Instagram has come a long way since the platform first gained popularity over a decade ago, adding features like Reels, Broadcast Channels, Notes, and even a whole new app (Threads!). Before all that, there was the first "big" feature expansion, which drastically changed how people use the platform: Instagram Stories.
Stories are all about communicating with your existing audience, so they’re an essential element of both social media marketing and community management.
In this post, we’re going to go over everything you need to know to optimize your Stories strategy, including what they are, why they should be a component of your content strategy, and how to continue getting results from them.
What are Instagram Stories?
Instagram Stories launched in 2016 as Meta’s response to Snapchat’s “ephemeral,” see-it-then-it’s-gone content. The premise is simple: Content that disappears forever after 24 hours.
Stories appear at the top of your feed, giving them exceptional visibility. The Instagram algorithm prioritizes Stories from the accounts you interact with most. While you can choose which user’s Stories you want to watch specifically, Instagram will then auto-play additional Stories from accounts you follow (with some ads thrown in) until you exit the feature.
Stories skyrocketed in popularity quickly, despite the usual resistance that comes with any new feature launch. Users loved the bite-sized, short-form content and the authentic, unpolished nature of Stories compared to feed posts. Since they disappear after 24 hours, there's less focus on aesthetics and scripted storytelling, helping users and brands post more freely.
Why are Instagram Stories important for brands?
The Instagram algorithm has moved away from using the social graph in favor of a recommendation algorithm. The content users see is based on a mix of interests and app usage behavior rather than who they’re connected with. As the feed and Reels become less connection-focused and chronological, Stories has become one of the last places where users can connect with the accounts they purposefully follow — including brands.
That makes Instagram Stories an essential tool for community building on the app, and a powerful way to nurture and retain audiences. Here are a few reasons Stories remain an effective part of a brand's Instagram content mix:
- Frequent usage: Despite the rising popularity of Reels and new DM features, Stories have remained a frequently-used feature since its launch, both by creators and users.
- Links: There aren’t many ways to share clickable links on Instagram beyond the bio on your profile. Stories are the exception to this rule, offering brands a way to insert calls to action that point to landing pages, product pages, and other marketing campaign properties.
- Audience analytics: Stories opens up granular audience data — you can see which followers regularly tune into your content. For growing brands with small followings, this can help identify potential brand advocates and strong audience niches.
- Exceptional visibility: Stories appear at the top of users' feeds, and users that engage with your content the most will see your Stories more often. This helps brands stay connected to their most loyal audiences. Plus, Stories dominate the entire screen (like Reels), capturing peoples' attention with no other distractions.
- Engagement-focused features: Tools like Stickers allow brands to create polls, open it up to user questions, mention other brands, and more. You can collect feedback with customers, nurture relationships, and generate both social proof and new content ideas for your marketing campaigns.
How to create Instagram Stories
Creating Stories is exceptionally easy, though it may require a touch of creativity if you want to go all out. Here are the basic steps for posting a Story — stay tuned for best practices that will help you use Stories to their full potential.
- Open Instagram and click the + icon in the bottom navigation bar to create a new post.
- At the bottom of the New post screen, you'll see a list of post formats. Choose Story to open the Story editor screen.
- Click the center record button if you want to take a picture or record a video from the app's native camera. If you want to upload an image from your camera roll, click the camera roll icon in the bottom left corner (click the select button on the photo upload screen if you want to include multiple images). You can also create a simple text-based post by clicking the create button (Aa icon) on the left sidebar.
- Now it's time to apply additional effects and design elements using stickers (smiling square icon). There are more than 20 options that let you add interactive elements, design elements, information elements, and more. Some stickers cover the basics, like text, links, mentions, and location tags. Then there are more interactive stickers including music, polls, questions, countdowns, and even AI effects. The Add yours stickers are a great option for brands because they allow followers to contribute UGC to your prompt.
- Once you’re happy with your Story click the bottom right arrow to open the sharing settings, including whether you want to cross-post to Facebook or only share with Close Friends. Then hit Share to publish.
- Your Story will appear for 24 hours only. You can add new slides to your Story whenever you want using this same process.
- To delete your story, click on Your story in the Story tray on your home feed. Then click the three dots in the bottom right corner and select Delete story.
This is how you create Stories in the native Instagram app. But this process requires you to open the app and create new content on a daily basis in order to keep your brand presence active. There's an easier way. A social media scheduling tool like Loomly can help you plan, create, and schedule your stories ahead of time along with all of you other Instagram content.
Once your Instagram Stories are live, you can measure performance right from Loomly with Advanced Analytics. You’ll be able to track stats like reach, taps forward and back, exits, and more. And, if your Instagram Story is part of a campaign like a season sale or a product launch, make sure you add a label to your Story so you can filter your analytics by label to report on the performance of your campaign as a whole.
Here's how to schedule Instagram Stories with Loomly:
What are the technical requirements for Stories?
Instagram Stories have a very specific format, and it’s important to stick to best practices regarding technical requirements. These include the following:
- Dimension: 1080 x 1920 pixels
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Video clip length: Up to 60 seconds (per slide)
- File types: PNG, JPG, MP4, and MO
Instagram Stories best practices
Want to get the most out of Stories? Check out these best practices.
1. Drive users to take action
Stories are short-form and fleeting content, which makes it a great platform to encourage users to take action. They can’t come back and check later; if they’re interested in what you’re offering, they need to act now.
Image source: Target
In the example below from Ilia Beauty, the brand announced a new product. The series promoted the final product, showed a behind-the-scenes illustration, and ended with a link to the product and a CTA to shop now.
2. Use stickers
Stickers are one of the best features that have been introduced to Stories, making your content instantly more engaging for users. Create polls, let users ask questions for a Q&A or AMA (ask me anything), ask users questions, add music to your content, tag other users, and more.
Image source: Reese's Book Club
In the Story above, Reese's Book Club uses a poll sticker to encourage interaction on their story. Even better, they can use the results from the poll to inspire new content down the line.
3. Highlight high-value posts
This tip is simple but effective. Have a high-value post that you want your audience to see? Share it to your Stories! They can easily click to see the full Story in-feed, and it can help you gain more visibility from top followers who want to see your content.
Image source: Gap
You can, of course, also do the opposite. If you have a big promotion happening in Stories, you can share an in-feed post directing people to “learn more” or “get involved” in your Stories.
In the example above, Gap reshares one of their feed posts to let their followers know that a high-demand product line is back in stock — something brand loyalists will want to know!
4. Share social proof
If you have an abundance of social proof (or even a little), your Stories are a great place to share it. You can use this as a way to generate user excitement, build trust, and nurture relationships with customers who were excited enough to share the content in the first place.
Image source: Rare Beauty
In the above example, Rare Beauty encourages customers to use their custom hashtag to share their Sephora hauls. This is a great way to collect and share UGC!
5. Plan and create some Stories in advance
While Stories are only around for 24 hours, that doesn’t mean you have to create them on the fly.
At the very least, plan out Story content to support your other content initiatives and marketing campaigns. You likely already have a posting schedule for this content, so it will be easy to add a supporting Story to the calendar as well. Planning Stories around your existing content calendar will also help you identify when you need to actively record content to capture BTS and event footage.
You can always sprinkle in additional Story content last-minute should inspiration strike.
Tools like Loomly make this process easy because you can plan, create, and schedule multiple content types in one go. Craft your Stories independently, or clone your upcoming image posts or reels so you can tailor the content to a Story. Then schedule your Stories to auto-post to Instagram!
6. Create Story highlights
Story Highlights are useful for two reasons: They allow the hard work that went into creating your Stories to continue on after the 24 hours is up, and they also allow you to create a curated feed of content around specific topics that interest your audience.
Story Highlights appear at the top of your profile and can be used to showcase specific product categories, social proof, event coverage, and more. They also encourage users to visit your profile and interact with more of your content there.
Image source: Sune
In the example above, Sune, a craft item shopping brand, uses story highlights to promote their current product lines. Their "Spooky Szn" highlight is super timely and gives profile visitors a chance to see and shop their in-season products.
7. Track story performance
If you want to get more results with your marketing campaigns, you need to know what social media metrics you're tracking — and which are showing growth.
Instagram's analytics provide the following metrics on Stories:
- Number of accounts reached: How many unique users have seen your Story
- Impressions: How many times your story was viewed in total, including repeat views
- Number of accounts engaged: How many unique users shared, replied, or commented on your Story
- Interactions: How many times total your story received a reply, share, or comment. Instagram also measures individual likes, shares, and replies.
- Links clicked: How many users clicked or swiped up on a link in your Story
- Forward clicks and Back clicks: How many times users tapped to move to the next panel or return to a previous panel on your Story
- Exit clicks: How many times users tapped to exit the Story feature while viewing your story
- Next Story: How many times users swiped to the next account's Story while viewing your story
- Profile visits: How many users navigated to your profile from your Story
- Follows: How many users followed you from viewing a Story
All business and creator accounts receive native analytics.
You can also use Loomly Analytics to track Stories performance. Get insights into forward and back clicks, replies, reach, impressions, and exists, all in the platform you’re using to schedule your Stories. You can also add a label to your Stories, making it easier to filter analytics to view overall campaign or strategy performance.
8. Consider using graphic design templates
If you struggle to create Stories that are visually engaging or look interesting, especially for static “announcement” posts that aren’t just video or product images, you may want to consider graphic design templates.
Tools like Canva have a large number of ready-made templates that are fully customizable with drag-and-drop technology. Using Loomly's Canva integration, you can design static images in Canva, then export them directly to Loomly where you can define the the Story settings and schedule it to auto-publish anytime.
Final thoughts
Though Instagram Reels are arguably more popular at the moment and may help generate additional reach, Stories play a pivotal role in engaging the audience that you already have. Get feedback, nurture relationships, and share exciting updates. It’s a valuable marketing platform within the overall app that should not be ignored.
Frequently asked questions about Instagram Stories
Can I see who views my Instagram Story?
All accounts can see users who view their Instagram Story on the app. Public accounts can see all users who view their Stories, including those who don’t follow them. Instagram does not tell you, however, if someone took a screenshot of your Story.
How long do Instagram Stories last?
Instagram Stories are visible on your profile for 24 hours after it’s first published. Once that timer runs out, the content disappears. However, you can save it to your profile in a Story Highlight.
Who can see my Instagram Stories?
On private accounts, only approved followers can view your Stories. You can also create groups like the Close Friends list to control which specific users can see certain Story content.
On public accounts, including business and creator accounts, anyone can view your Stories by finding your profile unless you’ve blocked a specific user.
