This is a chapter from my free photographer’s guide to social media & marketing.
Instagram Stories is like what Instagram Posts used to be…
Remember the time when Instagram was a place you posted sorta-random photos from your daily life?
This is what you should use Instagram Stories for; every day, non-edited spontaneous videos and shots.
Instagram Stories just hit 400.000.000 users by the way. The Instagram App just reached 1 billion monthly users.
What content works for Instagram Stories?
First things first – and you know what I’m going to say; it’s all about the content.
Good content for Instagram Stories could be:
- An interesting story: Preferably with an interesting video or photo.
- A way to get to know your followers: Ask your audience questions and build a relationship with them.
- Personal updates: Tell your audience about yourself. Who are you? What are you up to?
- Everyday content: Glimpse of your daily life.
- Music: Add music to your Instagram Stories.
- Promote your IGTV videos with Instagram Stories.
If you want to see all the creative ways you use to spice up your IG stories Take a look at this post by Later.com
Tips & Tricks to increase your Instagram Story views
Using Hashtags for Instagram Stories
- You can add more than one hashtag to your Instagram stories. Just add text starting with “#”.
- You can also hide hashtags by adding a sticker above it, so it looks a bit nicer while you still get the views from the hashtags like this:
You can get a lot of extra visibility when using hashtags in your stories. The screenshot below shows how I got about 20% more views using the hashtag #streetphotography.
(A lot of the kinda grey-hat / dirty tricks to Instagram I use, are some I’ve learned in this Instagram Marketing E-book)
Tag your location
99% of all my Instagram Stories are tagged with the location I’m at.
It gives people context to your story and it will increase your views too. So why not?
How often should you do Instagram Stories?
To me, it’s the same answer as to how often you should do posts: When you have great content. If you have nothing to say, say nothing.
I’d rather post a great Instagram story a week, than one every day, that is so-so.
It’s all about the quality. And by quality I don’t mean perfect editing, I mean interesting story.
You could also go crazy and do stories like this
This video shows how a really talented video-guy, uses Instagram Stories.
Personally, I wouldn’t put that much effort and time into my stories – but because he does so, he really stands out from the crowd. In marketing, if you are willing to put in the time 99,9% of people won’t, you will usually see a pay-off.
Using the highlight function for IG stories
With Instagram highlights, you can group or categories your Instagram Stories. This is a nice way to show new followers who you are and what you IG page is about.
As you’ve probably seen, you can select a cover for each highlight, to make your page more nice-looking.
This was a chapter from my photographer’s guide to marketing.