5 Ways To Up Your Instagram Stories Game and Gain More Exposure For Your Brand

06 Jul 5 Ways To Up Your Instagram Stories Game and Gain More Exposure For Your Brand

Instagram Stories can help you connect further with your customers by allowing you to share more content, giving you the ability to add context to the posts you share on your feed, and can even help you refine your feed since you can give the play by play in your Story and concentrate on sharing the “highlight” in your feed. In this post I’ll share a few ways you can take your Instagram Stories to the next level, and use them to gain more exposure for your brand or business.

1. Use Hashtag and Location Stickers

Among the fun Instagram Stories stickers, there are location and hashtag stickers. To gain more exposure for your brand using Instagram Stories, use these stickers in your stories when you can! Why? because using these stickers can make your story discover-able under the location tag or in a hashtag search. Recently Instagram added stories to search, which means your story can be seen by so many potential followers. Using location stickers can also help your story be pulled into the larger location story. For example, a few weeks ago I used a location sticker when sharing an Instagram Story at a client’s location. My story got pulled into New York, New York location story!

To add hashtag and location stickers to your story:

• Snap your photo, video or boomerang.
• Click on the “sticker” icon (that little smiley face on the upper right)
• Click on “Location” or “hashtag” stickers
• The sticker will pop up on your screen. You’ll be able to tap and customize it from there.

2. Tag Brands

Tagging brands is another great way to gain more exposure using Instagram Stories. When you tag an account in your Instagram Story they will get a direct message notifying them you’ve tagged them. Some brands will take screenshots and repost your Story content. This can also just be a great way to start establishing a relationship with the brand and expose them to our content – which can open the doors to future collaborations.

3. Add A Link

Not everyone has the ability to add a link to their Instagram Stories – but if your account has over 10,000 this feature is available to you! Links are the best way to drive website traffic because all a viewer has to do is swipe up to be taken to the landing page.

To add a link to your Instagram Stories:

• Snap your photo, video or boomerang.
• Remember the sticker icon? If you have over 10K followers you’ll see a link icon next to it – click on that.
• A page will pop up on your screen which allows you to insert a link. You’ll be able to preview the link you enter.
• Click “Done”. This will bring you back to you your content. Make changes, add text, stickers etc. You can also add a call to action to get more people to swipe up on your link.
• Now that part of your Instagram Story will say “See More” on the bottom with an arrow pointing up.

3.  The Different Content Types Available

Make sure you’re creating a variety of content types with the options available in the app. You can use filters, create Boomerangs and videos right from the Instagram app itself. Remember to have fun and take advantage of all the content options to add personality to your Instagram Stories and connect with your audience.

4. Plan Your Stories

One of the best ways you can gain more exposure for your brand using Instagram Stories is to plan them out. Yes, Instagram Stories are for more “in the now” content – but there’s nothing wrong with putting together a plan or strategy for your Stories. These don’t have to be too complicated.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Weekly recurring posts – These can be a weekly tip, Q&A, or anything to let your followers get to know your brand better.

2. Get interactive – You can ask your viewers questions in your Insta Story that they can answer by writing you a message and add calls to action.

3. Use color block sections – Use color block screen sections to divide the sections. I’ll teach you how to create those below.

4. Create Instagram Story specific content – You can plan content that will only go on your Instagram story. This will give your audience an extra reason to follow you on Instagram.

Here are two Instagram Story hacks to wrap up this post:

1. Get more colors on Instagram Stories:

• Take your photo, boomerang or video
• Tap the pen icon
• Long tap any color
• A marker will pop up. Move it around to choose a color

2. Create a color block screen

• Take your photo, boomerang or video
• Tap the pen icon
• Tap any marker icon
• Tap and hold down the screen for a few seconds until it changes color. Lighter colors will be more transparent, and darker colors more opaque.

Now that you know a few more Stories tricks and hacks, how will you use Instagram Stories to gain more exposure for your business?

<3 DhariLo

P.S. If you want to learn more about using Instagram Stories for your brand read: 4 Ways To Use Instagram Stories for Business