Tutorial
First there were Instagram stories, then Facebook and now LinkedIn. Maybe you jumped in at the start or are deciding to get involved now that 3 platforms will display your work. Whatever your “story”, you need to take advantage of “stories.”
The reason is once you get the hang of it, they are reasonably easy to create and get much better engagement than most posts. Let me explain. (For purposes of this article, we will be talking about Instagram stories but the instructions and tips apply to Facebook and LinkedIn too, for the most part.)
What makes stories different?
- They are short.
- You can add on to stories after you post them if you like.
- The best ones look more spontaneous. They “appear” to be showing what is happening right now and invite you are part of it. (This is where you get better engagement.)
- There are no captions. Few words are needed on the image. This can be a real time saver.
- They are vertical, not horizontal or square.
You need a story system
Like a lot of endeavors, you need a proven method. With this, it becomes reasonably easy to use this form of posting. Be sure your method accounts for the following:
Topics
Like anything on social media, it will help to have a system you follow for stories.
If you have your 3-2-1 plan created in the app, this is where we can start.
Let’s look at your messages 1 and 3.
Message 1: Stories are an ideal place to keep going with your product messages. But beware. If posts were a soft sell, stories are an even softer sell.
Message 2: Stories center on this message only occasionally, so focus on messages 1 and 3.
Message 3: Stories are an ideal place to show the personal side of your business and/or you.
Images
This obviously is the heart of a story. Essentially your image needs to speak for itself, with the help of a few stickers or words. For ease, start to create a story with a photo or two.
System Recommendations
Recommendation 1. Start with Canva
If you’ve been doing graphic posts, you already have your Canva account. Use it to get a much easier start with stories. Ask for a Instagram story template, and get started. You can lock everything down before you get to the platform, making it much less stressful. Canva will also take care of the sizing problems for you. The template they give you is already the right size.
Recommendation 2: Create stories in the Instagram app later
Then move to using Instagram’s on platform tools on the fly for the truly authentic story. There are a plethora of them: between adding stickers, text boxes, fonts and colors, the story novice can do quite well. Move on to these when you are more experienced.
Recommendation 3: Use Canva story templates
Create a few custom templates in Canva and change them out regularly. Not only does this save time for you, your audience will have an easier time spotting this in your feed as they scroll by.
Recommendation 4: Stay on brand
This reinforces the previous recommendation. If you continuously use your brand colors, fonts, etc., you will be easier to spot in the feed.
Recommendation 5: Repurpose
Don’t forget, posts can lead to stories and stories can lead to posts. They are great at reinforcing your events, product launches, etc. Use this to communicate and to help you meet your weekly posting/story goals.
Recommendation 6: Set a goal
Depending on how well stories do for your business, it may be once a week or once a month.
Recommendation 7: Use a variety of formats.
When starting with stories, it is helpful to go with a tried and true format.
Try searching for story templates on Canva similar to the one listed below by putting these keywords in the search box. Through editing of font, color, words, etc., make them your own:
- Event
- Sneak peek
- Take a poll
- Friday
- Behind the Scenes
- This or That
- Q and A
- Countdown
- Feedback
- Ask me anything
- Before and After photos
- Product launch
- Shout out to a vendor
- You at a conference
- Day in the life
- Promo code
Put these ideas and recommendations together, and you will have a story presence on social media in no time. It’s a great opportunity to boost your results. It will be interesting but also help you sell your products and services.
Let us see one of your stories in the private Facebook group, the Small Biz Builders.