Social Media platforms like Instagram are constantly growing and creating meaningful and impactful content can be difficult. Many small businesses must ask themselves how they are going to budget and plan for Instagram Stories and ads as well as curate a profile that exemplifies their brand. Here are 10 tips and tricks for better Stories, posts and reels that will guarantee your money was well spent: 

1. Create a Consistent Brand Look

To make your brand stand out, you need to keep creating and designing a consistent brand look and feel throughout all your social media accounts, so they all look similar enough for users to know they are from the same company. The main thing to consider is creating a color palette. This can usually be 2 to 3 main colors and hues. There are special exceptions having more colors, but keep in mind that too many colors sloppily done can look amateurish and will turn most potential clients away. Maintaining your brand color look will capture the attention of followers and build credibility. 

2. Choose a Great Font 

A strong brand voice is created when you have a great font. With Instagram Stories, you get a lot of choices, but be sure to pick one wisely as it makes a big impact to stick to one for all your posts, reels, and stories. The idea is that once your content is seen, it will automatically be associated with your company brand without even noticing your username. A unique font creates immense brand recognition and prevents copy-cat scammers from stealing your brand identity. 3 main elements to make sure the font is compatible with are your logo, company colors, and stylistic font on-brand. Don’t forget to keep your brand personality and character in mind when designing with your font.

3. Use Stunning Images

It is important to mix it up and us high-quality images to grab attention. One of the best options available to you are stock photo websites, such as Motion Array, Pexels, or Unsplash, just to name a few. You can start off with this great selection of free photos. When downloading your favorite stock photos, planning for your upcoming posts, create libraries of images that you can easily update and manage. Ideally to be great for authenticity, if you have the budget to hire a professional photographer to capture your product or services, but it your industry needs certain levels of confidentiality, such as the medical field, then stick to stock photos. 

4. Use Backgrounds and Overlays

One great way to highlight your new updates and add more dimension to your Instagram stories is adding brand or design colors to your background. You could also use your colors for product photos with an overlay. Use solid colors to pop what is in the foreground or use it as an overlay to cover your photo and use the eraser tool to reveal a part of the image. This might be an exciting thing to surprise your followers with if your business is offering free giveaways or new product reveals. You can also add animated backgrounds that better represent your brand image visually. There are endless options available when you look for photos or videos with light leaks, glitter, bokeh, and glitch overlay effects. 

5. Engage Your Audience

One of the reasons TikTok is so successful right now over Instagram Stories is its ability to keep their audience engaged. To compete, start by sharing content from your own followers and friends. This will act like word-of-mouth personal endorsements. Add in fun tools such as questions and polls that invite anyone to share their likes and dislikes about your brand. This is great way to see what areas of your business the most successful and what areas is need improvement. Special discounts for the first 50 followers or offering giveaways to your products can get your audience to engage with your brand because who doesn’t like free stuff? Be cautious with this technique, you still need to make a profit and if you offer free stuff too often then add a price tag you may lose trust.  

6. Tell a Story

Stories disappear within 24 hours, so consider practical designs to easily tell your brand story, such as adding easy-to-read titles. Part of sharing a story on Instagram is you must consider posting in sets of 3 (beginning, middle, and end) to better showcase your message. Breaking your messages into sections allows for a better call to action. This will provide depth and better ways of engagement from your social media account to your website. Not everyone knows what your brand is all about, so always try to incorporate details into your video for a new audience. Promote a long-form announcement with story posts around the key tips or points that entice viewers to check it out. Focus on key points of the product or tutorial you want your audience to remember. Remember that as 

7. Take Boomerangs

Instead of just adding effects to your videos and photos, make loop videos or have a professional make one for you. These types of videos are called Boomerangs. They are quick clips about 1-2 seconds long that loop and add a lot of fun to your Stories. You can easily turn your live photos into boomerangs and Instagram offers 4 effects: Classic, Slo-mo, Echo, and Duo. You can either take your live photo first and create several takes or directly shoot it live for your Instagram stories. 

8. Link to More Content

Use swipe ups and Instagram link in bio to encourage user interaction. It has become such a vital source when posting your story that there is a set of actual stickers for it with these terms. You can add the chosen link to your bio under the Website field when creating or editing your profile. Easily change it and use link bio tools to create mobile-friendly landing pages, like Linktree. 

9. Create & Use Highlights

Stories link to your Highlights, extending the life of your important ideas and topics. This is a strategic place for your audience to see what your brand’s main selling points. It is also important to note that only 5 will show on your feed, so choose your highlight topics wisely. To see more, your followers will need to scroll right. Once you are ready to create your highlights, make sure to create custom covers for them that match your brand color and style. The correct dimensions are 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels, or a 9:16 aspect ratio. Make sure your icon is in the center position. 

10. Use Instagram Story Design Templates

You do not need to reinvent the wheel and spend extra for custom designs, when online marketplaces, such as Motion Array or Canva, have a huge selection of professionally designed templates. You only need to drag and drop your photos or clips, adjust them to your brand colors and logo, and export them directly to your Instagram Stories. If you are still having trouble doing this, look for an agency that provides social media marketing and they will make sure your post is correct. 

Create a winning Instagram Story Strategy! Call 248.528.360 to get started.