too! Be sure to also post a blank version to your stories too, so your followers can nominate a friend to play with, too!
Now that you’ve got all the Instagram story game ideas to delight your audience, it’s time to whip them up! The good news is, you don’t have to start from scratch. Canva has loads of Instagram story game templates in the exact right dimensions, and you don’t even need to leave Plann to access them! Just search for them inside our Canva integration, customize it with your branding, and schedule them straight to your stories!
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