Here's a few tips and tricks so you can master sharing feed posts to Stories.
The power of Instagram stories isn’t one to be ignored. Over 500 million people use Stories every day, and 58% say they’ve become more interested in a product or brand after seeing it in Stories. Clearly, these disappearing videos and photos show a more candid side to the world of Instagram.
So, how can you get the most out of Stories as an Instagram user?
If you’re new to Instagram marketing and want to master sharing feed posts to Stories, keep reading on. We’ll be diving into easy tricks and tips to connecting with your audience through Instagram Stories.
Why should your brand use Instagram Stories?
Since its debut in 2016, Instagram Stories have continued to go from strength to strength, gaining immense popularity amongst users. With the app getting a facelift every few months, stories are becoming more and more creative.
And there are some Instagram Story statistics over in the newsroom that you don’t want to ignore. Around 70% of Gen Zers and 59% of millennials watch stories on Instagram.
The average daily time users spend on Instagram is up to 28 minutes. And 58% of people have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in stories. Pretty astounding, right!
What sets stories apart from the other features of the app is the playful, candid nature that gives people an insight into the personality behind the brand. Here are just a few reasons you should be using Instagram Stories for business:
- 1 in 4 Gen Z and Millennials actively head to Stories for products and services they are considering buying before deciding.
- You can drive deeper engagement with your audience by using Instagram Stories by letting them vote, rate, and voice their opinions through polls, stickers, questions and more (this feedback even helps you tailor your content strategy).
- You can boost sales with shoppable Stories. With Stories’ latest features, you can ‘tag’ a product directly onto your Story.
- Stories showcase your brand’s personality and increase brand visibility by being a place to share candid moments through photos and videos.
- You can highlight your products or services and increase brand awareness. Use this opportunity to showcase your company and what you can do to help your audience.
What are the best features on Instagram Stories?
Now the statistics are out of the way, now is for the fun part: the creative side of social media! If you’re new to Instagram Stories, you’re probably wondering what makes them SO good, why they’re so easy to use and how fun they can be for your followers.
Well, let’s start off with candid content. Instagram Stories allows you to share raw, unfiltered content with your audience. You can snap a pic, add some text and click publish in just a matter of seconds.
Plus you can jump in front of the camera to capture an authentic piece of video content that connects with your audience and builds trust.
Next up, we have Instagram stickers, one of the most powerful Instagram Stories features.
In the top right-hand corner of your Story, you’ll see a smiley face icon. When you click on this icon, it brings up a heap of different ‘stickers’ you can use on your Story.
You can choose from a location sticker and countdowns to polls, questions, links, hashtags and music! You can also add different gifs, text, filters and images to add some creative flare to your own Story.
What are some different types of content you can post on stories?
Content is the name of the game in 2022. And it’s no surprise that having a streamlined content strategy will see your business go from strength to strength in 2022.
And as we mentioned earlier, over 500 million people watch stories daily, so what is the trick to keeping them engaged and excited when they see your profile pop up with a new Story? Here are nine ways to boost engagement on your Instagram account using Stories:
- Share a poll asking for your follower’s opinion on a topic
- Create a countdown to a new product or service launch
- Share a link to your latest blog with a fun graphic behind it
- Post a BTS of your day in the office
- Show different ways to use your product or how your service works
- Post a day-in-the-life and show your followers an insight into your day
- Create a shoppable story (you can feature your latest products with a clickable link)
- Repost some of your follower’s story replies (make sure to engage with your direct messages as well)
- Share some thought leadership insights about your industry
Best practice tips for high-quality content on Instagram stories
Sharing high-quality content is not the only key to keeping your followers engaged. It’s almost expected these days now that we have ultra-clear smartphone cameras right at our fingertips. You can double-check a few Instagram settings to make sure that all of your content is of the highest quality on iPhone (iOs) and Android.
- Make sure that you’re shooting in the highest quality resolution on your phone’s camera (4K is usually a good indication of super sharp images and videos).
- Make sure to shoot in vertical format and stick to these dimensions: Instagram Stories are 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels tall (1080 x 1920, or 1080p resolution).
- If you’re using mobile data to upload, you can edit settings to make sure all of your Stories are uploaded in high-resolution. Go to Settings > Click ‘Account tab’> Tap ‘Cellular data use.’> Toggle’ Data Saver’ off.
- Make sure your Instagram app is updated to the latest version so you’re getting access to all the latest features when sharing posts.
- When placing elements over your background color in your Story (like stickers, gifs, text), follow the blue guidelines so that they don’t get cut off or obstructed by the profile/message bars.
How do I share my feed posts onto my Instagram Story?
Say you’ve just posted a new grid pic, you’re loving the look, excited about the content, and want to share it with your followers. Well, you can! We have created an easy step-by-step guide to resharing your feed posts straight onto your stories.
Step 1. Tap the paper airplane icon below the photo or video in your feed.
Step 2. Tap Add post to your Story.
Step 3. You can customize the space around your post with stickers, text, and gifs.
Step 4. Tap Share to Your Story in the bottom left-hand corner.
Step 5. Or tap the arrow in the bottom right-hand corner, then Share to Your Story (and any other account)
And voila! You’ve just posted your feed post to your Story.
Hot Tip: If you want to share someone else’s feed post onto your Story, you can follow the same steps as above - you’ll need to make sure they have a public account to do so. If you screenshot any content by other creators, make sure to tag the original creator in your stories as that’s good social media etiquette.
How can I share my Instagram story on Facebook?
You may have seen the word ‘Meta’ flying around recently. What is Meta, and how does it link to Facebook and Instagram?
Well, Meta is now the umbrella company to Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and a few other apps. It means that you can seamlessly share your Instagram posts and Stories straight to Facebook! Nifty. You will need to enable a few settings, and you’re ready to start sharing.
To share your Story on Facebook:
- Start creating a story, then tap Send to.
- Below Your Story, tap Sharing options.
- Select Share to Facebook every time or Share once.
- Tap Share.
And that’s a wrap!
There you have it! Some of the best hacks to posting and resharing content onto your Instagram Story that will keep your account engaging, fun and interesting.
And why not streamline your social media strategy even further by scheduling your Instagram stories ahead of time? Yup, you can plan ahead, schedule ahead and then relax, all with the help of Instagram’s number scheduling tool: Sked Social.
With Sked, you can plan visually beautiful content, track analytics, cross-post to Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and more! Start a free trial today.
