If you’re not taking advantage of Instagram Stories to capture fans and boost sales, you’re neglecting the platform’s more than 500 million users who watch stories daily.

The problem is that it’s difficult to keep coming up with original content to post. That’s why our social media marketing experts want to offer you some ideas you can use to keep your feed fresh and your fans coming back for more.

The value of Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are brief videos and photos that are shot vertically, unlike the standard “square” Instagram posts. Also unlike the single photos you post, Stories play like mini-movies, allowing you to tell a “story” with your photos. And you can use the various filters Instagram provides to create a plot.

Stores are then shared with fans and other viewers, who can add to your Story if they request it and you allow it.

As for boosting engagement, Stories have been shown to increase the daily time spent by users in-app from an average of 24 minutes to 32 minutes. They also allow you to drive traffic through links, ads, and shopping on its Explore feature, as well as hashtagging and geotagging stories to help new followers find you.

Topics for your Stories are limited only by your imagination as well as what your fans respond to. Remember that the whole point of posting Instagram Stories is to personalize you and your business, to give your fans an opportunity to feel they know you and thus to feel more connected to your business.

Here are some of the typical topics you can include in your Stories:

  1. Unusual ways to use your product
  2. Brief testimonials about your product or service
  3. News about a sale
  4. Promote an event you’re holding 
  5. News about your business
  6. News about your industry
  7. Promote blog posts
  8. Showcase fun moments with your staff

Here are nine more great Story ideas to help keep fans engaged.

9. One great way to increase engagement is to feature your customers in your Stories. This trick goes back decades to newspaper reporters doing “man/woman on the street” interviews. People love to read about themselves, or about people like them. Featuring actual users of your products in your Stories also helps lend authenticity to your brand.

10. Another way to make your followers feel special is to give them access to exclusive offers, private sales, or upcoming deals. Providing “insider info” like this is also a great way to motivate them to keep following you.

11. Showcase your human side. It helps fans relate to you, and to see you more as a friend than a merchant trying to sell them something. If you’re having a bad hair day, for example, let them see it. Or try one of the popular comparison memes (“The way I envision my kid’s birthday party vs. the way it actually turned out”).

12. In the same vein, give them hints and tips about your products, or even ways to solve related problems, just as you’d make suggestions to a friend. If you sell planters, for example, offer a quick tutorial on how to deal with rootbound plants.

13. Show them different, creative, or fun ways to use your products. Studies show that sales increase when people can picture themselves using a product as opposed to simply viewing an isolated photo of it.

14. Or simply cheer them up. Everyone could use a positive mood adjustment, especially these days. So either share your own favorite motivational quotes, or find some online and turn them into a Story, especially if they relate to your brand.

15. There’s a reason soap operas have endured on television for years: People love to know what happens next. So creating a Stories series can keep fans “tuning in,” i.e., coming back for more.

16. Contests aren’t a new concept but they are always popular. Everyone loves a chance to win something for free. You don’t have to offer pricey prizes, either. Maybe just a free sample of one of your products, or a half-off discount on one of your services.

17. People love to give their opinions, so conduct a poll. It can relate to your business or be just for fun, but it’s great for engagement.

Our social media marketing experts can help you keep abreast of what new features Instagram and other platforms roll out, and how best to take advantage of them to promote your brand, increase engagement, and boost sales.