We’re no stranger to Instagram Stories, and we’d venture to guess that you might not be either. Even if you aren’t utilizing Stories in the way that you could, they’ve been around for almost 5 years now, and over 500 million people use them each day. (source) Their popularity is only increasing, regardless of the new takeover by Reels. Stories are, you could say, a classic!

They’re the perfect way to connect with your followers on a more personal level than just a static feed post, or really even an IGTV video. Stories are more real-time, with photos and videos posted having usually been taken right there on the spot. The plus of also being able to see your face and mannerisms and hear your voice gives your audience the opportunity to see the face behind the brand, which can be so essential for small businesses.

They hold a great power for business owners to build relationships and trust with their followers. But sometimes, they almost seem like a strange artform that some have perfected and some haven’t, so that’s why we want to share with you 8 ways to use Stories to boost engagement for your business!

No matter what type of giveaway you end up deciding to try first, the foundations of running a successful giveaway are generally the same. If you follow these eight basic steps, you’ll have a clear control over your giveaway and can potentially reach a lot of new people.

Instagram recently released their new feature, Instagram Reels, and it’s catching like wildfire due to the similarities with its rival, TikTok. The reason TikTok is such an amazing platform for businesses is all thanks to the possibilities you have of organically reaching a large audience, and now Instagram has adopted this capability.

Accounts have been able to grow by the thousands after landing on Instagram’s explore page and gaining views from hundreds of thousands of people (similar to what happens when a TikTok video lands on the For You page). If you tailor your content to catch the attention of the right people, the opportunity to grow on Instagram is higher now more than ever.

But for those people who aren’t experienced with TikTok and the culture that’s now been brought over to Instagram, it can be super difficult determining what kind of content to post, how it works, etc. So, with that, we want to give a breakdown of Instagram Reels, how to use it, and what kind of content to post so you can increase your organic reach!

The Instagram algorithm, A.K.A. this seemingly mythical being that’s confusing the heck out of tons of people. You may see it talked about a lot either by Instagram gurus or in Facebook groups, but one piece of information that seems to get left out is what it is and how it even works.

We’re all aware that a few years ago, Instagram stopped showing posts in users’ home feed by chronological order, so now it almost feels more like a popularity contest. (We miss those simpler times!)

Everyone is scrambling around searching for information on how to beat this beast, so we pulled together a list of our top tips for making Instagram’s algorithm your very best friend.

So, you’ve put your offer out to the world on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn even… what about Instagram?

Maybe you’ve already tried but you just aren’t seeing the results you’d like. A platform that just hit one billion monthly users, you’d expect to make some sales, right?

Well, you’re half-right.

The thing about Instagram is you have to know how to work it so that it, in turn, works for you. Instagram’s algorithms change every day, so while it can be difficult keeping up with all of the newest updates, there are still some tried-and-true steps you can take the next time you’re ready to put your offer on Instagram.

Using these selling methods paired with your newly optimized business account will allow you to k-i-l-l it so that you can finally start seeing the results you want.

We even have a little surprise for you at the end!

If you’re a product-based business it’s probably no surprise to you that you can make sales from Instagram. You probably do it all the time and it feels natural. However, to those of you that are service based (with a potentially high dollar price range), selling on Instagram seems like a long shot. Who would’ve thought that after less than one year of being very intentional about our Instagram game that we’d see actual, real life, high-dollar clients from it? Well it happened for us, and it can happen for you too. Luckily, it’s not rocket science.

We have taught thousands of creative entrepreneurs from all over the world. We teach what we know, what works for us, and the strategies that are totally doable for you and your small business. We teach not for you to get a flood of thousands of followers, but a flood of followers that are authentic and totally “your people”. We haven’t fallen into the “follower obsession” and we don’t want to make you fall into that negative space either. We only focus on finding truly targeted, amazing, and engaged followers who will become brand advocates, clients, and online friends.

By following the same steps that we use to grow our audience you will curate a tribe of dreamy clients and forever friends. This is why having a social media game plan is worth it. When you put your energy into growing the right tribe, it will pay off in referrals and sales. Period. We see it happen constantly for us so we know the engagement is ready for you right around the corner. 

Instagram Stories debuted and our biggest complaint is that we don’t know what to call them. InstaSnaps? Instants? Snaps? Insta Stories? #TheStruggleisReal.

Besides that, we’re in love. 

We’re not here to debate whether Instagram stole SnapChat’s idea or any of that jazz. We love them, we use them and we know they’re going to help with engagement. If you want to figure out how to make actual sales from them then you’re in the right place. P.S. from here on out we’ll be referring to them as Story or Stories. You can call them whatever you want.

Do you ever notice how you read one post online about a topic and next thing you know you’re being served up ads or related content out the wazoo? Yeah, the secret that our phones are listening to us 24/7 is out. Although this is fantastic for a personalized ad experience it certainly doesn’t help our already overwhelmed minds. When we sit down to read just one thing, all of a sudden we look up and we’ve zombie-style zonked out, staring at our phone for hours on end.

When this happens it makes us begin to hate our phones. It makes resentful of social media apps that may not be at fault in the first place. So what do we normally do when we feel this way? We shut down completely and never look back. Well, since our businesses rely on the buzz of social media, we can’t leave it for too long.