What is an Instagram story?

Instagram stories is a new content delivery method that has been gaining more attention. It allows users to upload photos and videos to their audience. Instagram stories appear at the top of your follower's homepage, and it looks like a slideshow format. Also, your photos and videos posted on stories will disappear after 24 hours.

Instagram Story For Small Business:

For businesses, Instagram stories are a great way to promote your brand, generate exposure for your account, and engage your audience. Instagram has a lot of competition due to the high number of users.

Especially, most businesses are using Instagram stories to improve their marketing strategy. So, you need to give your best content to your audience for your business growth.

In this article, you can get 10 engaging Instagram story ideas that can help to develop your small business. 

1. Use Poll Stickers

Poll stickers are one of the easiest strategies for your followers to get involved in your stories. Poll stickers create a great opportunity to get an instant engagement. It is a fantastic way to drive more audience interactions and create a strong community on Instagram.

As a brand, you can use this opportunity by asking your audience to get feedback for your company values. It is an awesome way to know your audience's thoughts about your brand, product, and services.

For instance, if you're in a beauty parlor, you can ask which hairstyle you should make today. You can ask any questions with easy answers, which can encourage your audience to interact with you.

2. Go Live On Instagram

If you're looking to promote your brand to a huge audience, going live on Instagram stories is a great strategy. It is the best way to allow your followers to interact with your brand directly.

If any account is currently going live, Instagram stories are shown at the top of the feed. Instagram live engages your content to the first position in stories at the top of users' feed.

How to go live on Instagram?

• Open your Instagram stories camera.
• Tap the live option at the bottom of the screen.
• You'll see a live video screen, and at the top, you can find how many of your followers are active on the app.
• Tap the start button to go to your live stream.
• You can access a few features at the bottom of your screen.

3. Add Hashtags And Location Tags

Hashtags and location tags are some of the best ways to increase your reach organically on Instagram. Instagram stories are a great way to promote your brand with hashtags. You can create your hashtag with product name, brand name, or something else your target market can identify.

Also, the location hashtag can help you increase your views gradually. Most people search for products based on location. Location tag is especially effective if you have travel or food-related stories.

You can add up to 10 hashtags to each Instagram story with one clickable hashtag sticker. But, make sure they are relevant to your content and target audience.

4. Plan And Schedule Your Instagram Stories

Planning and scheduling can help to create a successful strategy. It is a great way to save time and be more efficient for your market. Here, you can get a clear idea to plan and schedule your Instagram stories:

• Start to drag and drop your stories on the storyboard tool.
• Rearrange your stories in order and look that you want.
• You can crop and resize your images that fit Instagram stories ratio 9:16
• Add links and captions to your scheduled stories.
• Select the time and date from the dropdown menu in the save story button.
• You will receive a notification on your phone when it's time to post.

5. Utilize Instagram Stories Ads

An Instagram story ad is a full-screen vertical format ad, and you can share photos and videos in that format. Instagram story ads are a relatively newer feature for brands, but they can be more profitable and engaging.

If you want to increase the number of Instagram story views, you can use the story ads strategy. It can help to show your brand and reach out to the audience and engage with your ads. By using story ads, you can get reach, traffic, conversions as well as generate sales of your business.

According to the research, 75% of Instagram users visit a website and make a purchase after looking at Instagram story ads.

6. Create Highly Shareable Videos

Sharable content is the new way to grow your Instagram profile and attract a wider audience. Here are some benefits of shareable contents:

• It can increase your brand awareness.
• Build trust in your content and your brand.
• Drive traffic to your website.
• Boost engagement and get valuable feedback.
• Reach your potential customers.
• Generate sales.

But how to make shareable content?

• First, you should know your target market, which type of content your audience responded to.
• Always promote trending content that is relevant to your brand and product.
• Know the best content formats on different social media channels.
• Include CTAs for readers to encourage sharing your stories with others. 
• Create content that is valuable to your audience.

7. Promote Your Stories On Other Channels

Cross-promotion is a marketing tactic that can be expanding the reach of your brand or product. It can help to connect your brand with potential customers on other marketing channels.

You can cross-promote your brand, product, or services on other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. It is one of the best strategies to receive news followers on your Instagram profile who turn into customers or clients.

For example, if you have a Facebook account, you can promote your Instagram story videos on your account. When your Facebook followers see your content, you will get a chance they visit your Instagram profile to see your further videos. So, if your videos are engaging them, they can follow your Instagram profile.

8. Use Instagram Story Highlights

Instagram story highlights is a new part of your profile that can live permanently on your profile. But Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours. So, you can use story highlights to restore your memorable events. It can help to get a greater reach and more visibility.

When you create a highlight for stories, you can drive more traffic for your business. Story highlights give the opportunity for brands to discover your product and services to a wider audience.

Here are the steps to create highlight from your active story:

• Tap the active story you want to highlight.
• Tap the highlight option at the bottom of your story.
• Click the plus icon to create a new highlight.
• Enter the name of your new highlight.
• Tap the add button to add your story to highlights.

9. Run Contests And Giveaways

Contests and giveaways are a great way to boost engagement and get your content noticed by the Instagram algorithm. It can help to encourage participants to post a picture or video related to your brand with hashtags. 

Here are some amazing giveaway ideas to boost engagement:

• Coupons: Create a contest for people to enter your contests and win a coupon.
• Hashtag contest: Create unique hashtag contests and ask your followers to post content with your hashtags.
• Photo contest: Create a photo contest and ask your customers to post a photo with your product and answer your questions.
• Gift Cards: You can involve more people in your giveaway and create interest in your products.

10. Instagram Story Takeover

Story takeover is a great way to gain new followers and improve your engagement rate. It is a fun way to introduce yourself and showcase your brand to a wider audience. Story takeover is the process of temporarily taking over someone else Instagram account and sharing content with their audience.

Even it is an incredible way for brands, individuals, and influencers to collaborate and cross-promote content. Takeovers are allowing other Instagrammers to post photos to their feeds for a short period. It is more effective if you create video stories that build trust with the new audience.

Conclusion:

Instagram provides several features for users to develop their marketing strategy. Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social platforms in the world. You can use these 10 story tactics in your business, and you can get more success within a short time! Instagram accsmarket provides a used Instagram account on which you can rely.

Suggested:

Best Instagram Marketing Tips for Your Photography Business.

What Are Instagram Ads? A Thorough Guide.

How to view Instagram Stories Anonymously?