5 lifehacks to increase user engagement in Instagram Stories |
Stories provide many possibilities to excite users and raise brand awareness among competitors.
First, you need to understand that the coverage of an account with 1000 followers will be very different from the coverage of 100,000 ones. The scope of a commercial account will be very different from entertainment. The coverage of a mommy blogger will differ from an info-business blogger. A lot of factors affect the coverage of your posts: subject, audience loyalty, photo quality, text, and so on. The battle for Stories is not as fierce as for the feed. Also, the algorithm is more chronological, and stories are ALWAYS on top of the feed. Not all users practice promotion in stories, so go ahead.
Stories will surely be seen since they are located in the most notable place. This feature is used by bloggers and media personalities who announce their new post, offering the public to watch a new video/photo and evaluate it.
The “Stories” feature introduced in 2016 was a significant step in the development of both Instagram and online marketing. Stories have seen anything from morning coffee to radical innovation.
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This is not surprising since 400 million people use this feature daily. Of all the stories published on Instagram daily, a third of the most viewed comes from companies.
It's both thrilling and a little creepy. How to stand out from the crowd in the presence of a large number of companies that have become famous thanks to the stories?
We have excellent news: there are several methods to do this.
Stories allow you to truly unleash your creative potential, so the number of possibilities to increase engagement is almost endless. Although there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, there are a few tips that are guaranteed to captivate your audience.
1. Pre-recorded stories or live broadcasts.
To unlock the full potential of Instagram stories, you need to learn the various benefits that pre-recorded videos and live broadcasts give you.
When it comes to interaction, broadcasting does an excellent job. Users like to watch what is happening in real time, so this format of stories is great for drawing attention. Of course, the real results mainly depend on the content you are advancing. Nevertheless, live videos are the surest way to bring an audience.
On the other hand, pre-recorded stories are great for creating your brand, since their effect doesn't extend to more than 24 hours. The best way to use pre-prepared videos is to create narrations, highlight your products in detail and publish content that you think readers should remember.
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Pre-recorded stories are also great for organizing flash sales, fast promotions, or any short-term ads. It's important to create a balance between these two types of stories, as well as the different types of content that you share.
2. Use the poll feature.
Instagram stories are regularly modernized, that we only benefit. Polls are a great way to boost user attention. If not ideal, because with their help we can get a lot of useful data.
By posting polls, you are in contact with your audience. Try this feature to see which products your users like the most, how much they like them and ask a number of other questions that will add value to your products.
This is a win-win situation. You give your public the opportunity to speak, and they interact with your content and leave precious feedback.
3. Use mentioning to thank the competitors.
Instead of simply typing the name of an Instagram user, you can use the Mention feature and thereby actually tag him in your stories.
Now deliberately ostentatiousness is considered a bad form. In the competitive world of Instagram marketing, where everyone is fighting for likes, giving gifts to followers and interacting with competitors sounds rather illogical.
This is not entirely true. If you want to arrange the cards correctly, you will get much more from this move than you lose. The reason is simple and comes down to cooperation, not competition. So you will not only boost engagement but also extend the coverage.
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Instagram is proud to be a community. Despite this, many companies look at each other as enemies. If you choose a different approach, you can build solid business relationships and increase your audience. Instagram marketing doesn't have to be a zero-sum game, which proves collaboration with competitors.
As an added bonus, you get content that you don’t need to work with a lot. All that is needed is a few words and a screenshot, and everything is ready.
4. Be consistent.
Only a third of visits to your business page come from your followers. The remaining views are those who haven't yet become part of your community.
Consistency is a key factor and contributes to the greater activity of followers. A study conducted by Union Metrics showed that with a rise in the frequency of post-publication, the audience engagement doesn't decrease. Thus, you don't need to worry about that your public will get bored. In doing so, you must create attractive content.
Try to post stories every day. You have to make sure that there is a red circle around your avatar, as this signals that you have something to show. Regular publication humanizes your brand and gives users more opportunities to interact.
5. Stay on top of new features.
Stories continually get new functions. It's important to track them all and start using as soon as they appear.
A great example is gifs. This chip is a real example of how minor details can make a big difference. Gifs are fun, beautiful and can breathe more life into your stories. The same goes for background music, all sorts of fonts, and many other effects you can use.
A great innovation that you might want to try is creating your own GIF files. Many Instagram gurus are doing this, and this is a great way to make stories popular.
Here you can create as you can. This way you are able to enhance your uniqueness, so be sure to experiment with any new features as soon as they appear.
The last word
With an average engagement level of 1.73% per post, Instagram remains the undisputed king of interaction. Most of its potential is linked to stories. This is definitely one of the most powerful tools for creating a close connection with your business that your audience feels.
It's very significant that you master the art of telling the story of your brand with this feature. Stories can build or destroy your marketing efforts on social networks. If you follow the above tips, you will be much closer to the improvement of brand awareness, as well as a high degree of involvement of your audience.
As new functions arise, you will have more chances to draw your audience. Make sure you fully use them, and then you can turn the “Stories” into your most convincing weapon.