How to Get Started With Instagram Stories for Business

Instagram introduced the feature of Instagram stories in 2016. It is basically a sort of a carousel of posts that appears on your followers’ stories feed and stays up for 24 hours only. It is analogous to the status tab of WhatsApp. The feature became really popular as all influencers and brands started using it for promotion. If you are a business looking to get started with Instagram stories for business promotions then this list is for you. 

We have chosen simple and popular ways to use Instagram stories to gain wider reach and to connect with your followers. If you are able to use Instagram stories right it can help your business get more popular on Instagram. So, let’s take a look at the list.

Use It For Promos and Teasers Not Suited For Main Content

One of the ways that you can start using Instagram stories for your business to gain wider reach is to start using it for product or content promos that you wouldn’t really upload as main content on your profile. Instagram stories are volatile. 

They stay up for 24 hours and will appear in your followers’ stories feed unless you have paid for an Instagram ad campaign, in which case you can target non-followers as well. Let’s say your company is coming up with new designs for a particular product and you are all set to release it a week later. 

If you want to let your fans know that your company is building something then you can give them a sort of a promo or a teaser in the form of an Instagram story. In the upcoming week you can keep posting different kinds of teaser for the product as Instagram stories to keep your audiences informed. These teasers may not necessarily fit the content of your main profile but they can be quite useful to keep the audience informed. 

Polling and Feedback

Another great way to use Instagram stories is to utilize it as a sort of data collection tool for important analysis. A business will be successful if it caters to its customers. So, if you want to build a successful business by marketing online then you need to constantly use the platforms to ask feedback and suggestions from your followers. Instagram stories are a great way to do just that. 

Prior to it you probably would have uploaded a post to your main profile asking people to comment. But Instagram stories have made things easier, interactive and optimized. It will stay up for an entire day so your audience from all over the world will have a chance to see it. 

They will be able to check out your question on the Instagram story and then provide their feedback directly using the story. On the backend, you will be able to receive all the feedback which you can then analyze to gain meaningful insights on how to improve your service or product. 

A similar thing to feedback is polling. It is very easy to do using Instagram stories and get the opinions of your audience easily. If you manage a fashion company and you are looking for ideas then you can just upload a poll on Instagram stories. 

For example, what do you wear to a Sunday brunch? You can put the options below and people can easily cast their vote. You can also find out what your customers like and don’t like about certain stuff and you can tailor your product to suit them. 

Ask Us Anything

The evolution of the internet as the most important piece of technology has brought with it a lot of changes. When it comes to business and marketing one of the pivotal changes is those big companies are more akin to caring about their customers. This is because one mishap from a company can end up losing a lot of customers because people can use the internet to share the news about it. 

So, now companies need to really get it right when coming up with a new service or product. They need to be able to deliver high-quality service to people. One of the best ways to be able to cater to your audience is to understand them and bridge the gap between the corporation and the consumer.

This is where Instagram stories come in. Instagram stories are a great way to connect with your audience on the platform by letting them know via a story that you will be answering their doubts and questions about the company, its products and/or services. This is a decent way to show the customers that the company actually cares about its customers and wants to interact with them. 

A lot of companies did it quite well. It helped them get popular on Instagram and helped make their present fans more loyal. So, you should also upload an Instagram story asking your audiences to ask you about the company, products or services and you can easily reply to them and post the answers as a story as well.

Highlights

The last way to get started with Instagram stories that we are going to take a look at is the Instagram story highlights. Generally, when you post an Instagram story it stays up for 24 hours and then it vanishes. That’s why it is good for the content that may not be fit for your main profile. 

But Instagram stories highlights are permanent. They are meant to stay on your profile forever. This means that anyone who lands on your profile will be able to view these stories. This is why you can use highlights as a creative way to relay information about your company. 

So, anyone who goes to your profile will be able to see what your brand is about and the highlights of your company for example the USP of your company, info about the staff and the owner, the best products, or posts etc. If done right it can be a great way to gain more followers. Do check out the highlights of your competitors to get some ideas on how to use them.

So, yeah these are 4 ways which you can use to get started with Instagram stories for your business. These are really simple yet effective ways to promote your brand. If you haven’t used stories we suggest you use a combination of the above-mentioned ways to get into it. This is not an exhaustive list. But it should be enough to give you an idea about how to use your creativity with this decent Instagram feature to promote your brand. We wish you all the best.