Geek Speak

4 Ways to Leverage Instagram Stories in 2020 SP AK GE K By Ross Simmonds

Instagram Stories are taking off. As the leader in image sharing apps, Instagram has become a household name over the last few years. In 2019, a little more than half of Instagram’s one billion users accessed Instagram Stories every single day. The 500 million daily user count is up from 400 million in June 2018. And two million advertisers are buying Stories ads across Facebook’s properties. Regardless of what you think of Instagram Stories, there is no question that there is an opportunity here. More than one billion people are using Instagram every single day with more than 40 million photos being uploaded daily to their platform. Users are racking up a total of 1,000 comments and more than 8,000 likes on Instagram every second. My goal is simple. I want to arm you with some of the tactics being leveraged on Instagram Stories so you can stand out amongst the noise on a very crowded platform.

1Use The DMs To Drive Better Engagement

One of the only primary functions within Instagram stories as it relates to engagement is messages. One of the best call to actions you can use is to tell your followers to either click the link in your bio or ask them to tap “Send message” where you can connect with them one-on-one. Direct messages is a great way to build a one-on-one relationship with customers and your target audience. It’s also a place where you can sell and establish a bond that will result in someone advocating for you in the future. When people send me direct messages, I often respond with video responses to make it extra personal.

2Create Instagram Story Storms

What’s a Story Storm? In each Instagram Story you only have 30 seconds to say something or show something meaningful – a story storm is uploading a series of videos to your Story to convey a longer message to your audience. In other words, a Story Storm is a continuous stream of updates in which you’re talking to your followers about a specific topic of interest.

Rather than trying to squeeze a handful of different insights into one Story – you can upload multiple to share a longer message. I’ve used Story Storms on Instagram with the @HustleGrindCo account and have generated more than 5,000 views. It’s a great way to deliver value to your followers in a way that feels exclusive as the Story is going to disappear after 24 hours. 3 Ask Questions At The End Of Your Storms

You should leverage the power of a call-to-action on Instagram Stories. The goal with this is to drive more engagement with your followers. At the end of a Story Storm for example, you should be asking questions like:

What do you think?!

Did I miss anything?

What are you reading?

What is your favorite ______?

Do you agree with me? Upon establishing a more one-on-one relationship, you’re establishing trust and connection. Think of Instagram direct messages like the comment section on a blog. It’s an opportunity for your followers to give you feedback, add their opinion or simply say thank you for delivering value to their stream.

4Collaborate With Other Instagram Accounts for Takeovers

An Instagram takeover is when one Instagram user allows another to create content on their account for a period of time. During this ‘takeover’ the user taking over the account has the ability to connect with a new audience by sharing content to their story. The Instagram Stories takeover is a tactic inspired by the Snapchat Takeover and the idea of Shout For Shouts that many influencers leveraged to grow their accounts to begin with. The benefit here is straight forward. You get a chance to connect with an entirely new audience and the person who takes over your account gets to do the same.

Wrapping Up

Instagram averages 300M+ daily users, 500M+ monthly users and more than 4.2 billion likes per day. The opportunity as it exists relating to leveraging Instagram cannot be overlooked by marketers looking to capitalize on Instagram. It’s one feature of many but over the last couple years, I haven’t seen one as promising from Instagram as this. Aspire to create content and strive to create your own path and use Instagram Stories to best engage and connect with your audience.