Instagram story hacks to improve your content

Sahail Ashraf posted on 23 May 2022

If you market on Instagram, you need some hacks that will make your content even more effective. Try the following little tricks to give you the edge.

If you’re finding that your Instagram work isn’t gaining the kind of engagement you want it to, you might want to read on. In this post, we will look at how you can unleash a few hacks that will transform your growth and engagement on the platform.

Polls are popular

Getting your audience involved in some polls is a great way to boost the engagement your content receives. 

Recently, LinkedIn has seen a huge growth in engagement with polls. And things are no different on Instagram. Using a poll with a simple question or request for opinions will grab your audience and ensure they want to get involved.

You may have a new product launch, for example, and want to build up excitement for it. Creating a poll and asking questions that lead into the launch is a great idea. Or if you don’t have a new product or service arriving soon, focus on a new system that is linked in some way to your industry. It’s meant to be fun, so don’t release a poll every day, but every week can’t hurt.

The power of music

Music really does make a difference. If you have taken the time to create a post that looks amazing and is sure to engage your audience visually, then it makes sense to add some music to make it even more memorable.

Open up the stickers options and sift through the library of music that you can use in your posts. You might be pleasantly surprised at your choices here. It doesn’t take much effort and if you can find a piece of music that is currently on trend, all the better.

Captions

If your stories have plenty of talking in them then it is a good idea to include automatic captions. These are actually a great engagement hack, because they add an extra bit of concentration and focus for the audience.

It is also a way to avoid misunderstandings. If you’re trying to get across some important points that you know will benefit your audience (especially if your product is front and centre) then having captions prevents anything being missed.

Add links

Pop in a link to a page or post that will help improve the engagement of your audience. Including a link to a website or other offer is incredibly useful and powerful.

Change the colour

Something as simple as a new colour can have a huge impact on the engagement your story receives.

Change the background to your story and you can change the mood. To do this, go to the draw tool and select the colour dropper icon. Then you have a host of colours to choose from, even potentially colours that are associated with your brand.

Emoji effects

This is a simple little hack that can instantly make your story more engagement-worthy. Open up your story and tap the text tool. Then add an emoji. 

You then simply change the font options and when everything goes live, you will see a little glow around the emoji. It is very simple, but incredibly effective. Basically, it’s a scroll stopper.

Layer your text

For an arresting layered effect for your text, try the following:

• Create your Story and type your text over it
• Select this text and then copy it
• Start a new text box and paste in the text you have just copied
• Choose a different color for the copied text while it’s still set
• Move the text over the original and overlap slightly. Layer the copied text under the original

Use image grids

Putting together a group of images can be an easy task with Instagram. The app has plenty of different image grid types and they will work well with your story. To get the whole thing started, just:

• Open your Story and go to the left. Scroll down and tap layout tool
• The screen will be in sections. Swipe up in each square to access and add your images from your camera roll. You can also take a brand new picture
• Repeat the process for each block

A world of filters

Chances are, there are hundreds of filters on Instagram you aren’t aware of. Open up your camera on Instagram and then swipe right to the end. Then you will see an option called ‘browse effects’.

That’s when you’re ready to access a world of filters. And they can do wonders for engagement.

Finally, get exclusive

If you are super on top of the game and you have managed to create demographics for your audiences, then you can pull an exclusive.

On your profile hit the three lines in the top corner. Here, select ‘close friends’. Then add as many people you would like to the list of close friends. There is no limit to the number here.

Then you have a targeted list and can tap ‘share to close friends’ when you have that hyper-focused story you want that demographic to see.

Have fun with Instagram. These little hacks should ensure you get more out of the platform.

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