How to use your Instagram stories to capture an audience?

A recently introduced concept, Instagram stories is a great way to attract your followers and gain an audience. These stories, just like your usual social applications, is a way to share your personal interest or business objectives with the target audience.

What are Instagram Stories?
Unlike your Instagram feed, Instagram stories allow you to share instant photos and video with your followers and specific user accounts. Like Snapchat and Facebook stories, these stories stay only for 24 hours on your account before they disappear.
Instagram stories are different than the photos and video that you post on your feed in the sense that the former is more ‘at-the-moment’ and also has a limited timeline.

How are they different than the Instagram Feed?
Unlike your feed that stays on your account as long as you have the account. Instagram stories are time-bound. Also, the video duration on the stories is limited to 15 seconds, unless you split it into a different video. If you wish to split your videos which are longer than 15 seconds, you can arrange them into a series of video to be published one after the other.

How do you see an Instagram Story?
As a thumb rule, the stories appear on the top of a user’s profile. The first thing you notice when login to your profile is a thread of the accounts you follow with a pink-yellowish circular border around them. These reflect the latest stories posted by the accounts you follow. It is the same way your followers find your stories on Instagram.
Additionally, you can tap on a person’s Instagram story to see the series of content they have posted since you last saw their profile. The stories can be a mix of photos and videos and appear in the order that the user or you have posted them. You can also swipe left or right to move between stories.

How to use Instagram stories to grow your following?
Out of the billion Instagram stories, over 300 million are already actively using Instagram stories. Instagram stories are way more than connecting to your audience. As the developers and geniuses work on improving the algorithms behind Instagram stories, here are a few things you can do to use your stories to attract more attention:

•    Utilise the features – Instagram stories present you with a lot of features such as timestamp, gifs, location, hashtags, and polls. Use the features as best as you can and always geotag your photos.

•    Engage your audience – Use the poll and ‘yay or nay’ options to engage your audience into a meaningful interaction. Taking a trip to a new location? Leave some hints and let your followers guess the place. Launching a new product? Post the concept and see what your audience thinks about it.

•    HD Videos – Most travel bloggers use previously published photos and videos of their next destination to build up excitement. Use a tool such as Instagram Video downloader to Download Instagram Photos and HD videos from the official app and repost it to their account. Accredit the content to the actual owner to avoid copyright and gain their attention.

•    Interact – Instagram stories give you a choice to send personal messages on specific stories that you find interesting. Ensure that your photos and videos look bright and clear by adding a white frame with the help of apps such as InstraFitter and enhance the appeal of your photo. The better the graphic, the more tempted your audience is to interact with you.

•    Cross-communication – Instagram stories give you an option to save Instagram photos, video, and entire stories by tapping a download icon on the tap of the tap. Save your stories and use it to publish on other apps.
Instagram is an extremely dynamic social media platform with tons of opportunities. If you haven’t already, it is the best time to sign up and start promoting your business and ideas to the right audience.