A Little Introduction to Instagram Stories - How Do They Really Affect Your Page?

Many of us work hard to build an Instagram feed that promotes and grows our businesses. Hopefully, along the way, we have started to grow a healthy number of followers, also known as our audience.

If a client lands on your Instagram page, it’s important that you engage them immediately by visually communicating your style and that you help your visitors to capture the essence of your creativity. With so many balloon companies actively using Instagram, it is important that we stand out. Here are a few suggestions that you can use to help achieve this:

• Show clients your talents, and that you would be a good person to work with.
• Ensure that your Instagram feed is appealing and consistent.
• Make sure that the work that you present on Instagram "Sells the Dream" - our job is not to sell balloons, but to sell the special memories that our balloons make, whether it's a beautiful bouquet of balloons that we deliver for a special occasion or amazing decor that we create for a corporate event, a wedding, or a party.

So now that we have started to grow our followers, we need to learn how to keep them engaged - remember, it is just as easy to unfollow someone as it is to follow them!

Instagram Stories are a great way to communicate with your audience and potentially acquire new followers! Unlike your Instagram feed, your stories can be a much more casual affair. Instagram Stories help to capture the little moments throughout your day. They don't need to be pristine, but they should give your followers a glimpse into what goes on in your world. The key to having a successful Instagram Story is staying true to your brand's personality and style.



Let's start by looking at how you can create an Instagram story. I recommend that you have your smart phone on hand so that you can follow along as you go through the steps below.

Start by clicking on the Instagram icon to open your Instagram home screen.

1. Swipe right from your home screen or tap the camera icon in the top left corner of the screen to open the Instagram camera. 















2. Take a photo by tapping the record button or take a video by pressing down on the record button for up to 10 seconds. You also have the option of making a Type (this is fun to play with if you have never tried it before), Going Live, creating a Boomerang, using Superzoom, Rewind, or doing a Hands-Free Video.


Other story options:
Photo: Select your most recently taken photo or video
Thunderbolt: The flash button.
Arrows: Switch from front-facing camera to back-facing camera and vice-versa.

Smiley face: Instagram’s face filters feature

3. You can also upload a previously taken photo or video from your camera roll by swiping up or down.

If you select a photo from over 24 hours ago, a date sticker with the day, month, and year that the photo was taken will automatically appear. You can remove the sticker by dragging to the trash icon at the bottom of the screen.

4. Tapping anywhere on the screen will bring up the text tool. You can play with text size and colour, and you can also use the “@” sign to tag another account, or the “#” sign to share a hashtag.

Instagram recently launched the ability to search for Instagram Stories by location and hashtag, meaning that if you include a hashtag in your story, other users can see it even if they don’t follow you - this is an excellent way to find new followers!

5. Select from one of three different pen styles to doodle on your photo. You can also erase any drawings that you add to your story with the eraser brush - like my hand-drawn rainbow!















6. You can add stickers by selecting the sticker button in the top right corner of your screen or by swiping up on your story. Some of the more important ones include the location sticker, hashtag sticker, mention sticker, selfie sticker, poll sticker, emoji slider, and question sticker!

7. By swiping right or left, you can you can apply different filters. 



8. When you’re done, tap the “Next” button to share!
Your story will appear at the top of your followers’ feeds, but it will also be accessible on your profile page by tapping your profile picture.









9. You can see how well your Instagram story is performing by swiping up while viewing your story. This will display the number as well as the names of people who have seen each photo or video in your story.


Here's a story that I posted a few weeks ago. The information is invaluable! It shows me how many people clicked on the link that directed people to the blog, and how many people visited my profile and the number of website clicks - this information will tell me how successful my stories are and whether it's achieving any positive results. Make sure to always check your insights to see how well your posts are performing.

The great thing about stories is that they only last for 24 hours from the time that you posted it! If you want to keep stories, you can save them to Highlights which is featured on your home screen above your posts. You can add to and remove them from Highlight as often as you want. You can also create different Cover titles that enables you to file your stories according to difference topics or categories.

Is Instagram Stories something that you should be actively using? It's a definite yes from me! Not only will you keep your audience engaged, you have the potential to attract new followers too! Remember, this is your opportunity to show your audience what goes on in your world - whether it's in the midst of work, at a training session, creating new designs, or showing off new products...

Good luck and I look forward to seeing some of your wonderful stories!

Happy Ballooning! 


Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebowler