Instagram stories are a brilliant way to interact with and nurture your audience on Instagram. With the capacity for huge engagement, Instagram stories should be an integral part of your social media marketing strategy- but providing value is key.
So you know you need to utilise this feature to generate both brand awareness and sales, but what do you post?
Stop posting pictures of your cappuccino in your stories and expecting views and engagement! You need to provide value in all aspects of your instagram account! With that in mind, here are 31 ideas to add value to your stories, don’t say we’re not good to you 😉.
1✨ Brand introduction
Stories are a great place to introduce your business to new followers and visitors. These can also be placed in a highlight, which is a great way to introduce your brand and value proposition to any page visitors.
2✨ Team introduction
People do business with people! With many other similar businesses, you need to give your audience a reason to pick you. Showcasing the person(s) behind the brand allows your followers to create personal and emotional connections therefore, when it is time to purchase they are more likely to remember your brand if they feel like they know you!
3✨ Mini-masterclass
Stories are a brilliant place for educational content. Teach them something valuable! This will not only build social currency with your audience, but establish yourself as an authority within your industry.
4✨ Product focus
Show off how to use your top seller or product of the month!
5✨ This or that
Use the poll stickers and let your audience give their opinion. These types of stories spark huge engagement as people generally love to give their two cents!
6✨ Q&A
Use the question box and spark conversation with your audience. This is a brilliant nurture technique as it enables direct communication between you and your audience!
7✨ Behind the scenes action
Show some behind the scenes action of you packaging orders, running your business etc. What does the average day look like for you? Are you doing anything exciting? What do certain aspects of your business or brand look like?
8✨ Sneak peek
Can you give a sneak peek into a new product or some client work you are doing? This is a great way to generate hype around your products or services and enables your audience to feel like they are ‘in the know’.
9✨ Instagram story takeovers
Who says it has to be you creating all your Instagram story content? Consider collaborating with other creators, though be mindful that they shouldn’t offer exactly what you do!
10✨ FAQs
Have a question(s) that you’re asked all the time? Your story is a great place to answer them!
11✨ Slider sticker
This story feature is another great way to encourage interaction from your audience and allow them to share their opinion. Share upcoming projects, tips, tricks or how-tos with the slider sticker! It’s also a great way to get direct feedback from your audience on whether they are finding value in your content.
12✨ Shoutouts
Your stories don’t always have to be about you! They can be a great place to share ambassador content, products you’ve been enjoying or content from other creators. Be mindful to keep these relevant to your value proposition to ensure there isn’t a disconnect!
13✨ Testimonials/ reviews
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to take warm leads and turn them into conversions! Share a DM raving about your goods (though make sure you ask the sender first), an engaging graphic with a review quote of even a soundbite video!
14✨ Promote your latest post
Stories are great for alerting your audience that you have shared new content for them to check out!
15✨ Promote a recent blog
Additionally, stories are a great way to cross-pollinate your content! Posted a recent blog post? Encourage traffic over to your blog by sharing it on your story!
16✨ Do a countdown story to hint at an upcoming project, product, announcement or post!
People have an innate social need to be ‘in the know’ and sharing a countdown story triggers this need. It not only generates hype around your upcoming announcement but also creates a sense of exclusivity.
17✨ Ask for suggestions/feedback
What better way to know how to serve your audience than asking them directly what they would like to see!
18✨ Quizzes
The quiz format is a classic favourite, use the quiz sticker and start quizzing your followers on various topics around your niche or brand. This is not only a great way to interact with your followers but also enables you to determine what kind of educational content you may want to be planning.
19✨ Challenges
A challenge is another great way to interact with your audience, encourage them to do something that day, or post something under your hashtag.
20✨ Bingo
A classic game for all ages and a great way to nurture a sense of community and togetherness. Create a bingo template based around your niche and encourage your audience to share it with their answers.
21✨ 3 truths and a lie
As a brand, this is a story game to gauge how well your audience knows your products, services and values. It’s a great format to involve your followers whilst simultaneously educating them on your brand.
22 ✨ GIF challenge
Engage your followers with a GIF challenge, this often leads to entertaining results, the replies can be shared as stories later on!
23 ✨ Tag that friend!
This is a brilliant game for brand awareness, as it encourages your followers to share your content, and tag other likeminded individuals in it thus introducing them to your content!
24 ✨ Q&A videos
As Instagram is a visually-driven platform, video format is a great way to leverage that. Swap out answering questions in chunks of text to video of you answering them! Not only will this be more visually stimulating, it also allows your audience to get to know you and your brand on a more personal level!
25 ✨ Highlight User-generated content
Social media is, at its core, all about and socialising and building realtionships, so sharing your followers content around your brand is a great way to utilise this. Share content of them using your product, any review DMs etc.
26 ✨ Create a series
A regular series, as part of your daily or weekly stories lets your followers know when to look out for your content. It could be as simple as a Monday Motivational quote, or a Feel Good Friday where you encourage your audience to send in their wins and positive news! Pick something that is aligned with your brand, ie: if you’re a mindfulness coach then maybe a daily journal prompt!
27 ✨ How To’s
Instagram stories are also a great place to educate your followers! Show them simple ‘how to’s with your products and services in mind.
28 ✨ Go live
Going live is a great way to encourage interaction with your followers and nurture a sense of community around your brand.
29 ✨ Share links
Much like sharing recent blog posts or content, Instagram stories are a great way to cross-pollinate content across various platforms. Share links to other your social platforms or your website by suggesting they will find exclusive content on there!
30 ✨ Sales content
Instagram stories are ideal for posting sell content, don’t be afraid to promote your products and services!
31 ✨ Success stories
Similar to testimonials, stories are a great way to promote client success and encourage sales!
Will you be using some of these story prompts? If so, tag us @puregallussocial so we can see!
If you enjoyed a month of story ideas, how about signing up to our Content Club for a full month of strategised content! Join the club here.