Utilizing Instagram Stories for Engagement

You're telling a "story" about yourself so make it interesting. 
By: Macey Klipp

As Instagram continues to organize feeds based on what they think users want to see, many posts get missed and buried in the shuffle. Instagram feeds used to show posts in their chronological order, so if a user checked their feed they would see photos in the order they were posted. Now, Instagram’s algorithm determines what posts a user sees. This causes many posts to go “unliked.” However, the use of Instagram stories can combat this by utilizing five key features to reach a bigger audience and increase engagement. 

REACH MORE PEOPLE
I have around 600 followers, but only reach upwards of 100 “likes” on photos. I have tried posting at different times, different types of photos, videos, but the majority of my posts are still getting missed. When I repost the same photo on my story alerting my followers that I made a new post, it generally receives more “likes” and more opportunities for engagement.

USE GIFS, VISUALLY APPEALING TEXT, MUSIC, MENTIONS, LOCATIONS
Instagram stories have a lot of multimedia features that allows users to add their own personal touch to their story post. Users can add gifs, stickers, different fonts, different color text, allow users to write with their fingers, add snippets of songs, tag other accounts, and add a location, just to name a few. Adding these elements to the posts enhances the creativity and a personal touch to the posts rather than just seeing a photo. 

ADD TO HIGHLIGHTS
When a user posts a photo to the feed, it remains on the feed and over time gets pushed lower on the user’s page. But, with the use of stories, users have the option to add the post to their “highlights.”Stories on Instagram are only available for 24 hours, but adding the story to a highlight makes it available as long as the user wishes. Stories also go into the users archives and can be added to highlights even after 24 hours. Highlights appears as different categories at the top of a person's profile. Having this at the top of a profile will make it more likely to be seen. Users can add stories to their highlights as part of a collection or just to emphasize a particular story. For example, I have a highlight called “Disney” where I can keep all of my stories pertaining to Disney in one organized place.

SEE WHO IS ACTUALLY SEEING YOUR STORY POSTS
Stories on Instagram are like stories on Snapchat. You can see exactly who is viewing your post. I find it very interesting that more people view my story than like my post. Plain and simple, Instagram stories allow for easier access to my followers. To see my posts, followers may have to scroll to find it versus stories that are available at the top of the homepage. A user was able to see exactly who viewed their story even after the 24-hour period that it was live on a profile. Instagram just recently changed this feature. A user is still able to see who viewed their story, but after 24 hours it changes to just a number of how many views the story received.

“SHARE TO YOUR STORY”
Instagram has a feature that allows its users to share other users posts and stories to an individual story. The feature “share to your story” is used to repost celebrities, meme pages, friends, family, food, and everything in between. This feature can also be used to repost a user’s photos to their own story to gain more attention. A user can share as many posts as they would like to their story and this often encourages other users to go and “like” or comment on the post. 

I personally use Instagram stories over posting a photo to my page due to the changed algorithm. I have noticed that these five features of Instagram stories have helped me connect better with my followers, have my posts seen by more people, and allow me to use the multimedia features to add a creative touch.