HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN STUNNING INSTAGRAM STORIES

An Essential Guide By Craig Annand

10 billion everyday, that’s how many people view video content on Snapchat.

So it makes sense that Instagram followed to create Instagram Stories – short videos that disappear after 24 hours, with a potential audience of 500 million users.

That’s some big numbers, right?

We agree. Storytelling is a key feature to making social media work for brands and features like Instagram Stories ensure marketers like us, create better and deeper stories for people to engage with brands.

What Are Instagram Stories?

It’s the latest update to the Instagram app that shows short video or imagery that delete after 24 hours.

When you visit another Instagram account that has a current story, you will notice a coloured circle around the users profile image.

Click on the profile image and you will see that users Instagram Story.

In this post we will share how to use Instagram Stories to engage customers and how to create a story that will entice customers to fall in love with your brand.

Enhance your main Instagram content with bonus information.

This is one of my favourite ways of using Instagram Stories: telling a deep story behind each and every Instagram post.

One of the key differences between Instagram and Snapchat is that Instagram provides a public, viewable profile for your main content.

On no other social network can you get this type of supplemental information about the posts themselves.

NASA’s use of Stories is quite the native strategy.

Recently, NASA posted about the annual Perseid meteor shower on their Instagram account and used Stories to share more about the meteor shower and the research on it, talking to the scientists involved in the research and showing the equipment used for the research.

People Love Valuable Information

How can you do this for your business?

After you choose a final photo to share on Instagram, snap a couple of extra ones that go behind-the-scenes.

This can be as easy as:

* Flip your camera around to take a photo of yourself working.

* Share some of the failed drafts of photos to show the personal side of your brand.

* Snap a photo with the team that helped you create your Instagram photo

* Zoom out and photograph the setup – works great for product shots to show all that goes into getting the photo just right!

Use Your Real Time Events

Whether it be a webinar, talk or product launch, posting your content on Stories enables a large live audience.

With the soon to be released live video from the Instagram feed, real time video will be a winner for your brand.

How can you do this for your business?

Take a look at your event calendar and see if there are any upcoming events and activities that your online community can follow along.

It could be:

(1) A Product Launch.

(2) Company Meetings.

(3) Behind The Scene Planning

Otherwise, consider if you could organize fun games around your product or service, which your online community could participate in by leaving a comment on one of your recent Instagram posts or sharing a photo with a particular hashtag.

Make People Part Of The Content

Take your followers on tours

New York University has a very engaged following on Instagram. Each of its posts has thousands of likes and 10–20 comments.

Following the theme for its posts, New York University “takes” its followers on tours around the campus and city, enhancing the experience of following the account.

Think about how to integrate this into your brands story.

How can you do this for your business?

This is great if you are a tourist attraction or even a retail store with a great physical space and environment!

When you are performing work activities, document your day-to-day activities.

These raw authentic snaps will give your followers a better sense of the area and might make them want to visit you more.

Think about using a customer to style them using clothes from your retails store.

Using a customer you can create “Get The Look” videos and images that style someone from head to toe.

Feature Your Customers & Go Behind The Scenes

Customers are happy to be featured in images, especially if they are big fans of your product or service. Ask to use them as content.

User generated content (UGC) has become very popular with brands.

People love having there images featured on brand pages.

How you can do this for your business?

If it is possible, visit your amazing customers and give them a shout out on your Instagram Stories.

This will let your followers know what types of businesses and individuals use your product and might give them the social proof they need in order to convert.

Furthermore, this will help you build a stronger relationship with your customers.

View Your Analytics For Future Content

When people start to view your story, you’ll see a number at the bottom of each portion of your story.

Swipe up on that number too see more details such as how many views you have for each part of your story and who viewed which part of your story.

Use this data to continue creating better stories.

The more people like one part of a story the more likely of them wanting to see more of that in future stories.

Let’s say that you have one particular photo or video that is getting a lot of views.

You may want to share that to your profile and use it to encourage more people to view your story.

Or, if you notice a significant drop-off of views at a particular part of your story, you might want to delete that photo or video to see if people will continue viewing past that point once you’ve removed that particular photo or video.

Over to you

There are many ways you can create content for your brand, but these highlight some suggestions to think about.

More importantly, just start and work it out as you go. Creating content to test and research is the best formula to begin with.

Be Brave & Create!!

Meet Craig Annand

Managing Director of Social Club Media. A digital agency, defenders of truth, justice and effective marketing, the Social Club Media team are a diverse group of highly talented individuals all born with special marketing powers.

Our mission: to save the galaxy, one client at a time

“STUNNING INSTAGRAM STORIES”
A Complete Guide To Creating Your Own!!https://t.co/jVV7hursxl @CraigAnnand #InstagramStories #Storytelling pic.twitter.com/rSFIH2wyr9

— Keith Keller (@KeithKeller) December 7, 2016