Utilizing Stories on Instagram For Your Business in 2022

Before we present all of the benefits of using Instagram Stories, here’s a brief overview of how to create them first. Once logged into the Instagram app, start by clicking on the “plus icon” at the top of your screen. You will be presented with a range of options. Choose “Story,” and from here, you will have the option to either take a picture directly to post, record a video, or upload content from your camera roll. There are numerous filters you can choose from at his time, too, if you’d like to create a Story using one of those. Then, you will have the option to further customize your Story with writing, tags, GIFs, quizzes, and more. Once your Story has been posted, you can either let it run its course for 24 hours or “highlight” it to your profile.

Instagram Stories Best Practices for Your Business

Although many personal Instagram accounts might use the Story feature to show their friends snippets of a trip or day-to-day life, brands and businesses can optimize Stories much further. Oftentimes, we will see business accounts highlighting a product or service they provide in a way where users can quickly tap through or click on links to learn more.

Showcasing Your Personality and Interacting With Users

One of the many benefits of using Instagram Stories is the versatility and ability to personalize your content in many ways. By adding GIF stickers to tags, locations, people, and more, you can truly make an Instagram Story as interactive as possible. It seems that Instagram is constantly adding more features for people to be as creative as they’d like with their Stories. Many businesses will create polls or quizzes as a way for their audience to stop scrolling from one Story to the next, and take a second to interact with theirs.

We all like knowing that our opinion matters and our voices are heard, and as humans, we are also very curious by nature. In fact, 58% of users say they’ve become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in a Story. By using the poll or quiz feature to create interactive content, not only will your users want to play a part in it, but will likely be curious to see what the majority believes as well. These Story features will also allow space for your followers to feel more connected to you as a brand or business because they can see that you value their opinion. It is also very useful for businesses within fields that might not be the most exciting to spice up their content in a fun and engaging way from time to time. It’s also enjoyable for the person creating the Stories, and research shows that 46% of marketers already use the Story feature in their marketing strategies. To learn more, read the full article about getting creative with Instagram Stories.

Connecting Your Business to More Users Worldwide Through Story Ads

Whether you’d like to connect with individuals organically or through running ads, Instagram Stories is a great tool. To create Story ads, you will need to login into your Facebook account, go to “Meta Business Suite” and click on “Meta Ads Manager,” like so. Here is a step-by-step of how you would go about setting up an Instagram Story Ad.

Start a new campaign by clicking on the “+ Create” button, then choose objectives that align with your marketing goals. Here’s what that should look like.

Go ahead and name your campaign, then click “Next,” like so.

From here, this is how you would set your budget and select how long you would like to run your campaign for.

Then, take some time to add in specifics like location and audience. You will then be presented with this page. Check “Manual Placements” to ensure that it goes only to Instagram, and from the dropdown menu, select “Instagram” only and check off “Stories.”

Ensure your pages are linked and add in your media of choice. Make sure it’s in portrait mode for an Instagram Story. Then, press “Publish!”

You can also use “stories templates,” which is a free design tool. Once your ad is complete, you will press “Confirm.” If you’d like to see what the Story will look like before submitting it for review, you can select Instagram Stories from the dropdown section. You also have the option to create ads in a video, single picture or carousel format. A video ad can be up to 15 seconds long, an image up to 5 seconds and a carousel will contain three pieces of content in one ad. If you’ve ever seen the last ad option pop up in your Stories, you may have clicked through them, not even knowing they would be considered a carousel ad.

But you might be asking yourself if these Instagram ads are even worth it? Just last year, in 2021, Story ads were found to have a 44% higher reach, 78% more clicks, and a 45% lower CPC (cost per click). On top of this, it’s important to take into consideration that Story ads don’t follow the same 24-hour rule that typical stories do, but instead can be set for however long you’d like. By choosing the length of the campaign and frequency of the ads, you can set everything up at once and not have to worry about it again. At this stage, you will also be able to set up the budget you’d like for your specific ad. Another excellent feature of Instagram ads is that they will be viewed by more people who don’t even need to be following your account. Since these ads are immersed throughout other Stories that an Instagram user might be clicking through, it will make for a seamless experience.

It’s clear to see there are many upsides to using this feature, and if you haven’t utilized Instagram Story ads yet, what’s stopping you?

The same is to be said about including sound. Although, traditionally, when uploading a video to Instagram, you will likely already have sound or yourself speaking, ensure that you provide content that can be seen and heard by everyone. When creating content for Instagram, one best practice is adding image descriptions so that people who are blind or visually impaired can understand what your content is. By adding a little blurb that explains what is in your image, individuals can use screen readers that turn that text into either braille or audio.

When it comes to accessibility, the term simply means having access you need to something, and this looks different for each person. For example, when we watch films in a different language, having English subtitles for English-speaking individuals makes the film accessible to this specific group. Taking it one step further, ramps alongside stairs at buildings makes it accessible for wheelchairs. Although many people might understand the original film’s language just fine or may never think twice about having the privilege to walk up stairs, this is not the case for all. Accessibility means inclusivity and equality for all. Although you might not think it’s all that important to think about when making something as light and fun as Instagram content – ask yourself this. Shouldn’t everyone be able to enjoy the entertainment that platforms like Instagram have to offer?

Remember, it’s not always about doing things perfectly but simply doing what you can to be inclusive for all.

From here, you can choose a time period you’d like to look at the insights for. Whether you’d like to look at 7 days, 14 days, a month, or any custom timeframe, you have the ability to view it all here. Then, you can click on the content you’ve shared and go to “Stories” to view the data that you need to understand what’s working and what isn’t moving forward.