How to Design Stories That Enthrall and Captivate Your Audience
If you look at Stories content from most brands, it is usually uninspired generic content. It just doesn’t engage the viewer on any level, and there are multiple reasons for this.
Maybe brands aren’t aware of all of the features that Stories offers or they just don’t have the time or resources to create original engaging content.
Without a clear idea of how Instagram Stories fit into your overall marketing plan, you are destined to keep spinning your wheels with no result to show for it. This is why creating a plan for your Stories is crucial and understanding how engagement works is necessary.
Your plan must include a list of the types of content you are looking to create and an outline of when you should be posting them to your profile.
But, the major piece of the puzzle is getting people to engage with what you are putting out there. How do you make it so your Stories connect with the people you want them to?
Let’s find out.
1. Listen to what your followers are saying
One of the first things you should do if your Stories aren’t working is to ask your followers what they would like to see.
Stories allows you an easy way to poll your audience with stickers. Use these to ask simple questions to your audience. You may start by asking something like “What kind of content would you like to see more of?”
You can also ask your audience things like “When would you like us to post (Morning/evening)?”
If you would like to get more detailed answers, you can have a call-to-action which prompts your audience to leave comments or send you a direct message with their feedback.
2. Create Stories when you are in a peak state.
You’ve had days like this – when you wake up and feel great, your thought process is clear and lucid and whatever you say seems to have the desired effect. When you’re feeling like this, it is the best time to get in front of the camera and create some content for your Stories.
Of course, it’s not possible to feel like a million dollars every time you want to post a Story, but you can keep the general theme going. Don’t record yourself when you’re feeling low or stressed. People can sense that there’s something going on, and it won’t create a positive emotional reaction.
3. Using stickers to engineer engagement
Stories by themselves can be somewhat static and boring, especially if you’re just posting pictures. By using stickers, you can give your Stories a little more personality and motivate people to keep viewing.
The poll and emoji stickers allow you to add a question which can gauge whether your viewers are interested. You can use these to brainstorm content ideas for your next video, for example.
You can also use tools like the countdown sticker to introduce a sense of urgency or anticipation. People can click the arrow next to your sticker to choose to have a reminder when the countdown hits zero.
Remember to be proactive while replying to comments or DMs if you’re going to ask your audience for opinions or suggestions.
4. Strategically sharing posts from other accounts
Instagram Stories allows you to feature posts from other creators, and it is important that you use this feature liberally.
In the course of your time on Instagram, you will be collaborating with other brands and influencers. It is important that you use the regram feature to introduce your audience to some content that they might be interested in from your partners. In turn, your partners will be prompted to do the same for you, increasing your exposure.
If you’re hosting an event or have a product or restaurant, you can share posts from other people who attended your event or had a positive experience with your product or service.
5. Using highlights to showcase your best content.
While you’re figuring out how to get more engagement out of your Stories, why not make sure that your best performing Stories are easily visible to new users?
Highlights is a great way to categorize content and highlight specific offers or campaigns that you may have running currently. Make sure you include a descriptive cover image so it’s easily understandable what you are referring to.
6. Experiment with longer videos for your Stories.
There are several tools out there, such as Storeo, which can slice up your videos into 15 second clips that you can post on your Stories.
Longer videos allow you to take time to explore a topic in depth. Even letting the Stories Camera run on its own will divide your video into 15-second chunks, if you’re going live with longer content.
More than 500 million people use Stories daily. This represents a massive opportunity for brands and entrepreneurs to reach people that may be interested in what they have to offer. Just follow the tips outlined in this article to make sure that your Stories are engaging and move people to take the actions that you want them to.