9 Instagram Story Ideas For Your Business

02 May 9 Instagram Story Ideas For Your Business

Using Instagram Stories is a great way to increase exposure for your account and in turn get more followers. But do you get a headache thinking about what you can post in your Stories? No worries! In this post I’ll give you 9 Instagram Story ideas you can use for your brand or business. Lets get started…

1. Go Live

The first Instagram Story idea I want to put out there is to go live! Live videos have a lot of impact. You can use the live format to integrate some of the ideas we’ll go over later on in this post.

Live Stories Q&A’s

Live Stories Q&A’s give so much value to your audience. There are two ways to go about creating these for your brand or business. You can have users submit their questions before hand and you can answer them in an Instagram Live Story or you can Go Live With A Friend and pick one of your viewers to hop on the Live Stories broadcast with you to ask questions. I’ll be starting my Coffee With Dee Live Stories sessions soon! To find out when I’ll be starting join my list.

Live Stories With A Friend

An alternative to going on Instagram Live Stories alone is to have someone join you like we just went over. The difference with this Instagram Story idea is to host an interview with an industry leader or an influencer for your target audience. You can conduct the interview on your own or again have your followers submit questions before hand. You can even take questions as people type them over to you via the Instagram Live Story. Get a few more ways you can go live with a friend by reading: 5 Ways To Use Instagram’s Go Live With A Friend Feature For Business.

2. Drive Traffic To Your Website/Blog Post

A simple Instagram Story idea for your business is to use Stories to promote current blog posts, services or drive traffic to your website. If you have over 10,000 followers you have access to the “Swipe Up” feature which lets you link within the story itself – use that to your advantage!

3. Behind The Scenes/Sneak Peeks

As always taking your followers behind the scenes or giving them a sneak peek of an upcoming campaign or event is always a good idea. You’ll create network exclusive content, build buzz towards your new initiatives and make your audience feel special.

4. Polls

Instagram Stories has a feature that rivals a Twitter feature that I love: Instagram Poll Stickers. Now you can add a question with two answer options to your Instagram Story image or video. Your followers simply tap on the answer they’d like to choose! Polls are a great way to drum up engagement on your Instagram account. Learn more about Instagram Poll stickers and 6 ways you can use them for your brand or business here.

5. Themed Days

An easy way to stay consistent and get the most out of Instagram Stories is to create a themed day. This can be a Tuesday Tip, a day where you spotlight an influencer, a day where you share quotes, or your Live Q&A day. Having a themed day (or several themed days) can help you create content in bulk, or at least be ready and have time carved out for publishing an Instagram Story on the specific day.

6. Lists/Round-Ups

I think the Instagram Story format of tapping to get to the next screen is great for creating round ups and lists. Let your followers know what the top posts on your blog were, turn a blog post into an Instagram Story list, or put a spotlight on your top favorite resources of the past month. Remember to keep it brand related and value packed for your audience.

7. Highlight User Generated Content/Shout Outs

If you are fortunate enough to have lots of user generated content use it in your Instagram Stories! You can also use stories to shout out favorite accounts, images or other related brands. This will help you build you B2B relationships and well as let your audience know you care about what they post too.

8. Highlight Local Happenings/Neighborhood

Is there an event happening locally? Talk about it in an Instagram Story! This is a good way to connect with your audience, especially if you have a location based business. This also creates a great opportunity for tagging locations, using location based hashtags and location stickers – all which have the potential to help you gain extra exposure (keep reading to find out why).

9. Vlog It Up!

The easiest way to use Instagram Stories for your business is to use the tool as a mini vlog. Even though this format seems very laid back, it can work in the B2B space just as well as it can for a personality or a B2C based business. Take your followers into your every day life, show your workspace, highlight employees and have fun with the process. This approach will help people get to know the person or people behind your brand and add that wonderful human and personality elements that attract your ideal clients and customers.

General Tips for More Instagram Exposure Using Instagram Stories

Location Stickers: Location stickers help your story get pulled into the larger city stories which appear in everyone’s explore feeds.

Hashtag Stickers: Hashtags also have stories and users can now follow hashtags which pull posts from the hashtag into their newsfeeds.

Mentions: Mentioning other accounts in your stories can lead to extra exposure. They may share your story to theirs or take a screenshot to share it. Mentioning other accounts can also “warm” them up if you plan to contact them for partnerships etc.

Use Apps: There are so many like Adobe Spark Post with pre-built templates to help you create beautiful Instagram Stories images and videos.

I hope this swipe file has shown you how simple it can be to create content for your Instagram Story strategy. I’ve also created a new resource for you which includes all the ideas in this Instagram Story post plus a few more.

Download the Instagram Story Swipe file in my resource library here.

<3 DhariLo

P.S. Are you on Instagram? Let’s connect! Follow me @DhariLo.