My Instagram Stories
I received over 25k views on my Instagram stories over @therealkwaichi in the first 24 hours of use. It's been pretty consistent since so here are my top 10 tips to drive views to your stories:
Post Often
The little halo around your profile image will stick around for your viewers as long as you are posting at least every 24 hours. Posting throughout the day will mean that you are constantly on your follower's radar.
Show Off Your Personality
Most top IG pages are pretty focused on one topic leaving a very skewed view of the person or team behind the content. I've seen so many behind the scenes stuff on Snapchat to bore me to death so I avoided that for my own Stories feed. Many of my followers who are used to seeing food images were surprised to see another side to my life without exploring further on other platforms. The image above was an image of my son's new pool shoes which he wanted to try on as they looked like mine. That image would never have made my public account.
Talk to People
Comments on your Stories are sent as private messages rather than public comments. What a great way to interact on a 1 to 1 basis with your fans! That level of engagement only helps to cement loyalty to your content.
Post Relevant Content (Sometimes)
A caveat to posting random stuff around my life is that it is good to still post stuff that's very relevant to your normal public content. In my case food is the focus and so I've taken several food snaps and video clips including munching into several burgers and a few different shot angles of food that ends up on my public feed.
Post Images & Videos
One thing I found looking at my stats was that people were skipping my videos but viewing every single image over the 24 hours. I'm speculating here but I guess that these viewers are viewing on poor connections but want to see my Stories still. As a result, I've tried accompanying complimentary images with video content.
Write captions
As Stories are full screen only, there is nowhere to post a description. Writing freehand or typing in thoughts on your images is therefore the best option if you have an image with some spare space. As the writing is white in colour, I paint a little colour over the text which automatically appears under the text as text is always the top layer visible (does that sentence even make sense?).
Analyse your stats
Swipe up on one of your Stories and it will reveal your view count for every piece of content that is currently viewable. See what people react most to to give you steer on future content ideas. That only works if you have a bit of variety in the first place of course! Make a note of the time you post stuff on Stories as it doesn't tell you. You may find a pattern of higher views for certain periods of the day. Also remember the video vs image note above.
Don't Post Crap
Crap is in the eye of the beholder. Many of my peers would find most YouTube Star content crap. Low production values not not equal crap. Crap in this sense is what your viewers don't want to see. Behind the scenes content is usually (not always) crap. Taking a video of a wall doing nothing is crap. Video selfies are crap (unless you are doing something).
Be Positive
I've followed the careers of thousands of YouTubers over the years. One thing the top personalities have in common is a theme of positiveness. The emo peeps have their fair share of audience to start with but they don't hold that audience for long. Think happy when you shoot especially if it's video content.
Tell People You Are On Instagram Stories!
This is not Fight Club. Do tell people you have a feed to watch on your other platforms. If your followers have a habit of following a ton of Instagrammers who are all making Stories then your content may not appear on their mini Stories feed. You can use your existing Instagram images to direct users and your tweets and wherever else you feel comfortable. If you have a second or 3rd account on Instagram, then create regular Stories on those too, even if it is just to let users know that you have a Stories feed on your main account.
Side Notes (Bonus Tips)
- On Stories itself, don't ask people to follow you on Instagram as they already are!
- If you don't have many followers on Instagram then you won't get viewed much. It's cool though as it offers a deeper level of engagement.
- There are no lenses on Instagram. It is not Snapchat.
- You cannot promote your Stories feed with paid media.
- You cannot view Stories on a desktop.
- You cannot create Stories on a desktop.
- You cannot take a picture on your DSLR and then upload to Stories.
- It's helpful to use decent add on equipment for higher production values including an iPhone mic and an add on light.
- And no I don't Snapchat. I started using Stories on Instagram as I already had a decent follower count.
Please do comment below. This post was not edited in any way so please let me know if I should revise anything.