I think it’s been more than a year since Instagram introduced IGstories and over time we’ve all started to use it, and sometimes even abuse it.
People who are active on Snapchat tend to abuse the feature the most. Let’s face it, most people are not interested in 20 stories from one person when they are following more than 300 people. At least I’m not interested. I’ve even muted a few accounts’ stories because it got very annoying to see 20 stories every day.
At first I was posting 10 or even 15 stories everyday without really giving thought to what I’m posting. Oh, I’m having coffee, my followers need to see it! Oh, I’m stuck in a traffic jam, let me post it! Oh look, a cat! Post Post Post!
While the first story would get 4000 or even more views they would substantially decrease for the next stories ending up with maybe a 1000 on the final story posted that day.
This got me thinking (Yes, I think a lot about these things ๐) and I figured, I skip stories of people too! Especially when they have more than 5. I don’t have enough time to take each of them seriously so yeah, whatever, skip!
So what’s my solution?
1- Take every IGstory you post seriously. Realize that you are not the only person your followers are following. Quality over quantity.
2- Unless you have an important discussion on your post or a book review, do not do the ‘New post is up’ story. Doing it every time substantially decreases the value of your request.
3- Use your phone camera application to take pictures. The IG app camera is really bad and you can see the difference if you take a picture with both apps and compare them.
4- If possible, space your IGstories by a few hours. Every time you post an IGstory, it will show up near the start of your followers story timeline. So if you post back to back stories your story thumbnail will shoot up to the starting line just once. Ofcourse post together if the stories are related to each other (Like when you do unboxing videos and need 2-3 stories to show everything you got)
5- Use Hashtags and Location. These can get you more views if your story appears on them. Videos have a higher chance to be featured than photos.
6- Video montage. If you have an active and fun day ahead try mini Vlogging montages. On my trip to India earlier this year I made one 15 second video covering the full day every day. This is not something that I usually do but I figured if I can squeeze everything in one story without asking too much time of my followers they will return to watch the next one as well. You can make these on iMovie or similar apps on android. You will find these stories highlighted on my page. I’ve posted a video example below.
7- Shoutouts. Genuine shoutouts are really good. But if you go on a shoutout spree of 20 stories, it just seems like you’re trying to get brownie points and maybe a return shoutout from those you’ve shouted out. I personally don’t take these shoutouts seriously. All they do is annoy me.
8- Have fun with IG! Don’t take me too seriously. I’ve only shared what I feel works for me. And I’ve discussed a lot of this with other bookstagrammers including @sumaiyya.books and @africaanah who I trust a lot and have learnt from as well.
Exceptions- When traveling or attending an event you obviously might have a lot of stories to post. Try not to bombard with similar stories though, try to give a feel of the place without posting 5 stories of each location you visit. Unless it’s Agra and you’re at the Taj Mahal (Go crazy and post every angle of it you can find ๐)
I have another tutorial on how to start/improve your bookstagram which you can check here
I really enjoyed writing this post and really hope it helps you get a better idea about how to use IGstories to its full potential.
If it did, please consider subscribing to my blog here and if you’re on Instagram you can find me here
If you feel this will help your followers or friends, please consider sharing it with them as well ๐
Happy reading!
Faroukh
At first I found the IG story an annoying update. Now I enjoy making them so much! (Especially with all those gifs, lol)
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Haha yes! Same here! I need to use gifs more though ๐
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Damn I use those Disney gifs like they are regular emojis lmao
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Haha! Lolz youโre tempting me to use them ๐
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you’d better!
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Lolz I will now!
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I agree so much with what you said!!! True..true..true…
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Thank you!
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Amazing post ๐
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Thanks ๐
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These are such helpful suggestions.
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Thanks ๐
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I Agree With You 100%!
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๐
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Awesome tips!! Definitely gonna try implementing them next time I post on IG stories โบ๏ธ
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Hope they help!
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Hey there! I have been following your account for two months now, and let me just say how amazing it is. The way you engage people– be it with your posts or stories.
I had a question though. A few days ago, I saw your IG story where you did the ‘tap the pic’ and it would lead to that post. I think you’ve included a story like that here too. May I know how you did that?
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Thank you! That feature seems to be available only to some accounts. Maybe itโll appear for everyone soon ๐
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Oh alright! Thanks.
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Some wonderful tips!
I agree with you. Nobody is going to watch tens of stories, it’s best to keep them few and spaced apart.
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I honestly hadn’t thought about ig stories seriously before. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who post ten stories each day (most of them are book giveaway shoutouts). And you’re so right, the number of views decreases from 100 to 60 ๐ I need to start posting wisely. Thanks for this post, Faroukh. Helped a lot.
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Iโm so happy itโs helped! Please share with your followers too if you can ๐
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I’m really excited to start trying out these tips, thank you!
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๐๐ผ
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Thanks for the tips. But I still have problem with IG stories. I don’t know what to update on stories because it’s just a normal life in office. Though I click photographs of some moments daily, but I really don’t know if people would like to see it.
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Its the same for me, I donโt have anything going on as such. Sometimes Iโll post random videos of my office cats or maybe coffee. But overall, I try not to post random stuff unless itโs funny or maybe cute ๐ฌ
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๐๐
But thanks for these tips I will keep them in my mind.๐
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Great tips! I’ve recently been enjoying using my IG stories for my new kitty haha I’m glad you pointed out having to space your posts out because that is something I wasn’t completely aware of! Thanks!
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Iโm so happy these tips are helpful!
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I like your this post. It is really helpful but I want to know which app do you use to take pictures for IG stories?
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I take pictures with the normal camera and then upload to IGstories ๐
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Great recommendations. I love the quote in the header picture, and now I’m sort of sad I visited Agra back in the day where there was no Instagram ๐๐ค
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Haha Iโve been twice…I do have pictures of the taj!
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