With over 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is a fantastic platform for connecting with your customers and boosting brand awareness. Building your brand on Instagram takes more than just setting up a profile. 

Simply having a presence on the platform just isn’t enough these days. To take full advantage of the social media juggernaut, you should consider utilizing all of the tools that Instagram has to offer. One of the most powerful tools Instagram has in its arsenal is the Instagram Stories feature.

What Are Instagram Stories?

For those who haven’t been using this feature, Instagram Stories is a feature within Instagram where users can capture and post pictures or video content in a slideshow format. Audiences are then able to click on your profile picture and view your content. After 24 hours, your pictures or videos disappear back into the ether.

Instagram stories can be a unique branding opportunity that not enough businesses are taking advantage of. If you’ve been considering using stories, why not give it a shot? Read on to learn how you can leverage Instagram Stories to increase brand awareness.

We’ll Do It Live

One of the most exciting aspects of Instagram is its ability to showcase events in real-time. Whether you’re launching a new product or attending an industry event, going live on the ‘Gram is a surefire way to entertain your core audience.

For example, if you’re an online retail company getting ready to launch a new product, do a live Q&A for customers to interact with and learn more about the launch. Live video allows your audience an authentic behind the scenes view that they may not be privy to otherwise.

Then after your live video ends, add it to your stories for the rest of your followers to enjoy for the next 24 hours! Live video is fast becoming one of the best ways to keep your audience entertained and connected and can do wonders for your brand awareness.

Tag, Use Hashtags, & Add Locations

Just like traditional posts, Instagram allows you to add #hashtags to your stories. Using a similar strategy as your traditional posts, adding hashtags to your Instagram story is an excellent place to use your own branded hashtags. 

Brands can also add their location as a way to connect with people in your local community. This can also be an opportunity to connect with other people and institutions within your IRL community. In a similar vein, you can tag other accounts within your stories and try to generate meaningful interactions.

These features can be a fantastic way to foster relationships with people and businesses within your area and humanize your brand in the eyes of your local community.

Swipe-Up Feature

Do you have that coveted little blue check next to your profile? How about at least 10,000 followers? Congratulations! You can take advantage of Instagram’s swipe-up feature.

Swipe-up allows users who view your story to swipe up on their screen and go directly to a landing page of your choosing. The best part? The user can do all of this without ever leaving the Instagram platform.

If you don’t have access to this feature, don’t sweat it. Though it’s only available to a select amount of users at the moment, that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Keep an eye out on the latest Instagram updates in case the powers that be decide to make the feature public in the future.

Highlights

Although stories are designed to be ephemeral, the highlights feature allows you to keep your stories in a more permanent place. Anytime you post a story, you have the opportunity to save it as a “highlight”. These are the buttons that appear on your profile, below your bio and above your regular feed.

How you create and arrange these can vary, just remember to keep them on brand! You can even go above and beyond and create branded highlight covers. These will keep your profile looking great while presenting information or content that resonates with your audience.

Become A Storyteller

At the end of the day, the most important feature of Instagram stories is simply the stories themselves. Stories connect us, both in real life and with our audience online. Instagram stories allow brands the unique opportunity to tell their own stories and nurture positive relationships.

When you relate to your audience on a human level, you foster goodwill between yourself and your audience. Think of Instagram stories as opportunities to continue to build your brand and connect with your audience on a deeper level.

If you’re curious about getting started on Instagram or have specific questions relating to stories, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Social media has become the main tool by which most of society communicates. Wonder what Aunt Karen is up to in her modern sculpture class? Check Facebook. Want to see the latest pictures of your second cousin’s best friend’s kids in their Halloween costumes? Instagram has you covered. Looking to send a not-so-flattering selfie to an old classmate you haven’t seen since college? Open Snapchat and let your freak flag fly. 

However you’re using social media in your personal life, the game changes when you’re running social for a business. It’s not just about updating your followers on your cats anymore – you’re trying to sell your business and your product. Typically when I think about corporate content on social media, I envision the same inspirational quotes, fun staff photos, and nonsensical stock imagery across the board. Can you use all of these things and still succeed? Yes. Can you do it in a way that won’t make your consumers roll their eyes and scroll faster? Also, yes.

Enter the art of misusing social media. Consider your key demographic – what do they like to do? Where do they live? What music do they listen to? What would they like to see different in the marketplace? As a general rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t want to see your content on social media, most likely your demographic won’t want to see it either. This is going to sound like a cliché but stick with me: you need to think outside the box. Tear the box up if you have to. If you want to post an inspirational quote as content on your business page, think about how you can do it differently. Maybe you have a younger demographic focused on street fashion – your demographic would probably be open to seeing an inspirational quote as street art. Same content idea, different approach. 

The key to misusing social media to gain a foothold with your following is creative problem solving. If your main problem is common content, how many different ways can you take it a step further? Create content that will set you apart from your competitors while creating impact for your audience. Know the limits of your platforms so you can push the boundaries. 

Messenger – Facebook’s version of the DM – released three new features that will allow brands to better connect with their customer base. These features are intended to ease friction in the initial stages of establishing contact with a customer as well as help improve the customer’s experience with prompt answers and ease of use.

The break out feature to pay attention to is the so-called ‘icebreakers’ that business profiles are able to preload into their Messenger account through the API. Basically, this is intended to function like an interactive FAQ by providing the option to select a commonly asked question from a short list compiled by the company and receive an immediate answer through automated responses. 

Among other features being rolled out, a ‘first phase’ ad update is promised that should allow businesses to better target their ads and handle the responses received from them. Alleging that the feature adds more initial clarity for the business when responding to a customer, it is in its early stages of development so expect a hiccup or two.

Finally, on the user side, more reply options are being added for interactions with businesses in Messenger. Reactions (aka the feature that lets you flag a comment with an emoji) are gaining a foothold within this area of the platform as well as implementing a thread based system of message replies to better help target comments direct from the consumer. 

These latest updates are in response to the outcry from consumers saying that they wish businesses were more accessible on the platform. As demand continues to grow for transparency of companies and one-on-one communication, expect innovations to keep rolling out in response.