Generating ideas for Instagram stories can be a daunting task on your own. Whether you’re building your personal brand or looking to widen your reach for successful network marketing, utilising the power of Instagram is a must. The platform is visual, fast-paced and allows you to connect with thousands of people with the click of a button.
Instagram stories are one of the most effective ways to increase engagement, but knowing how to unlock their full potential is important.
In this blog, you’ll learn all of the best ideas for Instagram stories, all to boost your engagement and connect with a larger audience.
15 Ideas for Instagram Stories to Increase Engagement
1. Poll Your Audience
Kicking off this list of ideas for Instagram stories: polls. Polls are the perfect way to get your followers engaged with your profile. By using multiple-choice questions or a sliding react button, you can quickly gather the opinions of your audience, all while encouraging them to take an active interest in your Instagram stories.
Here are some poll ideas to get you started:
- Create a multiple-choice quiz to find out their favourite food, sports or TV shows
- Ask a ‘This or That’ question and offer funny or relatable options to choose from
- Tease your latest products and ask followers to guess what you’re launching
2. Promote Freebies and Discounts
If there’s one thing that gets people talking, it’s free stuff. Offering samples, discount codes or pointing people in the direction of sales is a great way to provide value through your Instagram stories, all while encouraging your followers to take a closer look at your brand.
3. Answer Questions
Whether we like to admit it or not, being nosy is part of human nature. One of the best ways to allow your audience to get to know your brand on a more personal level is by answering the questions they’ve always wanted to know about.
To do this successfully, add an ‘Ask Me a Question’ button to your story and watch the queries flood in. Answering them with short, snappy and honest videos adds an element of personalisation.
4. Go Live to Start a Conversation
Want to start a conversation and open up a dialogue with your audience? A fail-safe method of increasing engagement is by going live on your story. This not only enables you to showcase your personality or latest brand news, but it also empowers your online community to start a discussion in the comments.
If you’re feeling extra spontaneous, you could even invite a follower to join your live and be part of the conversation. Just remember to let your audience know that you’ll be going live in advance – you don’t want to be left hanging!
5. Announce an Event
Hosting a virtual event is one of the best ways to increase engagement with your brand, whether you’re a network marketer, a small business owner or a budding influencer. Instagram stories are an exceptional method of building traction and selling tickets because you can signpost your followers directly towards ticket sales or a sign-up link.
Try creating an eye-catching graphic and sharing it on your story to let people know the time, date and agenda for your event.
6. Share Your Location
This might seem like a strange idea, but sharing your location has a range of benefits, especially for network marketing. When you use a location button on your Instagram stories, your posts will be circulated with the people in your surrounding area, encouraging local people to engage and follow your page.
More local engagement = more local customers!
7. Start a Regular Series
Consistency is the key to achieving increased engagement, so why not try starting a regular series on your Instagram stories? This could come in the form of a weekly advice session, a monthly Q&A or sharing your most loved posts from the past 7 days, but whatever you decide to do, make sure to stick with it. A memorable hashtag could be a great way to get your followers involved too!
8. Promote a Blog or Instagram Post
If you’re a business owner or you’re trying to build your online presence, you probably have a website you’d like people to visit. Writing regular blogs and posting them to your story is the perfect way to direct traffic to your site, all while providing value to your followers. The same applies to Instagram stories, so make sure to share your latest feed additions to your story to send people in the right direction.
9. Highlight Your Collaborations
If you’re lucky enough to be working with brands or promoting products on behalf of another company, be sure to highlight them effectively on your Instagram stories. This could be as simple as posting a picture and tagging their account, but doing so legitimises your presence AND boosts your reach when they inevitably share it to their own story.
10. Feature Other Accounts
This is an important one. Possibly one of the biggest ways to advance your own brand engagement is by featuring the work of others. While it may seem self-sabotaging, promoting other accounts creates an unspoken obligation for said profiles to do the same. If you’re shouting out a fellow small business, it’s quite possible that they’ll repay the favour and expose you to a completely new audience.
11. Ask Questions
Asking questions is one of the best ways to show your followers that you’re interested in what they have to say, as well as provoking organic engagement. Whether you ask your followers what they’re having for dinner, what their favourite beauty products are or where they think you should go on holiday, opening up the floor is a great way to show them you care about their existence.
12. Post Relatable Quotes
Increasing engagement isn’t just about getting a conversation going. It’s also about being relatable enough that people feel connected to you. Posting quotes on your story is one of the best ways to get people resharing your content, as well as reacting to your sentiments.
Funny or emotional quotes always do well, so try a mix of the two for the most successful results!
13. Document Your Day
Growing a platform for higher brand engagement isn’t just about posting every day. It’s about sharing content that people are interested in, including what you get up to throughout your day.
Whether you’re planning your latest product launch, rebranding your business or perfecting the beloved poached egg, be sure to share it on your Instagram stories!
14. Tease New Products
This is a BIG one. One of the most effective ways to keep people coming back for more is by building anticipation for what you have to offer. New product reveals are the best way to do it. If you’ve got a new perfume on its way, a new fashion line, or you’re selling a fresh new beauty product, start teasing your followers early. If your Instagram stories are exciting enough, they’re guaranteed to keep coming back for more news.
15. Create a Countdown
Staying current is important for increasing engagement through Instagram. A fail-safe method of posting relevant content is by sharing countdown buttons to your Instagram stories to build excitement for upcoming occasions, events and launches.
One of the smartest things about this feature is that your followers can engage with the countdown, ensuring they’ll also be reminded when the date or time arrives. If it’s your latest product reveal on the cards or an upcoming sale, you’ll be securing yourself new customers with little to no effort at all!
So, that’s 15 ideas for Instagram stories and the best ways to increase your brand engagement through your Instagram stories. If you’re a whizz when it comes to social media and want to become your own boss, we’d love for you to join our team of cosmetics consultants and register for FM World today.