If you still haven’t heard about Insta Stories by now, you were probably living under a rock for the past year and a half. I was a slow adapter to it, but I’ve grown to love it! Insta Stories let you share a series of videos or photos — and have them disappear after 24 hours. You’ll see stories from the people you follow at the top of your feed, and a ring around their profile picture tells you when they have new stories.
My Instagram feed isn’t as intentional and well-curated as I would like it to be, but I do try to avoid posting personal stuff on it, and hell will rain candy floss before I post selfies. (That’s just me. If you want to post selfies, go ahead. It’s your feed!) When Insta Stories came out, I thought it was a great way to connect to my followers; for people to see behind the scenes of how I work, and also to share some personal stuff that won’t look good on my feed (e.g. selfies! ha! and also food, and shopping, and ootd!) I think it’s a great way for people to see that there is an actual person (or persons) behind your brand, and to see unfiltered or unedited glimpses into your life (at least the parts you want to share).
Story Highlights was a game changer too, because now we can save some of these stories and have those show up on our Instagram bio. I’ve only ever saved 2, but I’ll get around to adding more later.
If you want more ideas of what to share, I’ve assembled a list of Instagram story ideas that would also be great as highlights. Read on, there’s a freebie at the end.
- Behind the scenes. Instastories are a great way for people to see your process! Have someone take a video of you sketching, or taking photos, or setting up a floral archway.
- Before and after. Show how you transformed a room, someone’s face, a website, a brand, whatever! I’ve seen some event designers do this and they include their clients’ reactions during the reveal, and it’s amazing.
- Testimonials. Got a glowing testimonial recently? Share it there. (I’ve got a template for you).
- Unboxing. These are so addicting! Who doesn’t share in the joy of an unboxing video? Especially if it’s new shoes, new bags, or a pretty dress! Show people you have good taste. lol
- New blog posts. Yes, use Instastories to post a screenshot of your blog post, or a screen video of your post, or a pull quote from it, or simply announce it with a title and a related image. After all, the goal of social media should be to drive traffic to your website!
- Introductions. Tell us about yourself. Who are you? What are you offering? What is your feed all about? (great highlight idea, by the way)
- New arrivals and promotions. Have a shop? Tell us about it. What’s new in the shop? Do you have a discount code to offer? Get us excited. Do an unboxing too!
- Sneak peek. Are you working on something new? A new logo design? A new website? Give us a sneak peek – it helps build anticipation.
And, as promised, here are 2 templates for your Insta Stories. These are psd files, so you will need Photoshop to edit them. I used two fonts available for free on the Google Font directory – Montserrat and Playfair Display.
