How to use Instagram stories to boost engagement
Want to optimise your Instagram Stories for growth? The trick is to make your stories interactive, always use hashtags/location tags and mix up your content.
This approach to Instagram Stories has allowed me to build a strong, personal connection with my existing audience as well as support me in tapping into potential new followers.
1. Make your stories interactive.
Doing so helps you to build a stronger, more authentic connection with your existing followers. It can also help to significantly boost your ranking within the Instagram algorithm. Instagram regularly introduces new tools to the platform that encourage audience engagement. These include poll stickers, question stickers, quiz stickers and emoji slider stickers. Mix things up and use them all!
As a food blogger, I’ll often use the emoji slider when I post a super pretty dish. I use the question sticker when asking for recommendations of where to eat in a certain area/city, and the poll sticker to get my audience to vote for which dish or flavour of an item they would order.
These are just some examples, but you can really get creative with these interactive features and have fun with them. I think quiz stickers are fun to participate in, and are something I’m going to create more of in my stories in future. Just know that to really drive engagement and get your followers involved in your content, interactions that users can participate in quickly and without much thinking works best.
2. Use both location and hashtags in your stories.
People often don’t think to use these in their stories in fear that it looks ‘tacky’. I personally like to see location tags as they often inspire me to check out a new cafe or place that wasn’t already on my radar. Not using location tags are definitely a missed opportunity as it means your story won’t show up when people search that location. I almost always get several views from people who don’t follow me but have searched the location I’ve tagged. This gives you the opportunity to convert someone to a new follower if they decide to check out your profile.
As for hashtags, they can definitely look messy in stories (especially if overused). You can make your stories more aesthetically pleasing by hiding your hashtags underneath a GIF or by shrinking it down so much that it’s barely visible. Instagram allows you to use up to 10 hashtags in a story - so definitely take advantage of the extra reach these could give you.
3. Post a variety of content on your stories.
Whether it's photos of meals, videos of food prep, yourself talking or something from the create tab - refrain from posting the same thing. We are taking in more content than ever these days so it’s harder than ever to keep people’s attention, however putting in the time and effort to mix up your visuals will keep the user tapping through to see what else you have to offer.
If you only post one or two stories each day, make sure these are different styles e.g not always a photo of your cafe breakfast and coffee. Or, if you prefer to post up to 10 stories each day, make sure these are of different types of content and tell a story e.g you post photos, videos and interactive polls all on the same day. For example, if you were to post 10 food photos in a row with no interactive elements, the viewer is likely to tap out and go onto the next person's stories - you don’t want this!
With the algorithm, it’s in your best interest to keep people watching your stories for as long as possible and creating variety will help with this.
Make sure to create an actionable plan to incorporate these tips within your stories and you’re on you’re way!
