With many users watching stories and thinking how to use Instagram reels for business, it is no wonder that this social media platform is the best place to promote your business online. Also, when speaking of Instagram marketing, the best feature that helps you promote new products, engage your followers and brand’s online presence is the Instagram story section.
While every person understands the power of promoting business through this social media platform, they often lack compelling Instagram story ideas and look for ways to make their story section more engaging and get the best outcomes.
Hence to help you make the most of your Instagram story section, below we have listed the top 10 ways to engage your followers through engaging Instagram stories.
So, let’s get started, shall we?
Poll Your Instagram Followers
One of the best ways to get more Instagram followers through the story section is to use the poll sticker. With this poll sticker, you can ask some questions with your followers with two responses for every question. Also, with this poll sticker, there come some gamified rewards that allow your followers to see what percentage of people agree with their response.
Apart from this, this Instagram story feature helps you gain mass opinions before launching any product or service or just understanding what people think about a particular thing. This poll feature in your Instagram story can further help you perform better audience research and gain feedback on your recently released products or services.
Promote Your Web Blog Posts on Instagram Stories
Your Instagram story is the perfect place to promote your recently posted blog post online. By using the “Swipe Up” feature from the stickers section, you can quickly redirect your users directly to the website blogs.
Also, this is the most lucrative way to generate leads and boost your organic web traffic. However, note that this “Swipe Up” is only available for business accounts having more than 10,000 Instagram followers.
Build a Shoppable Instagram Story
Back in 2019, Instagram released its shoppable Story stickers. These shoppable stickers allow online business owners to market their products straight from the Instagram story section without getting redirected from the app.
However, note that to use this sticker, you must sell only the products or services that comply with Instagram’s policies.
Make Use of the Question Sticker.
Another transcendent way to engage your online followers is with the help of Instagram’s question sticker. This question sticker enables you to post a question to your online followers where they can answer the question in any way they want.
Once you receive all the answers, you can quickly share all these answers on your Instagram story. Also, it might not be wrong to say that this is the most suitable way to boost brand engagement and interact with your followers.
Go Live on Instagram
Live videos are another most lucrative way to engage your online audience. By going live on Instagram, you can better communicate with your followers, where they can ask you questions or send reactions or comments on your live video.
Given all these features, Instagram live provides a better real-time engagement and keeps your audience hooked. Plus, whenever you go live on Instagram, your followers will receive a push notification that helps boost engagement. Also, for people who missed your live session, the live video remains on your feed for 24 hours before getting archived.
Share Your DMs on Your Instagram Stories.
This is yet another one of the best Instagram stories characteristics where you can take a screenshot of one of your DMs and post it as your Instagram story. Sharing your DMs as a story can serve as an excellent testimonial that will help build your target audience’s trust in your brand.
For example, if you get an appreciation for your products or services, you can take a screenshot of it and post it as your Instagram Story. This gives your brand the required social proof and helps motivate other followers to do the same.
Giveaways and Contests
If you want to boost your customer engagement through Instagram stories, the best way is to conduct contests or hold some giveaways for your followers. These giveaways can include anything right from your product sample to free coupons to discounts or any other gifts, depending on your business.
Also, to make this more exciting and engaging for your followers, you can ask them to take part and perform some easy tasks like:
- Share your Instagram post or story.
- Tag a person in the post comment section.
- DM a person with your Instagram post or story.
- Use your brand hashtag.
- Like your Instagram post.
Use a Countdown Sticker.
Another way to improve customer engagement is to use a countdown sticker on your Instagram story. Also, this is a simple way that reminds people about your upcoming event or any product release. To put up this feature as your Instagram story, place a sticker to countdown to an event.
This feature further allows you to customize the title to let your audience know about your upcoming events. Moreover, few more ideas on what to count down include the following:
- The release of your new product or business.
- Any upcoming sale.
- Your business anniversary.
- A reminder about any important day.
- New store launch.
- Contest or Giveaway close dates.
- New employees joining.
Apart from this, one distinguishing characteristic of this sticker is that your Instagram followers can click the sticker and set a notification to get a reminder when the countdown ends or share your countdown story with their followers.
Try Story Takeover
An Instagram takeover happens when you let someone who doesn’t follow you on Instagram use your account to send a post. Note that this can be any person, such as your coworker, employee, or any Instagram influencer who collaborated with your business brand. Moreover, out of all of these, this is the most fun way to boost your brand engagement and gain followers.
Highlight Collaborations
If you collaborate with social media influencers or partner with other companies or brands, you can take advantage of this collaboration or partnership and promote it on your Instagram story. Promoting this collaboration or partnership in your story section makes your followers better value your products. Also, when you tag the social media influencer or the company you collaborated with, they are likely to share this on their story by tagging your account. This way, you can get better online visibility and attract more new followers.
Even when you are working with a budding influencer or small vendor, you must still tag them on your Instagram story as this will give out a message that your brand promotes small businesses that will improve your brand image.
Final Words
Instagram in modern times evolved dynamically rather than being just a social media site. Nowadays, almost every business leverages the power of Instagram to build their brand and boost their customer engagement.
Also, by following these Instagram story ideas above, you can better interact with your target audience, see Instagram activity history, and keep them engaged with your brand. Doing this will help you make higher conversions that boost your earnings and brand visibility.
Author’s Bio
Joshua is a Growth Hack Marketing Manager at InVideo. He has previously written and contributed to audience growth strategies, especially in the field of Video Marketing, for publications including Medium,Entrepreneur Magazine, Marketing Directo, and much more. Before he started writing, Joshua got a post graduate degree in MBA. Then he did a handful of some jobs with really famous organizations who are way too dignified to be named here. He was a Sales Analyst for a while. He now writes full-time. Now he is settled and lives with his family in New York.
