Instagram Stories are popular for a reason. They offer Instagram users the chance to highlight photos and videos to share with their followers. Stories have a higher profile than traditional Instagram posts and can be very useful for marketing.
The question that looms large for many of the people I know — even for those who have been using Instagram for marketing for a while — is this:
How can I use Instagram Stories effectively to sell my products and grow my business?
I’m always happy to answer that question because I think it’s an important one. I love Instagram for marketing. Here are 9 Instagram Story hacks to help you get the biggest possible return on your marketing.
#1: Copy and Paste Images to Your Story
Creating or adding to your Instagram Story would be time-consuming if you were required to re-upload every image you wanted to use. Fortunately that’s not the case, although I meet a lot of people who don’t know it.
The quickest way to add an image that’s already on your roll to your story is to open the image. Then, click the ‘Export’ button on the bottom left of the photo and then click the ‘Copy’ button. From there, you can go to your story and use the Paste function to copy it.
#2: Turn Your Photos into Boomerangs
A boomerang is a series of photos that Instagram will put together into a short video. There’s an easy hack you can use to transform recent photos into Boomerangs from within your Story.
After selecting a photo — which must have been taken within 24 hours of being added to your Story — simply hold your finger down on the screen until the word BOOMERANG appears. This simple action will turn the photo into a boomerang, which is a more engaging type of content than a static picture.
#3: Align Text Left or Right
You may have noticed that some fonts on Instagram don’t allow you to choose an alignment. They simply default to the center — something that can be deeply frustrating if you want to use one of those fonts but also want to align your text to the left or right.
It’s a little known fact that you can simply place your finger on the text and swipe it to the left or right to change the alignment. I’m not sure why Instagram doesn’t simply add the alignment option for these fonts — but now you can change them if you want to!
#4: Post Instagram Stories Constantly
If you’ve used Instagram Stories, you know that the stories disappear in 24 hours unless you highlight them. One way to ensure that more people see your stories is to update them regularly — even daily.
Your Instagram Story is posted on your profile page immediately next to your profile logo. Having an active story offers new visitors to your profile an easy way to get acquainted with you and your products.
#5: Use Custom Colors in Your Story
Instagram offers an array of default colors that you can use as backgrounds for the images in your Story. But, what do you do if you have brand colors that aren’t included in the default options?
There’s a simple hack to solve this problem. Choose the ‘Brush’ option and do a long hold on any one of the default colors on display. The long hold will open a color slider that will allow you to create custom colors to use in your Story.
#6: Create a Color Gradient for Text
Adding a color gradient to your text can make your stories more visually striking and memorable. To start, type your text and then highlight it.
With the text highlighted, open the color palette. Then, hold one finger on your text and the other on the color palette. Drag both fingers toward the left side of your screen. As you do, you should see the gradient colors appear on your text – and you can adjust as needed! You can also drag your finger from right to left — or up and down — to get a different effect.
#7: Highlight Text on a Solid Color Background
What happens if you want to share a quote or an idea — and you want a solid background to make it stand out? Here’s an easy way to do it.
Choose a picture from your roll. Click the pen icon at the top and select the color you want. Then, hold your finger on the screen for one to three seconds until the screen fills with the solid color you chose.
From there, you can type the text you want on top of the background and add the whole thing to your story.
#8: Let the Background Peek Through
Another hack related to the last one is that after you add a solid color background to an image, you can use the eraser function to let the original image peek through.
To do it, simply tap the eraser icon and then tap or drag your finger where you want the underlying image to shine through. I like this hack because it offers a ton of visual interest that you can use strategically, so it works in harmony with your text.
#9: Hide Your Hashtag Stickers
Hashtag stickers are a useful tool for helping people find your story. That said, you won’t always want the sticker to be visible — especially if it interferes with the aesthetics of your image.
To hide the stickers, start by pinching them to make them smaller. Then you can simply cover them up with an image sticker or a GIF. They’ll be hidden from view but still doing their job!
Instagram Stories aren’t complicated and they don’t have to be time-consuming to create. Using the 9 simple hacks listed here can help you fine-tune your images and create memorable and impactful Stories to share with your followers.
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