In August of 2016, the world was introduced to Instagram Stories, a feature that allowed adding stickers and filters to photos and videos before disappearing after 24 hours. Yes, this sounds very much like what Snapchat does, however, Snapchat can be abrasive and raw, which is fine if you’re sharing content with friends and family. Instagram stories, on the other hand, is a much more polished feature that your business can take advantage of to maximize its brand awareness.
Want to maximize your businesses’ presence on Instagram further than it already does? Contact our social media strategists today to help you out!
Instagram Art
Instagram Stories provides you with all of the tools needed to make a creative post. It contains stickers, filters, colorful text and doodle options. It’s all up to you to decide how creative you want your stories to be! Get playful with your content and dress it up to entice followers and generate interest in your business. The more attractive the post, the higher the chance you have of impressing a user and gaining a follow.
The post has a 24-hour lifespan, so make sure that your photo or video is worthwhile. One of our social media strategists, Clair, had this to say about it, “Instagram Stories is a way for your audience to see your account on a personal level, so use those tools to entice people!”
Better Planning
Like Snapchat, Instagram Stories also allows you to see who’s viewed your post. It’s important to take advantage of this feature since you can determine the demographic of users you’re attracting, allowing you to better plan future posts. Instagram also gives you the option of going LIVE on your Stories feed. It’s a really neat feature since it opens up countless possibilities of what to stream. As a business, you can give tours of your shop, DIY tips and even host Q&A’s!
Tag Everything
Hashtags are essential to any social media-using business in order to be discovered and gain followers, and Instagram is a godsend with this. On posts alone, you can add a location, tag a friend and hashtag endlessly. You can tag other businesses or brands in your stories, highlight their usernames and play with font colors. Recently, Instagram introduced the new hashtag sticker. You can insert your hashtag and it will make your story visible to those searching for it. It’s similar to bringing up posts with a certain hashtag on Twitter.
One of our other social media strategists, Dan, had this to say, “Tagging users on Instagram is important because you increase the chances of your post being seen by others, which is very important if you’re trying to build brand awareness for yourself or a company. We do this all of the time with our clients and it’s always reaped great rewards for them.”
Consistency
As a business, keep busy on Instagram so your followers see you more frequently. You can also receive feedback, although it won’t be public. This is a great way for your followers to contact you directly with any questions. More importantly, interacting with them will grow your user engagement on posts and stories. This can make followers feel exclusive and special, unlike what many experience with larger name brand corporations on Instagram.
Tell Your Story
If you own a small or medium-sized business and want to set your digital footprint within the social media arena, then we want to help you. Our team of social media gurus has proven time and again that they know the industry inside and out. The only way to find out for yourself is to contact our digital marketing agency in McAllen today to get started!
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