Instagram might have taken inspiration from Snapchat with Stories, regardless they’ve quickly become a staple on the platform. Instagram Stories are a great way for people to stay connected with their audience with ease. Marketers love Stories as a way to better connect with their audience, be in sharing products or behind the scenes footage. And for creators the 24hr lifespan means less pressure to creating top quality content. They can feel free to share raw content with their followers. However one thing many have notice as of late is the decrease in Instagram Story views.
Do Instagram Stories Still Matter?
Many of you might be wondering how important are Instagram Stories with the rise in other channels on the platform. With the drop in Instagram Story views that many are facing it’s a valid question. The short answer is yes, Instagram Stories do still matter. The decrease in engagement on them, specifically views, doesn’t mean they’ve become irrelevant. In fact, many still view Stories as an indicator on how active an account is. A potential customer (or follower) will visit your profile and right away see if you’ve published a story. Even if you haven’t posted a grid post in a while, seeing Stories active is likely to encourage their curiosity.
Instagram Stories are also a great way to go beyond your curated content. It gives you a chance to connect more intimately with your following, and share unedited content with them. Many use Stories to host Q&A sessions, share their latest recommendations and even alert followers to new posts.
READ – 5 Ways to Improve Your Instagram Presence
Why Are Instagram Story Views Important?
If you didn’t already know, Instagram Story Views contribute to your overall reach numbers. This means the more views you get, the better your overall reach. Reaching as many people as possible is important if you’re trying to get a message across, sell a product or just grow your following. For creators your reach probably is a factor in the amount you can charge when it comes to paid partnerships. So having a declining reach is not good for business.
Tips to Get More Instagram Story Views
Now let’s talk about the things you can do to increase your Instagram Story views. The best thing you can do is to look at things from your audiences’ perspective. Besides that, here are our tips that’ll help you gain more views on your Stories.
Be Diverse With Your Content
While you want your audience to know what you expect from you, you also don’t want to bore them. By being diverse with what you post to your Stories you’ll keep attention spans fresh. You don’t want to veer too far away from what you’re known for so it’s important to find a balance.
There is so much you can do with your Instagram Stories. As you probably know the three main types of content you share are photos, videos and Boomerangs. Posts and Reels can also be shared to your stories. With all of that there is so much you can do. Sharing behind the scenes, moments throughout your day and demonstrating products are all great uses of your Instagram Stories.
Still not sure what to post? The best thing you can do is poll your audience on what they want to see (more on Polls later). Surveying your followers and asking them for their feedback is a great way to ensure you’re publishing content they actually want to see.
Set A Consistent Posting Schedule
Asides from being diverse with what you post, you also want to be consistent. A great way to achieve that is to include your Stories in your overall content strategy for Instagram. Not only will this help you to set times to post, but you can also plan out the types of content you’re publishing.
There really isn’t a set amount of how many Stories you should publish in a day. The more you post, the better chances of getting lots of eyes to your Stories. However too many and you risk people swiping away. You also want to think about your posts being staggered throughout the day. Remember, your home feed lays out Stories based on who’s posted recently. So if you want your Stories to pop up for followers, it’s in your best interest to post a different times throughout the day.
Publish Exclusive Content to Your Stories
Using your Stories to share exclusive content you don’t share to your feed is a great way to get your audience excited for them. Influencers might share unboxing of brand gifting, moments from their day or raw footage of a photoshoot. Brands might use it to launch a new product, share an exclusive offer or sneak peeks of a particular campaign that’s about to drop.
Use Instagram’s Tools to Engage Your Viewers
One of the main perks of Instagram Stories is how great it is for engaging with your audience. The built in tools, or stickers, available really help to encourage that process. You can boost interaction with your followers by using stickers like Polls, Questions, Quizzes and Sliders.
The Polls and Quiz stickers are a fun way to get your audience to quickly engage with you. They can be used to ask opinions, get feedback and even play interactive games like This or That. Questions allow you to go even deeper with connecting. You can host Q&As or have sharing sessions with your audience to get to know them ever more.
Asides from the interactive tools Instagram has, there are also some stickers that can help you boost your reach. Location tags allow you to share where you are when you’re posting, and potentially have your content viewed by others in that area. Hashtags also a great way to have your content viewed by those looking through a hashtag. You can either use the sticker or manually type in Hashtags.
