What to share in your Instagram Stories: 8 ideas for designers
The purpose of your Instagram stories is to help people go deeper with you and learn more about you.
Here are just some of the benefits of developing a good Instagram story strategy:
It’s a way to build trust with your community
It helps your community to get to know you better (people purchase from people they know, like and trust so this is important!)
Stories are one of the only places on Instagram that allow you to have a clickable link - so this allows you to share links out to content you’ve created or even products and services you want to promote. Make the most of this feature but don’t overuse it because any link you share is taking people off platform - and the algorithm wants people to stay on platform!
It’s a way to practice your ‘face to camera’ talking (as they are only up for 24 hours so even if the story isn’t great it will be gone soon!)
It’s great for the algorithm - e.g. use engagement stickers like polls or quizzes to get people engaging with your content
It’s really only your hard core fans who are going to bother taking time to watch your Instagram stories - so make the stories worth their time with content that is helpful, entertaining and engaging.
The reason why a lot of people have low engagement on their stories is because they are boring! I follow a lot of you guys on Instagram and if I ever go and check out your stories I more often than not find your daily post shared to your story and that’s about it! That’s not the way to make the most of this feature :)
Here are some tips for the types of content you can share on your Instagram stories as a way to help your community.
The types of content you should have in your Instagram stories
The reason why a lot of people have low engagement on their stories is because they are boring (sorry!)…
I follow a lot of you guys on Instagram and if I ever go and check out your stories I more often than not find your daily post shared to your story and that’s about it! That’s not the way to make the most of the stories feature.
There’s no right or wrong type of content to share in your Instagram stories but if you share too much of the same type of content it’s going to get really boring for your audience and they will just swipe past or not bother watching at all. So make sure you share a variety of different types of content so people get in the habit of coming to watch your stories to see what’s new.
You want to vary the content with content that’s inspiring, educational, helpful, vulnerable and engaging.
You also want to make sure you post multiple times per day so they get in the habit of visiting your stories each day (and also help the algorithm understand you have an account that can be trusted).
If you want even more ideas I’ve got a full blog post with lots of prompts for your Instagram stories - you can read that post here.
Let me share a few examples to illustrate what I mean…
1: Posts that engage your community
Use the sticker options in the GIFs area for this. For example:
polls
quizzes
questions
‘add yours’
emoji slider
2: Face to Camera Videos
Examples:
answer questions
share stories/story telling
industry updates or recaps
tips and tricks
behind the scenes
show you're an expert!
TIP: If you’re nervous about talking on camera then try taking the phone out on a walk and talking as you go - moving while talking to a camera is a good way to get started as you will be more natural this way.
3: Share your latest free content
Examples:
links to latest blog posts, YouTube videos
links to freebies and lead magnets
4: Sell your products/services
Information about your product/service
Answer FAQs you get asked about your products/services
Link to how to sign up/next steps
Strong selling calls to action
5: Social Proof
Examples:
testimonials
before and after
client DMs
screen shots of work they've completed
nice things clients have said
6: Behind the scenes
Behind the scenes of running your business, let them get to know you a bit more, change locations/scenes
7: Your latest posts or reels
Share your latest posts or reels to your stories but don't cover them up. Remember - reels views count in stories!
8: Other content you have enjoyed
Share posts and stories created by others that you know your community will also find entertaining/helpful.
I hope this has given you some ideas for what to post on your Instagram stories!
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
DO YOU WANT TO….
Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?
Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.
These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy