When Instagram Stories launched in 2016, it became an immediate success on the platform. The purpose of the feature is to compete with other social media networks that have a similar feature. It allows users to upload photos and videos no longer than 15 seconds. People have 24 hours to view the content before it vanishes forever.
New research shows that over 500 million Instagram users actively use the Stories feature. People love the idea of using temporary media to share a story with people. Instagram benefits because it increases user engagement on its platform. Facebook Stories, Snapchat and TikTok are finding success with their own versions of the Stories feature. But it is Instagram that continues to dominate overall.
Instagram Stories are not all the same, though. Instagram has created several different Story formats so that users can tell their stories in more exciting ways. You can even set interactive tools for the stories, such as questions, quizzes, and polls. These tools can increase user engagement and interactivity to your channel. If you need any more engagement, you can always buy Instagram followers.
Below are the top five Instagram Story formats to engage viewers and vice versa.
1) Short Narratives
Short narrative stories use text content and pictures in sort of a slideshow presentation. There are brief paragraphs or bulleted text content used to describe a story in more detail. A few photos or illustrations accompany the text to make the presentation more appealing to visual audiences.
It is almost like integrating a PowerPoint presentation into your Instagram channel. Most Instagram Story users like to use short narratives to convey blog content to their audiences. That way, they don’t need to encourage their viewers to leave the Instagram app and visit the blog independently.
Once you attract a large enough audience to your short narratives, it will be easier to convince them to visit your blog website. Your short narratives could highlight the topics of your full-length blog posts. If someone is interested to learn more information about those topics, they’ll have the option to click on a link to visit the full blog posts.
2) Quiz Stories
Have you ever wanted to quiz your audience? Instagram lets you attach polls to your Story posts to further engage with them. Your audience can use the polls to give their opinions about the topics of the posts. Sometimes the polls can quiz the audience and test their knowledge about the topics.
A “Quiz Sticker” or “Poll Sticker” gets placed on your story. In other words, you can decide if you want your Story audience to engage with a multiple-choice poll or a written answer quiz. The multiple-choice poll will tally up the percentages of users who chose each answer. The written answer poll lets users type a response to a question. Afterwards, the correct answers will get revealed.
You can make your quizzes educational or entertaining to your audience. The point is to keep your audience engaged for the longest time possible. The more they interact with your Story posts, the more they will want to come back repeatedly. At the same time, it gives you the chance to learn more about your audience and create better content that revolves around their interests and personality.
3) Tutorial Stories
Tutorial stories are a direct way to educate your audience. Many brands and influencers utilize the tutorial stories feature to promote their products or services. For example, a major influencer like Kylie Jenner might give tutorials about applying her brand of new lip liner. It will motivate her audience to purchase her lip liner product and try out the tutorial for themselves.
Don’t turn your tutorial stories into mere advertisements. The tutorial stories must teach your audience something useful about using your products. Perhaps your audience will discover your products for the first time. Once they get to see your products on video and how they work, it will motivate them to purchase it for themselves.
When a user views an Instagram Story tutorial, they can swipe up on the post to learn more information about the product. That is where you can redirect them to an e-commerce page which has the product for sale. However, you won’t get these conversions unless you make your tutorials educational and fun at the same time. Give your audience some value in these posts, and they will return the favor.
4) Mini-Documentary Stories
Do you have an actual story to tell your audience? You could structure your Instagram story channel to revolve around mini-documentaries. It is almost like the short narrative story feature, except this one is more focused on video-based storytelling. Users are encouraged to use high-quality videos which are informative about a particular topic or event.
The rule of thumb is to use short narratives to promote your channel and gain more followers. Many small businesses like to use short narratives for this purpose. But when you want to showcase a newsworthy event or topic within a particular industry, it is better to use mini-documentaries to tell that story.
You’re essentially telling the story with a lot more videos for a longer time. These short videos share a common theme, and each one of them is crucial for telling the story. Audiences are encouraged to watch the videos and to come back when new videos are posted.
5) Behind-the-Scenes Stories
Behind the scenes stories are good for giving background information about yourself or your company. You won’t use these stories to promote products directly, but they will allow your audience to better understand your brand. Your behind-the-scenes stories could introduce them to the staff members and authority figures of your operation.
The purpose of behind-the-scenes stories is to get more personal with your audience. Once they get to know more about the real people behind your brand, they will feel more comfortable to engage with it. That is why celebrities and influencers are so successful on social media. They let audiences into their world, so they can see what goes on in their lives behind the camera.
Conclusion
You’ve just been introduced to the top five Instagram Story formats. Each one serves a unique purpose for telling a story on Instagram. Some people like to stick with one or two formats only.
However, we recommend you utilize multiple story formats to make your posts more interesting. You could surprise your audience with a Quiz Story one day, and then a behind-the-scenes story the next day. As long as you continue to pique their interest, your audience will continue to return to your channel.
