Instagram is a hugely popular social media platform, especially among millennials. The introduction of its Stories feature, 15-second clips that remain viewable for 24 hours, brought Instagram engagement to an even higher level. With 250 million active daily users of Stories and an average of 28 minutes extra being spent on the platform, it’s clear that the function has captured the attention of the Instagram audience.

To turn this high level of engagement into an effective business booster for your career, Headway Capital created this infographic to show you exactly how to make the most of Instagram Stories. It guides you through every step of the Instagram Story process such as:

1. Posting Your Story

Tap the camera icon, then tap or hold the circle to take a photo or video for your story or slide it up to add previous shots from your gallery. Add stickers through the icons at the top right or filters by swiping right or left.

2. Maximizing Your Stories Potential

While Instagram Stories may seem carefree and spur of the moment to your audience, careful planning can go a long way. Like shooting clips or photos throughout the day with an eye on a narrative, or picking the right time to post for most coverage, with statistics suggesting Mondays and Thursdays between 7 and 9 PM.

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3. Making Full Use of Its Features

There are a lot of small extras that can make a big difference to your Story’s success. Use features such as geotagging your story to reach a more specific audience or adding a link to encourage viewers to click-through to your content.

4. Using Polls with Your Stories

Polls are an innovative way of increasing engagement with your audience. With Polls you can add a simple question to your story allowing viewers to respond easily, the question can be anything from something fun like what kind of pizza to order or more considered such as what color to brand your new website with.

Instagram Stories have a massive reach and great engagement statistics from viewers. If you’re searching for a way to get closer to your audience by upping your social media game, then this guide is a great place to start.

A Small Business Guide to Instagram Stories