Everything we need to know about Instagram story
Instagram took Snapshot’s idea of narrative capabilities and enlarged it to meet the needs of the audience, to the point that we now have a plethora of various features, formats, and effects for each story, all of which must be used in some way. Yes, that is necessary.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss why. In fact, in this post, we’ll go over all of the elements and capabilities that Instagram offers for creating a story, as well as why you should use each one.
Instagram Story Features
The Instagram Story Photo Size allows us 9:16 seconds and 15 seconds to interact with our viewers and grow our following. The more interesting the story and content we offer with people in the form of images and videos, the more time they spend on our page commenting, expressing their opinion, and generally connecting with us.
The Instagram algorithm places a high value on these factors and uses them to determine whether or not to show our content in the Explore area or as a consequence of a user’s search. All of the features and capabilities that Instagram Story provides, as well as the things we anticipate to see, are identical. All of these characteristics will be introduced in the following sections.
Different modes of Instagram story
Instagram, at the very beginning of storytelling, provides a variety of unique and exciting ways to generate content. We can choose and use any of the following modes from the list at the bottom of the tale page, depending on our needs:
Normal story: We may quickly select and save our photo or movie from the gallery in normal mode. We can also instantaneously shoot images and videos. To record the video, we need to take a photo on the narrative screen where the camera is active, then click and hold the button at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds.
Boomrang’s Story: With Boomrang, we can capture many images in a row. He then combines these shots by repeating the frame in a very short amount of time, creating intriguing moving images. These animations can be saved and used as GIF files.
Hands-free story: As previously stated, in normal mode, we must hold the button at the bottom of the screen during the recording period to make the movie instantaneous. By selecting Hands-free mode, you no longer need to do this; when recording begins, click the button once and then again to stop recording.
Reels: Making videos is also a part of Reels. The distinction between this mode and others is that the video may be rapidly modified with different filters and effects by selecting the rails. It also allows you to upload music and audio files. Because Rails has its own page in the hashtag search section, it will be more likely to be seen by people.
Superzoom: When we select Superzoom and start recording video, the subject in front of the camera zooms in 3 steps, from small to large. Instagram adds a scary song and background to this short video, making it even more appealing.
Live: In this case, we can communicate directly with our audience and talk to them. As stated in the Comprehensive Live Guide, we can hold live for two or four people. Followers can join our live and chat while expressing their feelings and opinions in the comments.
8 Instagram solutions to increase story traffic
Instagram did not end the story here. This platform also provides users with tools to make the story more attractive and visible. As mentioned, these tools increase our level of interaction and engagement with our audience.
On the other hand, they act as a guide for Instagram’s own algorithm and show it which content should be displayed in the Explorer section or in other users’ search results. It is easy to use these strategies and tools:
Using Instagram Editing Tools: At the top of the story page, there are tools for editing content. Using them, we can insert text on the content, draw different lines or drawings, change their colors, and insert different stickers. That way, our content will not be just a photo or video, it will be more interactive.
Insert Location: Location is one of the options in the sticker at the top of the page. If we search and select Location in this section, we can insert our desired location in the video or photo.
The geographical location helps us to tell more of our story. When a user searches for this city or geographic location, Instagram will show them this content in the results.
Quiz and Pull Question: Two- or multiple-choice questions and polls are another way to increase interaction with the audience and provide a good opportunity to get to know them and their opinions. On the other hand, it makes the audience spend more time on our page and story, which again means increasing their participation.
These three features are also available in the stickers section: In this section, you can search and select Pull for two-choice questions and quizzes, Quiz for four-choice questions, and Question for questions that need descriptive answers. Then we can enter the questions, options and correct answers. Finally, by dragging the story page upwards, it will be possible to see the poll results.
Count down: Another attractive way to accompany the recipient is to let them know before the event, live or upload a new post. Count down can be used as a calendar or clock to reach the desired time. This way, if this is done correctly, the contact will return to our page.
We can also find the countdown with the same name in the stickers section and then set the time. Next to this sticker, the Remind me option is displayed to the user, who, by selecting it, will receive a notification from us to visit the page in due time.
Use of filters: The use of filters and effects make the story more attractive and accompany the audience. By clicking on the emoticon icon on the story page, these effects and filters will be visible and by selecting any of them, they will be applied immediately in the image. Filters are categorized by topic. So we can easily go to the Brows filters section, search for different and new filters based on our favorite subject and, if desired, save them for reuse.
Inserting hashtags: Hashtags make our story appear to the audience by searching for them. In this way, we will increase the chances of our story becoming more popular.
Instagram allows us to use up to 10 hashtags in our story. To insert them, we can select the #Hashtag option from the sticker section, or simply type our hashtags at the top of the page by selecting the text. Due to the small space and unsuitable image created by inserting hashtags in the content, we can reduce their size and hide them under stickers or images.
Mentioning people related to the story: Mentioning people in the Instagram story is easily possible by typing the @ symbol and their username. By doing this, they will receive a notification and will be informed of our story. By mentioning people, we will provide space for them to get to know and interact more with them, and as a result, we will expand our communication network on Instagram.
Linking: Sometimes it is necessary to direct the audience to the download, purchase or any other page of a site; To insert the link, Instagram has placed a link icon at the top of the story page. By clicking on it and from the Weblink section in the new page, we can insert our link. Finally, the user opens the link by dragging our story page up. Of course, at the moment, the ability to put links in the story is only available for commercial pages that have more than 10 followers.