At the beginning of the month Instagram stories turned 1 and it’s already surpassed Snapchat! In fact, half of the businesses on Instagram have used stories in the past month.

I must admit, I was a little slower to tag along until I experimented and realised just ONE story alone gave me 260 views last night!

It’s also a fantastic selling tool, so here are my 4 tips on how to use Instagram stories for YOUR business.

Story Shares

Story shares is a brilliant way of collaborating with other Instagrammers and here’s how it works. If I was selling a travel product like a new backpack, I would look for travel companies with a similar amount of followers to me. I would then approach them and ask them to share my product in their story feed and to tag me in it. In exchange I would also advertise a special holiday offer of theirs in my story also tagging them.

This mutual exchange is a brilliant way of attracting new followers and expanding your reach and best of all it works!

Product Launches

Use your stories to launch a new product, event or special offer and remember to add the date and price. We want to be as transparent as possible here. 

You can also tag in any collaborators that you may be working with or WISH to work with. Your story will refresh itself after 24 hours. Stories just isn’t about photos, you can also take short videos of behind the scenes too and share it with your consumer base.

So if how about sharing with your viewers your team? Or the manufacturing of a product? Just remember to make it fun!

Repost Content

Didn’t get as many hits on that blog post as you would have liked? Then advertise it in your story! Add your website URL to the story and a brief overview of what the blog post is about. Remember to use the hashtag feature to add in brands that you wish to see it!

Advertise Your New Client!

Are you B2B? Just signed up a new client? Nothing will earn you brownie points better than sending out a tweet introducing their company on your social media feed, so why not use their photo and tag in their company on your Instagram story too? 

You can even use stories to introduce a new partnership or a new member of staff!

So here are 4 simple tips to create more engagement, connect to your audience base and drive traffic!

Any questions? then get in touch!