Advertising Your Business with Instagram Stories

by ​Corinne Ledling, Guest Contributor

​Instagram stories are a lot like Snapchat. You post what you’d like to share, anyone can view it, and within 24 hours, it’s completely disappeared from the face of the planet. This makes Instagram Stories the perfect tool for sharing messages or content that couldn’t be considered evergreen.  Marketing and advertising, especially for specific sales or launches, are perfect candidates for Instagram Stories. As long as you’re creating the right posts, you may see some impressive results.

What can Instagram Stories do for your business?

Interact With Your Customers
People who view your stories have the option to respond to them by sending photos or messages. If you use your stories to solicit feedback, you’re able to quickly get the opinions you need to move forward. When you’re shaping a marketing campaign, you might want to know how your customers prefer to be spoken to. Ask them for their thoughts, or even encourage them to meet your employees. Stories are a tool that can create meaningful connections through interactions.

Build Hype When You Need It
Instagram Stories offer brief glimpses into things. You can use these brief glimpses to showcase upcoming products or services. Sometimes, you need to get people excited about what’s coming next. Instagram Stories aren’t too intimate and they don’t require a lot of information. They’re just small sneak peeks to keep people interested. You can post a new glimpse every day in the lead up to a launch or sale. You’ll get your customers all revved up.

Give Them Something Special
A lot of brands use Instagram Stories for exclusive content. If you want something other than their run of the mill content, check their story for something unique every day. Even if that something special is just a silly video clip of your employees hanging out around the office, you’re humanizing your business by becoming relatable. Your employees and your company culture should give your business a voice. Let them speak through Instagram Stories.

Encourage Your Followers to Participate
Pop up games and contests are a lot of fun. Word spreads quickly, and everyone jumps in to participate. If you want people to use your hashtags, creating a sense of urgency by sharing a giveaway or a sale in the form of an Instagram story is a great way to draw in some attention. People will start participating, your visibility will get a nice boost, and you might even retain some of the people who found you through the promotion.

Implement a Takeover
Many businesses have seen success with Snapchat takeovers, a process in which a popular influencer who speaks to their demographic takes control of their Snapchat account for a set amount of time. New followers come in, audiences merge, and everyone is better because of it. Since Instagram Stories works similarly to Snapchat, using this method on Instagram can be equally as effective. Instagram is a whole new group of influencers, and you’ll be exploring new possibilities by selecting the top talent on the platform to take the reins for a while.

Ultimately, businesses have nothing to lose and everything to gain by incorporating the Stories feature into their regular Instagram content schedule. The best way to reach people is by putting yourself in places where they already are. Stories are popular, and you can become popular on stories.
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Corinne Ledling is a businesswoman who’s very passionate about her job. She’s a Content Manager at Bizstats.co.uk and loves to share social media tips and tricks and her marketing experience.