How often have you heard on a marketing blog that the best social media advice for a small digital marketing agency is to use Instagram Stories? Most likely, the answer is a resounding YES. How will you utilize the tool now that you know which one to use to make your small company sparkle online? What’s more, how can you make the most of it to make your company stand out? We’ve got the answers you’re looking for.

WHY USE INSTAGRAM STORIES?

If you’re still on the fence about whether Instagram stories are crucial for your small business’s social media strategy. We’re here to persuade you (and it won’t take long). After seeing a brand or product in Stories, 58% of individuals say they are more intrigued by it. See? We’re sure you’re itching to start tweeting about your company right now!

WHAT ELSE IS THERE AFTER THE BASICS?

Perhaps you’ve already developed a practice of routinely sharing Instagram stories for your small company. You did an excellent job! That’s already half the fight won. You may already be doing all the right things to humanize your company. Such as showcasing your goods, reposting excellent customer reviews, and communicating directly to your consumers. Those strategies are beneficial to your online presence. But it doesn’t hurt to make those postings appealing to the eye for the 24 hours they’re at the top of your followers’ feeds.

You would assume that a post with a 24-hour shelf life isn’t worth much thinking, but we disagree! Grabbing a prospective customer’s attention while they’re scrolling through their Instagram Stories and having them do a double-take on what you have to offer might be exactly what many social media users need to make a buy!

NOW IS THE TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW

Now for the helpful hints! We’re going to walk you through a couple of our favorite Instagram Stories “hacks.” These are all fast and simple to use, making them ideal for the small company social media manager (or the owner) in need! All you’ll need is a few fantastic photographs from your camera roll, some recent posts from your feed, and a little creativity.

For your small company, use Instagram stories

It’s no secret that if you’ve just published a new post to your feed. You should report it to your story as well! This is a great way to increase picture interaction and lure people back to your grid. Because this is one of the more common applications of Instagram Stories for your small company, coming up with unique and exciting methods to stimulate your followers’ interests might be difficult. Fortunately, we discovered a technique to avoid the worn-out repost!

Tap the “Send to” button on the picture in your Instagram grid that you want to repost on your Story, then the “Add post to your Story” option.

Select the Camera Roll option from the “Stickers” button in the top right side of the Stories editor (it shows as an icon with the latest picture shot on your smartphone, generally after the “Quiz” sticker). Select a different product picture to overlay on top of the repost. Treat this as a “preview” of the report you’re attempting to get people to notice. A bonus tip: change the top picture in some manner to differentiate it from the main-feed item (example: make it B&W).

To conceal the old repost, make this new picture full screen. Feel free to put any text on top, such as “new post!” or anything similar.

1. Finally, in the bottom left corner of your screen, press “Your Story” to share with your followers!
2. Anyone who taps on the Story will now be transported directly to your new post!
3. For your small company, use Instagram stories. For your small company, use Instagram stories.

REPOSITIONS IN LAYERING

You may still utilize the less-than-perfect versions of your product photographs. Even if they don’t make it to your mainstream, as mentioned in the previous suggestion! In the same way as the previous two phases.

Tap the “Send to” button on the picture in your Instagram grid that you want to repost on your Story, then the “Add post to your Story” option.

Select the Camera Roll option from the “Stickers” button on the top right side of the Stories editor. Choose a few other product photographs to overlay on top of the repost.

The next thing you know, you’ve created an artistic collage depicting your goods from all angles!

Use the drawing tool to choose a color (or use the eyedropper tool to mimic a color from your environment) and then touch and hold the screen to fill in the backdrop with your color of choice.

TEXT WITH A RAINBOW

Are you sick of solid-colored text? We were in the same boat until we figured out how to make the text on our Instagram Stories a gradient rainbow!

1. In the Stories editor, press the “Text” button in the upper right corner to create a new text box. Let’s get typing!
2. Tap and hold the screen until the “Select All” option appears, then select all of your text.
3. The trick is to utilize both thumbs at the same time. Scroll from right to left across the screen with your left hand while scrolling in the other way with your right hand via the color gradient choice at the bottom of the screen. (Being ambidextrous earns you bonus points, but it’s not essential!)

TEXT WITH A TAP-THROUGH

This one is for anybody who likes creating a series of tap-through explanation stories with text that grows as you go!

1. In the IG Stories editor, upload your Stories’ backdrop and begin inputting the words you want to show on your first Story.
2. In the bottom right corner of the screen, tap “Send to,” then the blue “Share” icon next to “Your Story.” Back into the Story Editor at the top of the screen is the *key* to adding words without starting again.
3. Continue to add text and repeat Step 2 between each Story! Then there’s no need to save and re-upload any longer!

For your small company, use Instagram stories. For your small company, use Instagram stories.

BOOMERANG + LIVE PHOTO

Last but not least, we’ll leave you with the simplest tip we’ve ever given. You can utilize your “Live” photographs as Boomerangs in IG Stories, which is a great tidbit!

Take a Live picture (before taking a shot, toggle this option in the upper right corner of your Camera screen) or submit a Live Photo to the IG Stories editor.

Touch and hold the shot for Instagram to turn it into a Boomerang!

We’re glad to offer some of our best-kept secrets on Instagram Stories for your small company. If you’re searching for additional ideas, there’s no better place to turn than TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram Reels for a collection of “hacks” like these. If utilizing templates seems like the best and simplest way to get started with Instagram Stories for your small company, you can also use our Free Template: Instagram Story Ideas as a starting point.

DepositPhotos is another wonderful source to use if you need some attractive stock photographs for all of these high-quality IG Stories you’ll be making. Check them out to learn how to get started with a small business account.

These tips and methods may be entertaining and valuable to your brand. Still, as your company grows, it makes sense to hire social media experts to handle the creative aspects so you can concentrate on what makes your company successful. Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with us now for help with your social media platforms, and we’ll be pleased to explain how our team can help you fulfill your IG Stories potential!