Hello my Digi backpackers! Today I’d like to talk to you about Instagram stories: a precious tool for content creators. I’ll be talking about Instagram as it’s here that digital nomads can find their major audience, as a matter of fact Snapchat has a very young audience (12-24) and Facebook stories don’t give you as much options to edit and improve stories as IG does.
The history of stories
Instagram followed the lead of Snapchat in 2016, Facebook and WhatsApp then copied the same format of disappearing content, too, but Instagram stories remain the most successful temporary content. Instagram Stories are photos and videos with an expiration date, as a matter of fact they last for twenty-four hours and are then automatically deleted. They were born for content to be shared real-time but you can actually re-share photos and videos that you took hours, days or even years before (and then you can leave the original date, which is automatically “glued” to your content or delete it). Instagram stories have evolved over the years and at the moment the options to make them better and more engaging are many. You can also take out their main characteristic by being able to highlight your best ones in order to keep them in your account all the time.
Put a sticker on it
Useful options for creators are stickers and GIFs, that is, animated images. Instagram’s GIFs are visually appealing and fun, what is very handy is that the suggested ones are usually up-to-date and coincide with various periods of the year (Easter, Christmas, seasons) and occasions, so that they never get boring, as there is plenty of choice.
Show yourself, write, tag, interact
The most successful stories are those where creators explain and educate their followers, adding value to their lives. What is not recommended is to just share a photo or a video without editing it at all. The tools are many: you can add music, tag people, insert hashtags and countdowns, add GIFs, write or draw… Use stories in an interactive way, otherwise your precious niche won’t find you. Moreover, show yourself: at first maybe you’ll be shy, but people like to see the behind the scenes of your photos and of your job, what may be boring for you is interesting for them and they like to see the face behind a profile.
Ask your followers’ opinion
Being able to insert polls, quizzes or questions is a big help for digital creators: participating is more fun than just looking. In the last year Instagram created tools that let profiles interact with their followers: people like to give their opinion, ask questions or give advice. In the case of the “Questions” tool, you can re-post the answers or advice that you receive for all the other followers to see. People will be more likely to participate if they know they have the chance of being shared by their favourite digital nomad.
Filters
Through Instagram filters (
Go back to your childhood - create a collage!
Collages are a very appealing and aesthetically pleasant format
Turn the music on!
The “music” option is a very fun tool, as the choice of songs is extremely broad: you have suggestions (the most up-to-date hits) or you can type in and search for what you’re looking for. You can then drag the hit and decide which part of a given song you want to link to your photo or fifteen seconds video. You can leave a little box with the name of the song and the artist or even show the lyrics (only for some songs) that follow simultaneously the word
That was all from me for today, my Digi backpackers, I hope my tips have been helpful. Tell me in the comments: do you like doing stories? If yes, what do you like the most? If not, what would you add to help you engage your audience?
Till the next blog post,
Camilla
1 Comments
This is really helpful! I love gifs the most however need to use more of these options like hashtags and filters.
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