INSTAGRAM STORIES
Instagram and Snapchat seem to be in a battle for our attention. As Snapchat has been building in popularity, it seems Instagram, owned by Facebook, has been bubbling with jealousy and plotted a strong counter attack.
Instagram Stories is taking Snapchat by storm. Snapchat had it’s own issues. Limited audience insights, inability to interact with ease, and overall a less than a friendly user interface.
Instagram Stories is providing a solution that is easy to work with, allows for great interaction and provides great insight to who is viewing your stories and the ability to direct message and interact with your audience.
Features of Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories showcase at the top of your Instagram feed, where you would go to scroll through posts from those you follow.
Once you are viewing a story, you can tap on the screen to advance in their story. A story is comprised of 10-second snippets of both video and images.
To move forward to the next person’s story you swipe to the right, to go back to a previous story you swipe to the left. If you open Instagram Stories and leave it running, it will run through all the stories on your feed automatically.
- Posts last for 24 hours
- You can save each clip to your camera roll
- Hide your story from certain people
How To Create an Instagram Story
From your newsfeed click the circle icon with a + sign. Click and hold the circle button for video, click once to take a picture. To use a video or image already saved on your camera roll in the last 24-hours, swipe the screen down while in the record mode. Dress it up a bit with text or on-screen drawing. To add a filter swipe left or right on the screen.
Tips for Using Instagram Stories
Our dear friend and Instagram Expert, Sue B. Zimmerman was kind enough to provide some tips for success with Instagram Stories. She has seen her engagement double in just three days over the previous week on Instagram. Her suggestions for succeeding on Instagram Stories include:- Curate content that will compliment your regular feed.
- People will unfollow you if there is a disconnect between your main feed and stories.
- Intimacy to connect with your brands will draw users.
