How to post a Story on Instagram
- What are Instagram Stories
- Reasons to use Instagram Stories in your social media strategy
- How to make a story on Instagram
- Making a Story from Instagram camera
- How to edit your story before you post it on Instagram
- How to post your Instagram story
- Add stories to Highlights to save them
- Share your Instagram Stories in your social media profiles
- Bonus: 5 apps to create cool Instagram Stories
The main differences that make Stories so special among other content types are:
- The duration of a Story is up to 15 seconds. This is both for photos and videos. When you share a picture, it will be shown during this time. If you upload a longer video, it is divided into 15-seconds parts.
- Stories disappear in 24 hours. This is what encourages people to watch them as soon as they notice you posted them. After 24 hours, the pictures and videos go to the Archive in your account.
Instagram Stories are placed above the posts in the feed. You can see only the content that your followings post. Stories can also be seen on a user's profile page. In this case, you should also tap the profile picture to watch them.
You need to tap a user's profile photo on Instagram to view their Stories. The next photo or video is played automatically after the previous one ends.
Delmondo and Buffer did research, where they studied more than 15 thousand Stories. What they got is that the more often you share an Instagram Story, the higher your reach and impressions are.
The results can be explained by the advantages of posted Instagram Stories:
- Added Instagram Stories are displayed at the top, and thus they draw more attention.
- There are a lot of editing tools which are constantly updating. They allow you to post incredible and engaging content.
- Instagram Stories are easy to repost on Facebook. You can also repost them to other social media profiles.
- You can add links and hashtags, tag users and places on your Instagram Stories.
- Content gamification. You can post games, quizzes, and questions. Their game mechanics raise intrigue and gambling. They attract more attention and require a reaction in response. All this is good for the engagement rate.
- Masks and filters are a great help. Special effects can be laid over a photo or video to make them more interesting.
So, you need to post Instagram Stories regularly if you want to grow organically in this network. We know sometimes one's creativity may take a break, so we collected ideas of questions to ask in Instagram Stories. Check it out and use it when you don't know what to post today.
The app made posting a story on Instagram as simple as possible to let users quickly share the content. You only need to make a photo and tap Continue to post it. But let's view at an instruction to make every detail clear.
Here is how you can upload a photo or video to Instagram Stories:
- Tap the plus icon on your profile page.
- Tap Story.
- Tap a file to upload it to your Story.
Camera in the app give you a whole lot of tools for making great content. You can find them on the left menu. We described them in detail here.
You can also choose a Story filter at this step. They may be cute or fun. They can even be interactive. Scroll to the right end to open the search and see more filters and find the best one for your Instagram story.
Tap the white button to take a photo, tap and hold it to record a video.
Either you've uploaded a photo or video or made a story using Instagram camera, you get to the editing menu. You are in one step to post your story.
You can mark your content as branded, write text, add stickers and filters. If it's a video, there is also a button for changing the volume before the other icons. Disclose the menu, and you will see the options for drawing and saving the Instagram story to your device.
Instagram stickers allow you to make your Stories more catchy. You can add animated images, or add multiple photos to one Instagram story. There are also stickers that are useful or engaging, let's look at them.
Link to a place or user from the story you post on Instagram. You can tag a location or a user. This stickers will be clickable links a viewer can tap. They will get a location page or user's profile on Instagram.
Add the questions, poll, quiz stickers if you want to post an interactive Story on Instagram. They will increase the engagement in your profile. Besides, you will know people's opinion on something.
You can also add the temperature and time stickers if, for some reason, you think users on Instagram should know them. They are automatically set according to the location where you post your Instagram story.
A music sticker allows you to add a song to your Instagram story. It will be more vibrant and catchy with the sticker. If you are a musician, this is also a way to present your new track.
There are stickers that have become increasingly relevant to the times. So you may want to post a story with them. They are for the food delivery, supporting small businesses, and a call to get vaccinated.
You can also see Instagram Story GIFs among the stickers. There is a great library of them in the app. So you can find a relevant GIF to any photo or video to spice them up.
When you are sure the story is what you want it to be, you are good to add it to your Instagram profile. Follow the instructions to share your story with users:
- Tap the arrow.
- Choose Your Story.
- Tap Share.
- Tap Done.
As you know, Instagram Stories disappear in 24 hours since they were posted. After this time users can't see them neither in their feed, nor on your profile page. Though, you still can find the Stories in Instagram Archive in your account.
When you post a masterpiece with all the stickers and filters, you may want to save it for longer. Well, you can do this. You can save your Stories to Highlights. They will remain there as long as you want it.
You can save only your Instagram stories to your Highlights. First, you need to open the picture or video you want to save. Then, follow the steps:
- Tap Highlights.
- Tap one of the collections.
Isn't it great that you can repost your content to your profiles on other social media platforms? Thus, if you want to share something with all your followers around the Internet, you don't have to create a different post for another platform.
If you want to share your Instagram photo or video, you should follow the steps:
- Tap the three dots.
- Choose Share to.
Then you need to choose a social app. Note, in some apps, you can only or you can also share your content in messages.
All these tools are good for making Stories. But they will also help you to create cool posts.
- Story art (Android). It has free templates (including animations), which are categorized to cinema, fashion, plants, food and other topics. You can upload your files or use template pictures from the app.
- VSCO (Android, iOS). It provides good features for thorough editing. Adjust the exposition, prospect, contrast, white balance filter, dark and light spots to post a perfect picture on Instagram then. This tool is quite a Photoshop in your smartphone.
- Storybeat (Android, iOS). Use it when you need to add music to an Instagram video. You find tracks on Spotify and share them in Stories. There are additional paid tools: audio record over original files, Stop Motion.
- Slo mo video (iOS). There are a lot of tools on Instagram, but changing the speed of a video is not one of them. Use the app whenever you need to change the speed.
- InShot (Android, iOS). The app is mostly paid. But there are also useful free features: you can quickly make a collage, apply a filter, and cut a photo.
Now you know how to post a Story. But remember, it is just a part of Instagram content, and thus, it is just a part of Instagram marketing strategy. To get the highest results, you need a complex approach: a good plan, community-management, bloggers’ promotion and targeted ads.