How to Increase Engagement on Instagram Stories

Are you struggling to increase engagement on Instagram Stories? Trying to find new ways to get more activity on your Instagram Stories? Well, you’re in luck just below we will cover all that and more! Read on to discover all the juicy details.

Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking platform that is owned by Facebook. Instagram is arguably one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, with approximately 1 billion users worldwide.

Arguably, Instagram is a marketer’s or influencer’s best friend because it offers the perfect space and platform for you to increase brand awareness. Unlike traditional advertising, this allows brands to reach their target audience in a way that feels far more genuine. Instagram enables you to build relationships with the audience.

In the rise of social media platforms, Instagram has taken the world by storm, and it’s no secret that it holds much potential to promote yourself or your company. We are going to explore some of the pros and cons of utilizing Instagram for promotional purposes.

Table of Contents

Content Table:

Pros of Instagram Stories
Cons of Instagram Stories
7 Ways to Increase Engagement on Instagram Stories

Pros: Why Are Instagram Stories Very Important for Increasing Engagement and Followers?

1. Makes it Easier to Grow an Account

If you know what you’re doing, it’s surprisingly easy to grow an Instagram account using Stories. Having great content and conversation can go a long way in helping you increase your following and engagement.

2. Great for Showcasing Products

Visual graphics go a long way in showing your target audience the exact value your services and products have to offer. This means that you can go further in promoting your work with Instagram Stories than with just a couple of tight paragraphs of content.

3. Perfect for Instagram SEO

Your content is always easy to find if you put in the right hashtags in your Instagram Stories. With the right hashtags, it’s possible to reach thousands of people and grow your following and engagement.

4. Strengthen the Relationship with Your Audience

If you’re looking for a way to connect with your audience, utilizing Instagram stories can be a perfect way. By utilizing Instagram Widgets like polls, quizzes, etc. you can increase the engagement on Instagram Stories by making them interactive. Ask your audience questions about them to get insight into what they like about your account, make polls to see which feed theme they like most and so much more.

Cons of Using Instagram For Promotion & Advertising

The only major issue with Instagram is its vulnerability to cyber-attacks. Despite its merits, there are also security concerns. There’s been a recent vulnerability that opens up the platform to potentially serious user data leaks. This vulnerability can allow an attacker to bypass the platform’s security and access phone and account numbers linked to usernames and real names. Hackers can also reset account passwords and quickly take over accounts.

Instagram hasn’t done much to fix these issues, and as a result, big companies are getting hacked nowadays. The hackers usually hold the accounts for ransom and threaten to delete the accounts if you do not pay the asked ransom. They can also leak private company information, which endangers the business.

Experts at Check Point Research discovered a vulnerability in Instagram’s code. This vulnerability not only allows hackers full access to an Instagram account, but it also allows them access to mobile devices.

The security issue, named CVE-2020-1895, is described as an integer overflow that controls a JPEG file’s dimensions. It ties in with a JPEG encoder library called MozJPEG, which is amalgamated into Instagram to compress images.

With this vulnerability, hackers can get access to control your phone, enabling them to send commands to your mobile device. They then access hardware and software components at will. They can thereby access the most private areas of your phone.

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7 Ways to Increase Engagement on Instagram Stories

After the launch of Instagram Stories in 2016, it has become more than just a popular sharing feature. It is now a tool that can is getting utilized to engage with your followers and target audience.

These are some of the effective strategies you can use to increase viewer engagement on Instagram Stories.

1. Use Hashtags

One of the easiest ways to increase your reach and engagement on Instagram Stories is by using Instagram hashtags. They allow new audiences to discover your content and start following your page.

If a hashtag you use is popular enough, users can search for it and view stories on a curated hashtag page to discover your content. This is why it’s essential to use words and phrases you think might be popular with your target audience.

2. Find Peak Engagement Times

Knowing your audience is vital in increasing engagement. This means that you should always do a deep dive into your analytics. This will tell you if your followers are engaging with you or not. Once you’ve nailed this down, you can go ahead and plan your stories around the peak engagement periods. This will go a long way to captivate your audience’s attention.

Conveniently, every Instagram business account is equipped with an Insights tab. Instagram tabs allow access to Instagram’s native analytics. The Instagram tab’s metrics can include demographic factors, popular posts, peak activity times, and more. This is an invaluable tool for increasing engagement.

3. Utilize the “Swipe Up” Feature

This feature is quite popular with business account holders. It’s limited to accounts that have 10,000 followers or more. If you haven’t hit that mark yet, it’s an excellent goal to aim for. Why so, you may ask?

The Swipe Up feature encourages your followers to engage with a particular landing page on your website. For business-savvy individuals, it also inspires their followers to purchase a product. Followers have to swipe up from your story, and they go to a new page without experiencing any disruption to their regular social activity.

4. Respond to Direct Messages

Just think about it. If you want people to engage with you, it only makes sense that you should engage with them in return. One of the best ways to foster engagement on your Instagram Stories is by replying to your audiences’ DMs. It may not be possible to respond to everyone, but making an effort shows your followers that you are an authentic and genuine brand.

5. Tell a Story

It’s right there in the name! An engaging Instagram Story must firstly tell a story. It may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at the difference that a cohesive narrative can make on your audience’s attention.

Throwing many random photos on your story will only confuse the viewers, making them feel disconnected. They are then just likely to click through as fast as possible to get to the next account.

The smallest amount of content can let your audience in on your story. This will inform followers of your purpose, and it will, in turn, help them understand your brand. The ultimate effect is an increase in engagement.

6. Use Mentions

If your Instagram Stories feature another person or brand, mention them. The Mention feature allows others to add content they tagged by others into their story. This will not only help increase your engagement, but it will also expand your reach. This is because it allows the users that follow the person or brand you’ve tagged to see your content as well.

7. Use Stickers

Stickers are a great way to make your Instagram Stories interactive and engaging. In particular, there are two types of stickers that can help you boost your brand’s awareness:

Question Stickers – These prompt your audience to ask you questions in your stories. When you repost the submitted query, they get a notification that their question has been answered. This will improve engagement.
Poll Stickers – These allow you to gain insight into your audiences’ preferences and enable you to help them make your business choices or even provide general feedback. This will increase engagement.

All in all, Instagram Stories is an excellent tool to help you increase engagement and following. So try out the tips in this article and see how well it works for you.

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Author Bio:

David Lukić is an information privacy, security, and compliance consultant at IDstrong.com. The passion to make cybersecurity accessible and interesting has led David to share all the knowledge he has.