logo
logo
Sign in

Instagram Story Ideas for More Views and Engagement

avatar
Studs Lorrenc
Instagram Story Ideas for More Views and Engagement

Instagram Stories have become a staple on the social media app since the feature's launch in 2016. Instead of posting carefully curated photos that will stay on your feed indefinitely (unless you delete them), Stories lets you post several images that play like a slideshow and disappear at the end of the day.


You can upload photos, videos, text or posts from other accounts to your instagram Story viewer. Since Stories don't show up on your main grid of photos, they're perfect for an image or message you want to share with your followers without having to commit to making a full, captioned post. 


Stories function as an alternative way to see the most current activity from the people you follow (though you can now bring back chronological feeds). Stories are placed in a horizontal line directly above your feed: If someone you follow has posted a Story in the past 24 hours, their profile image will appear with a colored circle around it. Tap the image, and you'll see that account's Story. Keep tapping, and you'll see all of the day's Stories posted by accounts you follow.


Navigating through Stories is simple. While browsing the Stories of your friends, swipe right to go to the previous one, left to go to the next one and tap to skip the current photo or video. If you want to linger on one photo, you can pause a story by tapping and pressing the screen. To start the story again, just lift your finger. This also works for video. You can swipe up on a Story to react to it, or you can simply press the heart on the bottom right corner to Like it. 


Here's everything you need to know about Instagram Stories.


Making an Insta Story is a lot like Snapchat

Stories are temporary videos, photos or text that are strung together to form a slideshow gallery that, well, tells a story.

There are a few ways you can start an Instagram Story: You can swipe right or hit the blue plus sign on your profile picture, or go to the top right side of the screen and hit the plus sign there. Once you've done one of these, follow the steps below. 

1. Tap the circle button at the bottom of the screen to take photos or tap and hold to record a video. To add photos or videos from your gallery, swipe up on the screen or tap the photo icon in the lower-left side of the screen.

2. Edit the photos or videos with text (the Aa button) or add a drawing (the button with three dots).

3. Tap Done to save your Story.

4. Tap the Your Story button to share it to your Story, or the Close Friends button to share with a customized list of accounts.

If you click the Arrow icon, you can shoot your image or video to one of your friends at the same time as it posts to your Story. Just tick the bubble by Your Story, then Message and the person you want to share with. The image will disappear after your friend sees it.

Repeat these steps if you want to add more than one photo or video to your Story. Each photo you add within a 24-hour period will be placed in your Story.

You can select up to 10 photos at a time from your gallery or use the multi-capture feature (Go to the camera screen, hit the downward carrot on the left). 

After you share your new Story, a colorful circle will appear around your profile photo to let your followers know you've posted new content. Your profile picture will also pop up at the top of your followers' Feeds. All they need to do is tap your face to see your Story.

If you have a habit of adding things to your social media accounts that you later regret, good news! Stories can be removed. Tap on the three dots at the bottom right of the photo or video you'd like to delete and hit Delete.

Boomerangs, hands-free and live video, oh my!

Aside from regular photography and videography, Instagram provides several options to mix things up on your Story.

Boomerangs

Boomerangs are fun, short videos that play forward and backward. 

1. To start a Boomerang, swipe right from your feed. This will take you to the Stories camera. 

2. Select Boomerang on the left.

3. Tap record to shoot a short burst of photos.

Hands-free

No need to press and hold to make a video anymore. The Hands-Free option in the left menu lets you record a video without, well, hands. 

1. Swipe right from your feed to open the Stories camera.

2. Hit the downward carrot on the left. 

3. Tap the Hands-Free button.

Spice up your shots with filters, stickers, GIFs and text

One of the best things about Snapchat is the ability to add fun and flair to your photos. Instagram Stories have a bevy of customization features, too. After shooting a photo or video, swipe across it to add a filter. You can choose from options like Lagos, Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi.

If you see someone else using a filter on their Story and you want to give it a try, tap the name of the filter (below their username). A menu will pop up allowing you to try it instantly or save it for later.

Stories also let you add augmented reality filters to your pictures, just like Snapchat. Here's how to try them out. 

1. Go to the Stories camera. 

2. On the bottom, scroll across the different filter options. (Scroll to the end and tap the magnifying glass to browse even more effects.)

3. Tap the filters to try them on.

4. When you find a filter you like, snap a photo or take a video. These filters also work on Instagram Live. 

collect
0
avatar
Studs Lorrenc
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more