Scheduling Instagram stories ensures that your Instagram profile is regularly updated with engaging, fresh, and interactive content. Instagram stories offer your followers a unique peek behind the curtain of your brand and provide opportunities for you to grow your following, promote products and services, and stand out from the crowd. However, did you also know that you can schedule Instagram stories ahead of time? Let’s discover some essential Instagram story scheduling tips that can help your business to build an audience.
Plan Your Instagram Story Content
When planning your Instagram stories, there are a few important things to keep in mind. Start by establishing your goals for using Instagram stories in the first place. For example, do you want to generate sales, brand awareness, or engagement? Understanding the motivations behind your use of Instagram stories can help you to create content focused around achieving these goals. Once you have set goals in mind, you can determine your post frequency.
It is important to be realistic and to only commit to creating story sequences that you have the time and resources to follow through with. Sequences should be between three to seven posts and include a combination of photos and videos and planning your content flow in advance can also be beneficial. Additionally, although there is no secret formula to deciding when to post an Instagram story, you can use instagram scheduling platforms like Sked Social to share Instagram stories at times when your audience are more likely to be engaged.
Keep Things Interactive
Scheduling Instagram stories with a wide range of interactive elements is one of the best ways to create engagement. Instagram stories provide interactive stickers, mentions and hashtags that can all be used to pique the interest of your followers. Engaging stories connect people with the content that they care about and encourage your audience to do more than click through a story until the end. This can build relationships and over time can turn followers into loyal customers by cultivating meaningful bonds.
Not sure where to begin? Instagram story polls can be used as a social media savvy alternative to customer questionnaires that even allow you to glean valuable feedback from your followers. Question stickers can also be used to start conversations and generate a buzz around a product or topic, establishing your brand as a human force committed to communicating with its supporters. Furthermore, a simple emoji reaction slider can be a fun and engaging way to gauge responses to content.
Remember to Optimise for Reach
Once you have developed a plan of how often to post and have ideas in mind for a number of interactive features to keep your Instagram story engaging, you should then start to think about how to get more people to watch your content. Encouraging other Instagram users to share your content can have a huge impact in this way. Therefore, alongside catering to your existing followers, there are a number of tactics you can use to reach new Instagram users.
For example, location tags can improve the chances of your story appearing in the search results for that location. This could relate to a building, park, or business. Try to be as specific as possible, as smaller locations can also show up in broader searches. Using a broad hashtag can also increase the odds of your story appearing in searches, which can also boost your views. Correspondingly, by tagging other Instagram users in your stories, they can also share your story to theirs, upping your exposure further.
Ultimately, Instagram stories are one of the many social media posts that brands can use to connect with an audience and provide value. Posting regular stories keeps customers and followers engaged and responsive, allowing you to achieve your goals and stay ahead of the competition.
Instagram stories can help your business to foster a dedicated online following. For more Instagram tips, check out this guide to growing your Instagram followers.