Instagram Stories for Business: A Beginner’s Guide

Want to know how to use Instagram Stories to market your business?

Have you heard that Instagram is the platform to be on and want to get involved?

Have you been making content for your Instagram feed and now want to expand and start creating Instagram Stories too?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above you are in the right place. I’m going to explain what an Instagram Story, why it can be a great tool for your business and how you can get started.

 

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WHAT IS AN INSTAGRAM STORY?

When most people think about creating content for Instagram they think about posting on the main feed. For years that was the main way to create content on Instagram, however, the social media platform has evolved  and now there are four different ways you can share content with your audience:

• The Feed
• Instagram Stories
• Instagram Live
• IGTV

 

Instagram Stories were introduced in August 2016. In this announcement article, Instagram states that Instagram Stories “lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story”. (You can read the full announcement here).

This announcement hints to one of the key features of Instagram Stories – they only last for 24 hours. This is completely different from the majority of other social media platforms where the content you create lives on forever. Instead, Stories was introduced as a way to share content that wasn’t “Instagram fabulous”. Unlike the Instagram feed where the focus was on creating on having great visual content you now had more freedom as a content creator.

 

KEY THINGS TO KNOW WHEN CREATING INSTAGRAM STORIES:

• A piece of content only exists for 24 hours
• Stories can be a still or a video
• Videos are only allowed to be 15 seconds long
• Stories are viewed in portrait mode and fill the entire space of a mobile phone screen.

 

WHY YOU SHOULD BE USING INSTAGRAM STORIES FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

Just because a social media platform adds a new feature it doesn’t necessarily mean you should incorporate it into your strategy. Instagram Stories won’t be right for everyone, however, for lots of business owners Instagram Stories are a great way to market your business and here’s why: 

1. INSTAGRAM LOVES STORIES – Instagram loves Instagram Stories! As a result, it prioritised Stories within the app. When someone signs into Instagram and are on their homepage they’ll see accounts who have created Stories at the top of the screen. Accounts who have created Stories have a chance of being seen before an individual starts to scroll through their feed.
2. SOME PEOPLE ONLY WATCH INSTAGRAM STORIES – Instagram Stories have been consistently growing in popularity and there are now some users who never (or rarely) look at their feed and spend their time watching stories. If you are only posting on your Instagram feed and not creating Stories you are possibly missing out on new audience and clients.
3. IT IS A GREAT WAY TO EXPERIMENT – Whilst it can be disheartening to create great content that disappears in 24 hours there is one major advantage – you can experiment with new ideas as they’ll disappear in 24 hours. This means Stories are a great place to try out new ideas, see how people respond and then decide whether to use that idea across your other marketing channels.
4. THEY ALLOW YOU TO SHOW THE REAL PERSON BEHIND THE BRAND – The majority of clients I work with are solo or small business owners. Some are building companies and some are using a company name. We all know that people love to get to know the real person and Instagram Stories are a great way to do that in an informal way without ruining a professional website or a curated Instagram feed.

 

HOW TO CREATE AN INSTAGRAM STORY: INTRODUCTION

Now it is time to create your very own Instagram Story. Follow the steps outlined below.

Step 1 – Open the Instagram App

Step 2 – Click on the camera icon in the top left-hand corner

Step 3 – At the bottom scroll until NORMAL is highlighted. This is the mode to create pictures and videos. If you click press the circle button that will take a photo and if you hold the circle down it will start to create a video. You can press the camera with arrows (bottoms right-hand corner) in order to turn your camera around

Step 4 – Once you have your image or video you’ll be able to add text or stickers using the icons in the top right hand

Step 5 – Once you are happy with your design click on the ‘send to’ button in the bottom right hand corner

Step 6 – Click on the ‘Share’ button that is next to Your Story and you are done!

There you have it. You’ve now posted your very own Instagram Story.

 

As I mentioned earlier on Instagram Stories only last for 24 hours and if you want to ensure you stay of people’s feed you’ll need to ensure you are uploading a story at least every 24 hours.

This is just a beginner’s guide to Instagram Stories. Once you have got the basics of creating a story you can then start exploring all of the different stickers, create graphics to upload and then understand how to sequence multiple stories effectively.

 

WANT TO KNOW HOW TO USE INSTAGRAM STORIES IN YOUR BUSINESS?  

Book a Power Hour with me and I’ll show you in real-time exactly how to use Instagram Stories to grow your audience and sales. I’ll share insider tips to help you quickly become an Instagram Story Pro.

YOU CAN BOOK A POWER HOUR BY CLICKING HERE.