What is Instagram

Instagram is one of the world’s most used and top social media mobile applications that allows you to take, edit and share pictures and videos. Your friends and family can follow you on Instagram to see the picture and videos posts that you share. You can also follow your friends/family, as well as celebrities and athletes to keep up with their posts. You can choose to maintain your posts by keeping them in public or also in a private mode.

When you first log into the app you will land on the Instagram home page or feed area. This is where all the videos and photos are posted by the people you follow and it is very much like a Facebook newsfeed. You will know you are on the Insta feed page because there’s a small blacked-out icon in the shape of a home at the bottom left of the screen. 

How the Instagram Works

The corresponding icon is always blacked out so you always know where you are let’s have a second option the magnifying glass tapping this icon will take you to the Instagram keyword search page in where you can start searching for specific hashtags and narrow your search down to people tags or places.

Then there is a plus button which is to upload photos and videos on your profile. Once in there, you have the option to load directly from your phone library or take a photo or video. The fly tapping the heart icon will take you to the section that shows the activity in relation. You can able to find followers’ comments that have been made on your posts who liked them.

What is Instagram Stories?

More than 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day and around 58% say they’ve become more interested in viewing a product or brand in Stories for purchase. In that half of them, they’ve visited a website to buy a product or service after seeing it in Stories. So there is no surprise that 4 million businesses advertise on Stories every month.

Instagram stories are full screen, and vertical photos or video-sharing are gaining momentum currently and it keeps users engaged always other top social media platforms. It separates from the usual curated profile and stories that allow users more real-time sharing. This type of content disappears after 24 hours and is not a permanent fixture of your profile. It’s easily reachable to your target audience. Many businesses are taking more steps forward to also use Instagram stories.

In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to use Instagram Stories for business.

Creating an Instagram Business Profile

• Log into your account and navigate your profile by tapping the icon at the bottom right of the screen. 
• Tap the hamburger menu, it opens the new panel. Then go to the settings and change your account as a business profile followed by connecting with your Facebook business page. 
• Add at least one form of your contact either your phone number or your email address (it’s optional). Now your business profile has been created. 

Instagram has become the most popular app for business. It increases online visibility and generates more business, leads, and hopefully makes more money. According to the Instagram business website, 80% of accounts follow a business on Instagram wouldn’t it be nice if one of those businesses was yours. 

Before we get started, just tend to know the couple of things you need to do. Firstly download the Instagram app on your phone and create a business account. Secondly, create a Facebook business page for your business if you haven’t created it already.

Also, Read – How To Run Instagram Ads Without Linking to Facebook Ad Manager

How to optimize Instagram Business Account

• Creating a great Instagram business profile is your opportunity to show the world what your business is about.
• Your username at the top is what people will use when they want to tag you.
• Your profile picture should be representative such as a logo or one of your products so that all can search easily.
• Below the picture, add the category of your business and some relevant information including keywords.
• Add also your business websites or YouTube links.
• All these can get saved when going to the edit profile option.
• A good bio tends to get attracted easily and intends to follow your Instagram business account.

How to Create and Use Instagram Stories for Your Business Account

If you are familiar with Snapchat, you will know what stories are since Instagram ripped off the concept. Stories lets users share the special moment of their day and these stories disappear after 24 hours. You can add text, drawings, emotions, filters, and stickers. Adding Instagram music on a story, quiz, Poll, Time, Q and A, and location stickers will help you to reach many users. This is very useful where it covers the special events with all beautifying triggers.

• Open your Instagram profile and Tap the plus or cross icon at the top of the screen.
• At the bottom of the screen, choose STORY.
• You can even choose the selfie camera if you need one at the bottom right.
• The white circled button helps you to take a picture. Press and hold that white circle to Record the video.  

Swipe the camera icon up and Select any photos or videos from your gallery by posting a story.

Instagram Stories sizes

If you’re designing or editing your Instagram Stories on desktop, or uploading a Stories ad to Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll need to keep these sizes from Facebook in mind

• Recommended image ratio: 9:16 (all feed ratios are supported, but this ratio maximizes the Stories format)
• Recommended resolution: 1080×1920 (minimum resolution is 600×1067 with no maximum, though the very high resolution may increase upload times)
• Maximum file size: 30MB for images, 250MB for video
• Title-safe area: Leave a 14% title-safe area at the top and bottom (in other words, don’t put text or logos in the top or bottom 250 pixels of the Story, to avoid overlapping with the app’s interface)

How to Check Your Instagram Story Views

If you want to check how many people view your Instagram story, just tap the Your Story icon on the app’s main page to see the viewer count for your Story. Tap the number in the bottom left to get a list of the people who make up those Instagram Story views. After 24 hours, once your Instagram Story has disappeared, you can still access insights such as views, reach, and impressions.

1. Open Instagram, and tap your profile photo at the bottom right of the screen.
2. Tap Insights.
3. Choose the period you’d like Insights for 7, 14, or 30 days, the previous month, or a custom timeframe.
4. Scroll down to Content You Shared and tap on Stories.
5. Choose your metric and period
6. You can see up to 2 years of shared stories data in these insights.

Also, Read – How To Increase Instagram Story Views

How to Add Captions on Instagram Stories

Captions are one of the important ways to help make content more accessible. around 60% of people watch stories with music sound, so posting videos, and captions is a great way to make your content-rich. Instagram will auto-create captions for your video Stories if you add the captions sticker.

Posting Videos and Photos to Engaging People

• Whenever you post a new photo or video, just add a caption to explain your overlook.
• The theoretical part reaches the customer easily to understand.
• Captions contextualize the subject of the content.
• A lot of businesses overlook this aspect and fail to do this properly.
• Add captions like giving quotes or describing the picture.
• This is a great chance to educate, communicate and engage with your audience to attract new customers.
• Be as descriptive as possible.
• Add a question that will trigger more comments while making you visible.
• Use emojis.
• Share some of your customer stories.
• Add a call to action such as clicking on the link.
• Run a giveaway or a contest.

All About Instagram Hashtags

• Add relevant hashtags to your every post and story too.
• It identifies messages on a specific topic.
• Don’t use the same hashtag on every post and make sure that fits your industry type.
• The more followers you have, the more likely Instagram will show your content to viewers, even for very competitive hashtags.
• If you are starting to have between 100 to 500 followers, try targeting hashtags that return anything between 2000 and 75000 posts.

Also, Read – Top 10 Best Instagram Photo and Video Downloader Apps

Instagram Location Sticker

• Geotagging is one of the most important aspects of any local business.
• Once you complete the caption add your location.
• That will appear as default the field.
• This applies to your stories too.

How to Use Instagram Stories Highlights

Highlighting your stories is a great way to showcase your best, brand-defining content. Pinned on your Instagram and give a relevant name to your every highlight can contain as many Stories as you like, and you can keep adding to them as you post new content.

How to Create an Instagram Stories Highlight

1. If your favorite story is less than 24 hours old and still visible on Instagram, just tap Your Story to open it, OR…
2. If the Story is more than 24 hours old, retrieve it from your archive. Tap your profile icon at the bottom right, then tap the menu icon (three lines) in the top right. Tap Archive. Scroll back to the Story you want to highlight.
3. In the lower right corner of the screen, tap the highlight icon.
4. Choose the highlight to which you’d like to add the Story, OR…
5. Create a new highlight with the name.

How to Add Links to Instagram Stories

To add Swipe-Up links to Instagram Stories, you need to either have 10,000 followers or have a verified account. This helps you to drive your followers directly to land on your service or product page which increases the chances of making a purchase.

How to add a Swipe-Up link on Instagram Stories

1. Start creating your Story following the steps above.
2. Once the photo or video is ready to go, tap the link icon at the top of your screen.
3. Paste your link.
4. Tap Done or the green check (depending on your type of phone).

Like all other good marketing strategies, your Instagram Stories should include a clear call to action. Swipe up is the best CTA button, but you should use it wisely.

How to use Instagram Stories Shopping

If you’re an eCommerce website owner, you must set up an Instagram shopping account. After a setup just uses the shopping sticker to make your Stories shoppable.

1. Create your Story as usual.
2. Now tap the sticker icon at the top of the screen.
3. Tap the Product sticker.
4. Choose the product from your catalog that you want to tag.
5. Move and adjust the shopping sticker by dragging and tapping.
6. Share your Story.

Instagram Content Strategy

• 95 million people post the content in the heart of Instagram.
• The content should be the foundation of your business strategy.
• Your idea is to encourage potential visitors to do business with you by inspiring them through your content alone.
• Images are sophisticated for any business.
• While if it is an industrial process, add some working process that would be meticulous.
• Position yourself as an expert in your field.
• Use humor posts and quotes.
• Uniquely show your product or services.
• Show off your company photos and culture videos.
• Use before and after photos.
• Special event and promotion.
• Follow all your competitors using a separate Instagram account.
• Use your competitor’s hashtags for further research.

Building a recognizable brand for your business

• The idea is to create your own visual identity that reflects your business. 
• Your content should be of high quality and consistent.
• Quality of imagery is paramount.
• Avoid dark or blurry pictures.
• Make sure your photos are crispy well.
• Try sticking with one style of photography.
• Use the same fonts.
• Apply an appropriate filter to your photos.
• These all make the people easier to recognize your business time.

Analyze the Performance By Using Instagram Insights

One of the biggest advantages of an Instagram business account is that it gives you access to analytics for free.

• Go to the profile followed by the hamburger menu, then tap on the insights.
• Now you can see the activity tab and it contains two sections.
• The interaction section will cover the actions people have taken when they engage with your account.
• The discovery tab uses two indicators.
• It essentially measures how many people see your content.
• These are very useful numbers for instance if many people see your content but have very few interactions with it probably means you most likely need to improve the quality.
• The content tab will give you insight into all the content you have posted on your feed.
• It is split between posts and stories and any promotional activity may have you run by which we judge the performance of any posts.
• It describes any information regarding your business.
• Lastly, the audience tab where gathers all information like how many more followers you’ve gained, gen display of audience, etc.
• These are all the analytics that shows your performance.

Also, Read – Top 7 Social Media Management Tools For Business in 2021

If you’re a social media manager or business owner, planning a social media marketing strategy for your business for 2021, give a top priority to Instagram. Execute the above ideas on how to use Instagram stories for business profiles and increase your stories views and mainly covert as leads.

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