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Utilizing the Instagram Story to Promote Your Business

May is here, bringing warmer weather and phases to transition back into a less restricted lifestyle. So, let’s talk about using the Instagram Story as a tool for increasing your business’ visibility. When summer approaches, people will be active on Instagram. As they venture out, sharing pastimes via social media will increase. How can your business tap into this Instagram traffic? If you want to communicate frequently with your followers, the story is a great option. Now, remember to keep your most important posts for your regular feed. Alternately, the story feature allows you to post multiple daily messages without spamming followers. This secondary posting option is better for frequent communications and is visible for 24 hours.

Instagram Story Tips

• Aesthetic
  • Properly knowing how to format and design the layout of your page will look more appealing to potential followers. Stick to your brand’s voice. You can organically build your following and attract people by highlighting your stories. Using the story highlight option can draw people into your page. Instagram stories that you highlight are at the top of your page, directly under your bio. These remain visible for as long as you choose to highlight them.
• Visibility
  • The more you utilize the story, the more visible you will be to followers. Instagram stories are located at the top of the your followers’ home pages. The more you share via story, the more you will appear in their story queue at the top of their home page.
  • Additionally, if you have an active story, your default photo will be highlighted in blue. This eye-catching color entices users to click on your story and ultimately, your profile.

Visit our IG profile for an example of aesthetic, branding, content, and story highlights.

Interact with Others to Get Follow Backs and Stay Relevant

• Post on your story moderately to frequently. Twice a day is a good pace to start. As you become proficient and create more content, increase to an elevated pace.
• Stick to the Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook strategy. You are posting more frequently, so you really want to be consistent with a mix of light and fun content. Then, pepper in the less frequent “ask”, offer, promotion, etc. See our previous blog post of this concept.
• That being said, offer information such as hours of availability, prices, and contact information. Allow viewers to glimpse at your workspace to showcase productivity and business.
• By all means, promote deals on your story! Because of the 24 hour story availability, you can attract followers and potential customers with a flash sale that will last as long as the story is available. Include in your story caption that the deal will last until the story disappears.
• Since the Instagram Story is a great tool to promote an upcoming event or deal, help your followers prepare by reminding them through a couple of posts on your regular feed.

Story Tools

Now let me break down a few tools that you can use within the story sharing screen and elsewhere.

• Features like Questions, Polls, Quizzes, and more will further engagement between you and your followers.
• Hashtag, Location, and Mention ensure your visibility to the audience that you want to target. Use relevant tags and mention other accounts. It’s an incredible way to network and partner.
• Features like Create, Boomerang, GIF, and more assist in creating that visual aethetic you’re going for. As mentioned above, stick to your brand’s voice. Use these features to do so, as well as create a visually tempting story.
• Lastly, there are many apps that have templates that will help you stick to a cohesive look for your brand. Seen is a great story maker app that we love to use here.

If you’re looking for more assistance with a social media strategy, Appspire.me is here to help. We provide information on how to properly use your Instagram page to promote your business and gain a following. We will walk you through vital things to know, and what packages we offer for managing your social media accounts. Along with tips here, you view our packages to further expose your posts to a larger audience. It will pay for itself as more traffic flows towards your page.

Using Instagram stories is a trend that’s here to stay. Join the marketing network on Instagram by following our profile. Remember, the more you interact with others, the more followers you will gain. 

For more information on how to boost views, visit APPSPIRE.me.