Instagram stories business are a great way to communicate to your customers and share with them glimpse of your world. But coming up with those Instagram story ideas for your business is harder than you thought, right?
Do not worry, here I am with more than 50 Instagram story ideas for your business, and now you can keep your customers hooked and even convert them into warm leads easily.
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Why Instagram stories are important than ever?
I know everyone is talking about Instagram stories, reels and live again and again. But have you ever given a thought on why are they so critical?
Keeps your account active
Instagram stories puts your account on top and there is more chance that your followers see your stories than you feed.
As the stories are arranged chronologically, the more often you post, the higher the chances of your story to be viewed by others.
Helps competing with bigger brands
While the Instagram stories are shown chronologically, the feed is not. And unless you have a very strong following, your post on your feed can get lost.
And as a creative entrepreneur and a small business, it can be harder for you to compete with the big brands.
They are more natural and authentic
We all know the amount of effort and planning that goes into creating your Instagram feed to look the way it is. And your audience will love you for that.
But Instagram stories are little more spontaneous and thus, real. Given that they last for just 24 hours, you can afford to be little “on the go” and be creative about your posts.
Better engagement with your followers
Instagram stories are often the gateway to beginning conversations with your followers and warm leads.
By asking them to answer a poll or your questions, they are giving you a space to speak to them via DM (Direct Messages). Utilize this power responsibly to cultivate relationships with them.
Instagram story ideas for business
Now that you know how critical Instagram stories are for your business, let me show you some story ideas that you can adapt as your own.
Show your wins, even if they are small.
Show what you are working on for the day
Show your working process – Behind the screen
Show your workspace
Show off your packaging style
Get your customers to post the unboxing of your products
Capture the before and after of your work in progress
Share educational guides and tutorials relevant to your prodcuts
Share the screenshots of testimonials and reviews received
Help your customers know your products better
Teach your customers how to use your products
Share DIY tips related to your products
Answer relevant FAQs
Offer a behind-the-scenes look at your unpacked products
Teasers for your new product/service launch
Count down for a new product launch
Collaborate with related accounts for a takeover
Share your failures and lessons learned
Share productivity tips
Talk about role models whom your audience could relate to
Run a trivia contest
Ask questions about your products and offer a discount to the winner
Play games with your followers
Run quizzes with AR effects
Create This or that templates and ask them to tag you with answers
Share seasonal updates, if relevant to your products
Reward your loyal customers with “followers only” deals
Run a customer spotlight
Share experience of a customer (only with their consent)
Ask your followers what they want to see on your story
Run an “ask me anything” question
Share user generated content
Show us your morning routine
Show us how you plan your day
Introduce your team
Ask your employee’s to takeover your story for a day
Take a tour of your office
Create your own hashtag and challenges
Create a regular series on Instagram stories (#sundayfunday #Mondayplans #tuesdaytips etc)
Preview an upcoming post or video
Share your latest post from your feed
Share your posts from your other platforms (blog, Tiktok, Twitter etc)
Share latest posts from accounts you love
Recommend a service or a product you loved
Post about your giveaway/contest
Share Shout-outs or press features
Share your favorite quote
Repurpose and update your old content from your feed post into a new story
Go live on Instagram live and share about your day
Share your daily update with a location
Show off skills (cooking, art etc)
Follow a meme/trend
Share inspirational content
Share what inspires you to create
Share valuable and relevant DMs
Share your top 5 lists of ….
Share your favorite tool or tip that you recently learnt
Show your night time routine.
Do’s and don’ts for Instagram stories for business
But before I conclude, I just want to share a few do’s and don’ts when it comes to Instagram stories for your business.
Don’t Just Promote Things
Use your story feature to create relationships, rather just using them to promote your product.
Show Your Personality
Make your stories fun and creative. Pepper in a bit of your personality, rather than copying others idea.
Use hashtags
Did you know that you can use hashtags on your stories as well?
Make use of highlights
Don’t forget to add important and relevant stories to your highlights as well. A highlight can act as a menu for your Instagram.
Don’t post too often
Last but not the least, avoid posting many stories at a time. Your followers might get bored/annoyed and ignore your posts.
Bottom-line
There you have it, an extensive list of story ideas that would keep your Instagram account active and kicking. So what are you waiting for? Start posting on your Instagram stories right today. Feel free to tag me elgeewrites, for an extra bump for your business.
With the New Year just around the corner, it is time to pull out your planners for tracking your TBRs and reading challenges for 2021. Here are some bullet journals spread ideas for book lovers to organize your reading schedule.
Bullet Journal ideas for books and reading
I love lists and planners. But as someone with minimal artistic talent, I totally suck at bullet journaling (or BuJo). Of course, that doesn’t stop me from drooling over these amazing bullet journal set ups over Instagram. How about you?
Reading list
I usually have a hard time choosing my next read, often. Having a reading list for the month or week, or even the year would be a great idea for your reading bullet journal set up. These are some of the ones that I loved for your inspiration.
How do you track what your reading habits? I do so on notion and excel but BuJo spreads are much more fun and interesting, especially if you are artistically inclined. Here are some bullet journal set ups to help you track what you read during the month.
Do you use BuJo for tracking your reading? If not, how do you keep up with your reading challenges? Which is your favorite bullet journal idea? Let us chat.
Like many other trends, I joined Instagram for books and reading a bit later than everyone else. I genuinely thought it was another platform that bookworms, among other people, use to procrastinate while the books in their TBR shelves collected dusts. (Am I wrong or am I wrong?)
I joined the bandwagon with much innate skepticism, thanks to the peer pressure and the allure of getting more free books to review from the publishers. Let us face it, we bookworms are all greedy for free books!
And boy, am I a convert! From someone who didn’t even have the Instagram app on her phone, I have become a person I hardly recognize – especially when I took 25 minutes to buy a coffee mug, which is now visible on every alternate photo I post on Instagram. It just not that.
Bookstagram has changed so many things for me including my reading habits. Oh let me tell you how!
Positive Changes –Instagram for books
Finding book clubs and more discussions
Thanks to Bookstagram, I met some amazing people online and one thing lead to another. And BAM! I am now a member of four book clubs in Instagram that are actually active.
Credit: GIPHY
We have book of the month, and most of us religiously read and DISCUSS them, which is what I was craving for like any book worm would.
Keeping up with the challenges
I have always been meaningto read more classics and revisit the novels of the queen of mystery Dame Agatha Christie. And while on Instagram I found the book clubs that have members who want to do that as well, and that has helped me keep up my resolution.
I have read seven Agatha Christie books and six classics since joining the group in 2019, which is quite a feat for me. But all thanks to reading Instagram and the book clubs that keep me on my toes.
Understanding the importance of representation
I cannot stress enough how much I depend on social networks on keeping me updated with the current state of affairs and issues. As someone who is living out here in the deserts of Dubai, I need all the help I can get.
Via Giphy
Bookstagram and Twitter are the sole reasons that I have been finding out diverse representation in books. Without them I would not have known what to look for and mainly why they matter. I am still learning y’all!
Reading more regularly and rigorously
I am generally a mood reader which means I either read ten books a month or read nothing for the next two months. And choosing which book to read next usually took a lot of time in general. It still does. But joining bookstagram helped me keeping track of what I read and updating my reading progress regularly has made me more accountable.
Having to talk about books on a schedule has made me read more rigorously and regularly. I think the pressure(?) that the bookstagram schedules has been putting on me and it works well on me.
Falling for the book covers
I think I was one of those rare bookworms that never gave a second thought about the book covers. Especially since I have a weird habit of not reading the synopsis (or blurb) before reading the book, I didn’t really take much time to appreciate the beautiful cover of the book.
Then bookstagram happened. Now the first thing I see about a book is the cover. I appreciate the designs, fonts and colors of the cover lot more and I am enjoy doing that.
Reading more Young Adult books
Bookstagram plays a huge role in the books I read and since the young adult books are the most popular ones I have been picking a lot of them recently.
It is a good thing because I don’t usually reach out for them and they are a great alternative to the classics and mystery novels that I read for the book clubs. Also because YA is where most representations and current issues are being addressed currently.
Negative Changes –Instagram for books
Looking out for popular book
Let’s face it. At the end of the day it is the numbers that matter, even in Bookstagram. And it may not come as surprise that posting about popular books is inevitable to gain popularity and engagement.
So I have been reading so many popular books of late, many that I wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for Bookstagram. Not that I haven’t enjoyed them nor all of them were bad, but I am sure I could have spent the time better, knocking off some book of my TBR list.
I hope sincerely that more Bookstagrammers started posting about books from Own voices, POC authors and independent publishers as well, which is becoming rare due to all the number games.
The feeling of being left out
Continuing the above theme, I have come to realize that ‘doing our own thing’ is more difficult with Instagram than book blogging.
Credit: GIPHY
I generally do not read much of fantasy and SciFi genres and they constitute almost half the new releases these days. So it is kinda inevitable but to feel left out seeing all these beautiful books that I might never read.
It is really a short ride from the fear of missing out to feeling guilty about the reading choices.
Giving in to the schedule pressure
I am trying so hard not to do this and I hope the day never comes, that my Instagram feed will consist of so many books that I never have read before.
The pressure of having a schedule and the need to talk about new books shouldn’t end up in just adding a picture and not forget the existence of the book.
Yes I know I have a lot of them currently on my shelf but I hope Bookstagram doesn’t add more to that bunch.
Giving up lesser known books
We book bloggers want it all. We want to read so many books in so little time. The cost of reading the most popular books comes at missing out the other great ones.
I sometimes miss giving in to the mood and picking a random book off the shelf. And the pleasure of buying never heard of books based on the quirky title off a second hand books shop.
Pin me!
Let’s Chat
Are you on Instagram for books and reading and more importantly, are you following me? And has it affected your reading habits at all, or is it just me? I would love to hear from you, in the comment section. Let us talk.
