10 INSTAGRAM STORY FEATURES
TO IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS

Instagram stories are a great way to connect with your audience.  This 24-hour video clip is a great way to show your followers the behind the scenes of your not-so-curated life. Whether you’re trying to grow your engagement or brand awareness, Instagram had features to help you. Your ultimate goal with social media is to connect and engage with your audience and stories is a great way to do that.  Here are 10 Instagram story features to help your business and improve your engagement.

LOCATION STICKERS

In order to get more views and engagement on your stories, tag locations using location stickers. Similar to location tags for posts, when you tag a location on stories, your story will appear in public story feeds for that location. So someone searching for that location will see your story.

Location stickers are an awesome tool when running an event. If you’re hosting an event at specific location, try and tag that location ahead of time to let your followers know where you will be. Remember to always keep your tagged locations relevant to your content.  Don’t post a picture in San Francisco and use a New York City location sticker.

If you own a brick and mortar, be sure and register your business on Facebook to ensure others can tag your location on their posts and in their stories.

MENTION STICKERS

When you are inspired by or collaborating with other brands, it’s important to give them a shout out. You can do this by using the mention sticker.  Not only will it notify them, but it gives them the ability to repost in their own stories.  This is a great way to build a community and also show support.  Utilizing this tool will create a network of people that will help promote each other.

HASHTAG STICKERS

Hashtag stickers are utilized the same way as location stickers. When people click on the hashtag—whether it is in a story or on a post—it will take them to the public page.  Your story will appear on the public page and get more exposure.

GIF STICKERS

Try using GIF stickers to make your stories more visually appealing.  Using the right GIF will grab your audience’s attention and encourage them to engage. There is a GIF for almost everything!  Type a word in the GIF search bar and scroll through all your options.  Using  GIFs is a fun way to add some personality to your posts and set you apart from others.

POLL STICKERS

Poll stickers are some of the best tools you can use in your business.  These stickers are a great way to do market research.  Ask your audience their opinions and thoughts.  The poll sticker and the emoji slider are great tools to determine what your audience likes and dislikes. Your audience is likely to respond to this sticker because they only have two options.  It’s as easy as tapping their choice.

You are then able to view the results. You can use that feedback as an opportunity to engage with your audience and gather valuable information.  Using poll stickers is a great way to improve your marketing strategy.

QUESTION STICKERS

Question stickers are another great tool you can use in market research. You can use the question sticker to ask your followers what they want to see from you.  You can use this tool to ask for help, which is a great way to start conversations with your audience.  People love to feel important and needed and this tool is ideal for building relationships with your followers.

There are so many different ways that you can use question stickers in your stories. If you are doing an Instagram Live Q&A, ask your audience what they want to know. If you create free resources or guides, ask them what they want to see. 

QUIZ STICKER

The quiz sticker is a fun way to get engagement and interaction with your audience.  The sticker gives your audience multiple choices.  This is a great way to do market research or connecting with your followers by asking entertaining questions.  You can create your own or use the available options.

CHAT STICKERS

If you want to improve engagement and start a conversation try using the chat sticker.  This is a great way to do a private group chat with up to 31 of your followers.  You get to determine who joins the chat and can engage your community of followers.

DONATION STICKERS

This is a fairly new sticker to Instagram, but it allows you to donate to a registered non-profit. Register your non-profit through your non-profit business page on Facebook .

PRODUCT STICKERS

If you sell products, this tool is a must.  You are able to use the shopping stickers on your products.  The sticker will link it to your shop to purchase.  The shops need to be set up through Facebook or another Instagram-approved integration. The great thing about this feature is you don’t have to have 10,000 followers to use the tool.

Instagram stories have so many great features to help you leverage your marketing. Use some of these features to connect with your audience.  Take full advantage of these 10 Instagram story features to help your business grow.