One of our #Strella team members, who created most of our clients’ Instagram Stories, left recently to pursue other endeavors. I familiarized myself more intimately with Instagram Stories’ inner workings during the transition. And I’ve gained a renewed appreciation of their marketing potential.
I know many business owners feel intimidated or overwhelmed by the thought of incorporating Stories into their social media strategy. So, I want to share a few tips — from technical hacks to hashtags and more — for those of you who may be embarking on using them for the first time.
8 Tips and Tricks for Instagram Stories
1. How to Add Some Color to Your Story’s Background
To make a solid background color for your Story, use the drawing tool to select the color you want. Then, tap and hold on the screen to apply that color to the whole background.
You’ll find a limited palette of colors at the bottom of the screen. However, you can access an entire spectrum of color choices by tapping and holding on a color. After the wheel of colors displays, you can choose whatever color you want by holding and dragging it.
2. How to Tag People Discreetly
Instagram Stories allow you to tag people without showing the tags publicly. You can hide tagging behind elements in your Story or drag them off the screen.
3. How to Tag More than 10 People
You can only tag up to ten people using Instagram’s tagging tool. However, if you need to tag more individuals, tag them by using the text tool and add the "@" symbol before their Instagram handle.
4. How to Expand Your Font Options
After uploading a photo or video to your Instagram Story, go to the 6th font on the list (Comic Sans). Then type "papyrus,” and you will gain access to the Papyrus font!
5. How to Add Some Shape to Your Images
After uploading a photo to your Instagram Story, go to the sticker tab and select the photo sticker (a circle with a little square photo icon). After choosing the sticker, tap on your photo to change the shape. You’ll see many options, including a circle, heart, star, rectangle, and many others.
6. How to Add Titles to Your Links
When posting a link to your Instagram Story, you now have the option to create a title for the link. A call to action, like "Click to read!" or "Tap here to view!" can help encourage engagement from viewers.
7. How Hashtags Impact Your Stories
Hashtags added to Instagram Stories no longer appear on the Explore page or the hashtags page. It's essentially useless for brands to use them in their Stories unless they want to reinforce and raise awareness of a branded hashtag (for example, #Strella).
8. How to Put a Highlight Front and Center on Your Profile
No specific tool exists for adding Instagram Stories as Highlights (content that lives permanently on your profile). However, you can leverage Stories to make a Highlight prominent on your profile.
- Go into the Highlight you want first on your profile.
- Click on the "more" section (the three dots at the bottom right of the screen).
- Select “Edit Highlight.”
- Click on the Stories tab.
- Tap on any Story (it doesn't matter which one).
- Click done.
After following these steps, you will see that Highlight appears first on your profile.
Next, you will want to delete the Story you just added to the Highlight. Here’s how:
- Click on the Highlight to which you just added the Story.
- Click until you get to the Story you added.
- Click "more" (via the three dots again), and then select “remove from Highlight.”
- After that, your desired Highlight (minus the Story) will remain first in line!
Ready to Story to Glory?
I hope these tips, tricks, and hacks will help you navigate the world of Instagram Stories! If you need more help, contact us! We have recently contracted an exceptional Instagram specialist who is here to help our clients use Instagram Stories to their full potential.
What Instagram Stories tips can you add to this list?
