INSTAGRAM STORY TIPS 2020 – GROW YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH INSTAGRAM STORIES

Today’s youtube is all about Instagram Story Ninja Tips! Instagram stories are used daily by nearly 250 million users. So it is clear to me that Instagram Stories (and these ninja tips) are a must leverage as part of my content marketing strategy. The average Instagram user spends nearly 28 minutes a day on the app, which averages over three hours each and every single week. Let’s dive into those Instagram Story Ninja Tips and start getting consistent online with those Instagram stories. 

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 1 – You Don’t have to Upload in Real Time

This is something that I’ve leveraged for a really long time. Oftentimes you’ll find that you’ll be like, Hey, I could totally Instagram story of this, but it’s actually taking you away from your focus. I highly recommend, rather than using the Instagram story app, you use your camera on your phone or the video recording capabilities on your phone to record the moment. Later on during the allocated time you have for instagram stories you  actually go ahead and upload them all at one time. The reason I do this is productivity and streamlining of my time. A service like planoly will also allow you to schedule all of your stories and then you will get a reminder on your phone at the posting time. 

I’ve integrated an editorial calendar into my content planning this year so that all of my social media content and macro content is streamlined. For example, we’ve been doing a lot of content around creating content consistently and showing up online. One of the things that I do is I will plan out my Instagram stories ahead of time, especially the graphics so that I don’t have to worry about and doing it in real time. 

There’s also several different benefits to this to scheduling times to post your instagram stories. The most important being that you can actually publish your stories at the most ideal time for engagement of your audience. This will ensure that you are maximizing that return on investment. The second is that it is going to save you a lot of time. I’m a huge fan of batch creating content.

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 2 – Story Storms 

What the heck is a story storm? I recently learned this term a couple of weeks ago when I was doing research for this YouTube video, however, I’ve been doing story storms for several years. Story storms are multiple instagram videos when put together create one longer video piece of content. On instagram you can only upload 30 seconds of video at a time, so a story storm, is multiple 30 second videos when combined together create one big story. 

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 3 – Tools

There are a lot of tools inside of the Instagram story app that you can use. Things like gif’s, stickers, times, locations, hashtags, geo tags, tagging other accounts, the lists go on and on. 

The tools are a really fun way to differentiate yourself on Instagram. For example, you can actually write with your finger with the different markers or crayons or whatever tool you’d like to use. You can add type to you stories or stickers. These are great ways to up engagement and really just make your story more visually appealing. Most story viewers don’t actually watch stories with their sound on. Adding some of these tool intrigues the viewer to turn the sound. These tools also promote engagement. It is worth the investment of time to add these different items to your stories. It will not only get people engaged but create the highest reach for you stories. 

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 4 – Hashtags, Geolocation, & Tagging Accounts. 

Hashtags, geolocation and tagging other accounts are great ways to increase the number of viewers on your stories. All too often people throw up stories and neglect to add hashtags, tagging accounts or their geolocation and they are neglecting to get the biggest reach they could possibly get. ,

Geo Location Tag on Instagram Stories: 

The geolocation tag is great for people who have local businesses that want to try and gain more exposure in their local community. 

For example if you are a local business who wants to drive more traffic into your store or a lawyer who wants to generate more awareness, using this tag is super beneficial. 

Hashtags on Instagram Stories:

One of my favorite Instagram stories ninja tips to leverage is hashtags. For those of you who aren’t aware, hashtags are like search terms, so think of different words your ideal client would use to find you if they were to Google you and then start to come up with hashtags that might be relevant to that. 

One of the cool things about Instagram and instagram stories is that once you find the hashtags your ideal client uses you will notice increased engagement on all of your stories. 

Tags on Instagram Stories

A really cool feature on Instagram that can drastically help increase your reach is the tagging feature. When leveraging the tagging feature you can tag different brands, influencers, businesses, retail brands etc. For example you can tag the clothing companies you are wearing. Perhaps there is a fellow entrepreneur who you want to give a shout out to. Having a tag inside of your story makes a huge difference for a couple of different reasons, one, the person who you’ve tagged is going to get notified and then has the ability to add that story to their own story therefore, it has the potential to get extra exposure inside of that person’s community. 

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 5 – Questions and Quizzes 

I am a huge fan of creating engagement inside of my Instagram stories and quizzes and polls are a great way to get the people who are actively watching your stories involved. I’ve leveraged instagram stories and polls on many occasions to find out what kind of content my ideal client wants me to create. I’ve also used it just to see how people’s days are going.

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 6 – Consistency

Getting consistent, like any other marketing effort, Instagram stories are going to benefit you most when you are consistent. If you haven’t already, check out our video on creating content consistently however the biggest thing that I recommend is batch creation. Block times a few times a day two upload instagram story content. 

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 7 – Collaboration

Collaboration on Instagram stories is a huge way in which you can grow your audience and really create amazing engagement. Perhaps as an Instagram takeover or a giveaway or interview. There are so many different ways in which you can increase your exposure and really collaborate with other brands and other businesses on Instagram stories. A few of my favorite ways to collaborate with other people on Instagram are contests or giveaways, cross promotion or takeovers. 

Of course, when considering any collaboration you want to ensure your ideal client is within the community you are collaborating with. 

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 8 – Calls to Action

Ultimately the goal of Instagram stories is to get your ideal client to take that next step in your client journey for example to go read your blog or perhaps it’s to sign up for your email list. Whether that’s simply to click the link in the bio to swipe up to send you a DM, whatever it is, encouraging the people who are actively viewing you stories to take that next step is key to conversion.  

Instagram Story Ninja Tip 9 – Being Authentic

I’ve said this over and over and over again being authentic and really sharing with your audience what is going on in your world is going to be a game changer. I’ve seen so many different bloggers, brands, influencers really get raw and real when it comes to Instagram stories. This is not the days of the perfectly curated Instagram feed. This is the time to be real, raw, authentic and practice what you preach, share the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. 

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