Dec 15, 2019
In the beginning, brands weren’t sure about how Instagram Stories could help in promoting their campaigns. However, those days are long gone and today Stories are a major help for any Instagram business and perhaps every brand has found a way or several to exploit the feature to their benefit. If you feel enthusiastic about all this, InstaBF, your faithful guide in the world of Instagram and IGTV, will gift you with top tips concerning how to plan an Insta Stories campaign. Let’s get to work right now!
An Instagram Stories Campaign: What Is It?
Just like an ordinary Instagram marketing campaign, a Stories campaign aims at achieving a certain marketing objective by means of posting Instagram Stories. That objective can be as broad as building brand awareness, or as specific as generating sales for the new product release. Regardless of it, the key to running it successfully is creating top-quality and interactive content that inspires viewers to comment and share.
How to Plan a Stories Campaign
So, now when you fully acquire the importance of a Stories campaign, let’s see how you can plan it efficiently step by step:
Pick the Goal
The first step of your Stories marketing campaign should be defining the goals since the latter determines what type of campaign you need to run and what metrics will be required to track it. So, spend enough time picturing what you are going to achieve when it comes to an end. After this, think about KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Whatever your goal is, it must be tied to numbers. For instance, if you aim at promoting a new product, think about how many units you want to sell. Actually, the more your Stories campaign is tied back to measurable results, the more palpable they will be.
Additionally, don’t forget about the metrics. How many likes, comments, shares, and views you gather still matters a lot.
Aim at the Target Audience
Once you have your goals set, it comes to determining the target audience. Depending on the purpose of your campaign pursues, your audience can include only the narrow subset of your current followers or it can be a broad one with Insta users who are not your followers, yet. To get on track easily, base on the following points:
- What type of content your ideal audience should engage with;
- Whether they prefer photo or video-based stories;
- What stickers they give preference the most;
- In what communities they take part;
- What hashtags they mostly follow.
Only after completely nailing down your Instagram Stories campaign goals and target audience, you can courageously pass to scheming the rest of the campaign.
Set the Timeline
The goals your Stories campaign has, influences its timeline, too. For instance, if the campaign is tied to a real-life event (an in-store sale, a master-class, etc.), the timeline of the Story completely depends on the event and usually stretches to a week at most. If the campaign is tied to a larger event (a Pride Month, for instance), you can set a longer timeline. Just be cautious not to let it go for too long or you run a risk of losing the steam.
Here are the parts to be based when setting the timeline:
- Pre-campaign hype (teasing it before the launch);
- The launch day (the day you post the main campaign content);
- Post-campaign follow up (continuing the conversations once the initial excitement has fallen by UGC, customer reviews, and so forth).
Nov 12, 2019
Have you noticed a decrease in Instagram Story views recently? Well, perhaps the vast majority of Instagrammers experience the same thing and it’s not for no reason. Actually, you may even benefit from that. How? Let’s find out this together here, on InstaBF’s blog. Besides finding out the reasons for such a “behavior” of Instagram, we shall also share with you several most working ways of increasing your Instagram Story views organically.
What’s Behind the Decrease in Instagram Story Views
The influx of fake views on Stories was detected earlier this year. People, eager to increase their exposure on the social network and the growth of following apply to bot services. In order to crack down on such bots, Instagram is careful about every story view. At first sight, you may think this ruins your plans for developing your Instagram account, yet, in fact, it helps you detect who your genuine story viewers are. Fake bot views do not contribute to an account’s value. Moreover, fake engagement affects negatively on Instagram algorithm ranking.
So, instead of using quick and easy means of boosting your Instagram stories, you’d better not get disheartened but tap into a genuine audience. Here are several useful tips to adhere to:
Adding Relevant Hashtags
One of the most working ways of increasing reach organically on Instagram is adding hashtags to stories. It’s possible to add up to ten hashtags on every Instagram Story one of which can be clickable. Just make certain they are relevant to your target audience. Before you add a hashtag to your Instagram story, think about the subject matter of the story, what your followers expect to see. It’s better not to use super-popular hashtags (those that have over 1million posts) as with so many posts under one hashtag, yours is likely to get buried. Accordingly, pay attention to those hashtags that get from 10k and 50k posts.
Not to spoil the aesthetics of your Stories, you can make the font of the tags smaller (not too much or it will become illegible) or hide under a sticker or a GIF.
Using Engagement-Driving Stickers
Most probably you know that the more engagement your post attracts – the sooner Instagram algorithm notices them. A working way of encouraging audience engagement is using Instagram Stories stickers with question stickers, emoji sliders and the poll in particular. The latter is very easy and fun to use while the feedback you get on your products or content through polls is genuine and reliable.
Running an Influencer Takeover
If you are ready to get a step higher, invite an influencer for a takeover on your Gram Stories. This will be an effective way of boosting story views. The whole trick here lies in asking a partner (influencer, in this case) to share your story thus driving a new audience to it. Besides, this way you can bring a reliable external voice to your Instagram brand channel. It will be especially effective if you post a how-to guide or a product review.
Nov 5, 2019
Scheduling Instagram posts is a great way of having a more organized feed. However, scheduling Instagram Stories is not less important. It’s a sure way of boosting one’s engagement and increasing the following. And if you are still hesitating whether to make use of this time-saving hack or not, InstaBF, a remarkable Instagram and IGTV provider, will showcase five ground reasons why you should consider scheduling Instagram Stories. Ready? Let’s get to work:
You Can Save Much Time
Obviously, the first reason you should schedule your Instagram Stories is saving time. This way you can spend more time on things that really matter such as engaging with your target audience or working on your next marketing campaign. Thanks to modern applications, you can prepare content for Stories for a whole week or so. Moreover, this way you will be able to track your links in one place and never waste time on a search for the right assets later.
You Will Create a Cohesive Look
With around 500 million active daily Story viewers, preserving your brand aesthetics becomes more than simply important. When you schedule Stories, you see how the whole content will flow together. If necessary, you can even rearrange the order. Be certain, clear aesthetics along with a good narrative flow can make your brand stand out and drive more sales. With so many design applications that are very straightforward to use creating sophisticated and quality Stories is no problem. Having aesthetically-pleasing and seamlessly flowing Instagram Stories look fantastic and attract people to become a part of such an exquisite journey.
You Can Strategically Plan CTAs
You should never approach Instagram Stories as something insignificant. These are a powerful marketing tool able to drive more traffic to your products and website. If you aren’t in haste when creating an Instagram Story, you can think over and identify all the opportunities to encourage more clicks. Some of the best ways to encourage your target audience to take action include text captions, shoppable product stickers, and CTAs. And when you strategically review your Story content in a visual planner, you see it clear whether all the important bases are covered. Remember to add enough CTAs to drive traffic, yet not too many CTAs to overwhelm people with links.
You Can Get More Engagement by Posting for Optimal Times
If you choose to schedule your Instagram Stories you have a chance to set a particular time to have the content posted. Knowing at which hours your target audience is more active, you can set the content to be posted at those particular hours. For the Instagram algorithm, the initial engagement is a great indicator. For Instagram, initial reactions to your Stories are a sign that the audience is interested in what you post.
To make your Stories even more engaging, you should add various interactive stickers.
You Will Post More Consistently
Knowing well that life is filled with diversions, it makes sense to schedule Stories to preserve a consistent posting strategy. According to the Instagram algorithm, consistency indicates you are a trustworthy content provider on Instagram and is sure to be great for your engagement levels. Accordingly, the more consistently you make Instagram Stories, the high your chances are to be discovered on your followers’ story feed.
Oct 9, 2019
As a responsible Instagram marketer (or an ordinary user), you must be knowing that the future of Instagram belongs to the Stories feature. The latter is an ideal tool for getting feedback from your target audience and become super popular on this social network. Do you wonder how you can get even more views on your Instagram Stories? Find the answer straight away on one of the most remarkable IG and IGTV provider InstaBF’s blog.
The Algorithm Instagram Uses on Stories
The same principle works on both Stories feed and regular feed. The algorithm evaluates the following points:
- What type of content you prefer (watch and like);
- How relevant the publications are;
- In what relationships you are with the author of this or that post (this includes how often you like and comment on his posts, visit his account, etc.).
Additionally, the more active a user is the more likely his Stories will appear on the front of his friends’ Stories list. So, how can you use all this in the benefit of your marketing campaign? Let’s find out the best ways of creating Instagram Stories that will bring you many views.
How to Increase Your Story Views
- Post exciting stuff – It’s better to have fewer Stories yet quality ones instead of filling the whole place with poor-quality content that will be quickly scrolled through.
- Make regular but not too frequent stories – When you post too many stories that fill the Stories line with dots (more than ten), it scares people. Generally, people aren’t expected to spend much time on your stories since this is a “consumed content” type of format. From 4 to 6 stories per day will be ideal.
- Add geolocations and hashtags to your stories – These are the pillars of fast promotion. Just make certain the tags are relevant. Not to waste time on searching new tags every day, make use of a hashtag generator.
- Use all the perks that Instagram offers – You must have noticed that everything new is quickly perceived on Instagram. Hence, post palls and chat stickers, sliders, and quests, etc.
- Save the most important stories in the highlights – This way people will still have a chance to review them and your views will go on growing.
- Go live on Instagram – Organizing live broadcasts you will easily remind your followers about yourself since your broadcasting immediately appears in the front of their whole Stories list. However, remember not to overdo with live videos as too frequent notifications may repel people and they’ll unfollow you.
- Watch other Instagrammers’ stories – Most probably you know that mutual interest is a powerful driving force on this social network. The way you approach people on Insta (likes, comments, views) will turn to you.
- Get a business account to analyze the efficiency of your stories – Keeping track of which topics and story formats bring you the most views will help you appear even more entertaining on this platform.
- Make your Instagram page “home” for your followers – Quality is much more significant than pure quantity. Having a hundred-thousandth audience only a thousand of which are active won’t be as efficient as having only three thousand ones following you half of which are active on your page. Agree that a return of 50% is much more beneficial than 1%!
Aug 29, 2019
Would you like to boost your Instagram engagement through your own AR Instagram Story filters? Luckily for you and the rest billion of Instagrammers, Spark AR Studio is no longer in closed beta! If one had to get accepted into the program to be able to create and publish custom augmented reality filters before, today it is available for anyone! Besides this, Instagram has recently introduced a new Effects Gallery that makes discovering Insta Story filers from the creator community easier. Want to learn more? Keep up with InstaBF, a popular Instagram and IGTV provider.
Spark AR Studio Already in Open Beta
Spark AR Studio belongs to Facebook. This platform was designed to create awesome effects for Instagram and Facebook Stories, the Messenger app, and much more. It was first launched over a year ago and quickly became a hit among Instagram artists and designers. Currently, anyone, irrespective of his technical background, can use this platform to create one-of-a-kind Story filters and boost their awareness on social media. For this, one just needs to download the program. The tool is very easy to navigate, while the designing depends on the user’s imagination. If a user has any questions, he may find answers in the huge bulk of documentation and guides that Facebook has provided. Here one can find out many useful tips on both creating and publishing AR effects.
Effects Gallery for Custom Augmented Reality Effects
As Facebook has announced, the Effects Gallery includes amazing AR effects by leading artists. They will make it easier for people to find out original effects and use them in their Stories. If before one had to follow a creator on Instagram to get access to his AR filters, today you can easily find a new effects tab above a creator’s feed once you visit their profile. You no longer need to follow an artist to make use of his filters. By tapping on an effect you will open your Stories camera with the filter already on to try it out. There’s also an option to save your preferred effect. Just tap the “save” icon in the lower right corner of the effect. After this, you will see it in your effects tray every time you open Instagram Stories camera.
There are thousands of custom AR effects within Effects Gallery that can be sorted by topic or category.
Additionally, there is also a feed of chosen effects from the platform’s creator community. Browsing here feels like browsing through ordinary posts on Insta’s explore page.
Instagram Stories has been a fantastic channel for users to express themselves, to show their authentic selves and connect with friends. With AR effects, all this becomes even more interactive, entertaining and artistic. And no matter if you want to bring a new layer of fun to your Insta Stories or you intend to create a bigger community with augmented reality effects, Spark AR Studio is what you should start with. Try it as the whole Instagram world has focused on it. Augmented reality promises to be a part of the success on Instagram in 2020.
