Everything you need to know about Instagram stories! Complete guide to successful Instagram stories

There are currently more than 500 million people creating and watching Instagram Stories on their mobile devices every day. And one in three said they're more interested in brands and products after seeing stories about those brands featuring those products.

In short, IG Stories boost your reach and engagement and, in some cases, influence purchasing behavior.

Instagram Stories help users connect and engage with their target audience in authentic ways to build relationships that increase customer loyalty.

In fact, the Instagram Story feature was built to help brands share quick photos and videos with their followers to showcase what makes them unique.

What's more, Instagram Stories give your audience a little peek behind the scenes - and followers love it.

What's an Instagram Story?

An Instagram Story is a feature built into the app that allows users to publish photos or videos that automatically disappear within 24 hours. They appear in a vertical format and are quick, memorable and fun by design.

When you publish a Story, a colored ring appears around your profile photo, indicating to your followers that they can tap on your profile photo to see what you've just posted.

Your profile photo surrounded by a colored ring is also added to the top row of your followers'home screen, making it the first thing they see.

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IG stories are an ideal way for brands to experiment with different types of content because unlike your permanent feed, stories disappear within 24 hours.

Small business owners use their stories to publish everything, from unedited videos of their daily lives to photos of their new products, as well as short clips where they answer users' questions.

Brands also use their Stories to show their appreciation for their customers by re-sharing their followers' stories and posts in their own stories.

How to use stories:

Now discover how to use Instagram stories in more depth.

How to view a story

To view a profile's Instagram story, simply click on its profile photo.

You can click on this profile photo from the story banner at the top of your News Feed, or by going to the Insta profile of the person whose photos and videos you want to see in story.

Once you do, the account's story will open and you'll be able to interact with its content.

How to create Instagram stories?

To create your first story, nothing could be simpler.

Here are the steps to follow to make an Instagram story:

1. Open the Instagram app
2. On your News Feed, click on your profile photo at the very top left of the screen or swipe from left to right to get to the story area.
3. You can then take your photo or video by pressing the center button. Or import it from your photo gallery with the square thumbnail at bottom left.
4. Add any filters, text and stickers you like.
5. Then click the "Your story" button to share your content on your Insta story.

What format for an Instagram story?

The ideal format for a story is vertical at 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels. A ratio of 9:16.

So make sure you share content in this format to get the best results and best engage your community.

If you share video content in landscape format, it will display 2 black bands at the top and bottom of the screen. Your story will get fewer reactions from your followers.

Discover everything you need to know about Instagram stories formats here.

Use stickers for your stories

Stickers on Instagram stories allow you to engage your audience a little more. They bring interaction via polls, votes or personalized responses.

For example, you can organize votes, quizzes, countdowns and more.

Add a sticker to your story, and offer your audience the chance to communicate with you more easily. So don't hesitate to use them.

For example, you can create great stories and use the link sticker to add links to your stories and redirect your audience to your website.

We've written a full article on how to use this feature. Click here to learn all about Instagram stickers.

Bonus features

Finally, if you want to further personalize your stories and add more impressive effects, you can opt for one of the advanced features offered to film your content.

When you're on your story content screen. A drop-down menu on the left of your screen allows you to access more features. These are as follows:

• Text: create stories without even having to share photos or videos. Simply select one of the story templates offered by Instagram to share content simply. Instagram offers nearly a hundred templates, so check them out quickly.
• Dual: the dual feature lets you share video simultaneously from the front and back of your smartphone so you can share even more immersive insta stories.
• Boomerang: The boomerang feature lets you create mini gifs quickly by making a short video.
• Layout: Use Layout to create photo grids easily. In particular, this allows you to share multiple images in a single story.
• Hand free: Finally, hand free allows you, as its name suggests, to film a video without having to remain pressed on the central button of your story. You can then put your phone down and make your video without worry.

That's it, you know, how to view and create a story and now know all the features offered by Instagram for your Insta stories. Your next story can only be a success.

But you're still far from knowing all the tricks for Instagram stories. Discover below the 10 best practices to make your ephemeral content as engaging as possible.

The 10 best practices for creating an Instagram story (functionality, stickers, creating video stories...)

Add music before publishing stories

Add music to your Instagram stories can make them even more interactive and share your playlists.

To do this, simply use the music sticker. This will then allow you to choose the music you wish to include in the background of your story.

Your followers can then click on it to discover the sound.

Put a link in story on Instagram

If you wish, you can also integrate a url link on every Instagram story.

Until a few years ago, this feature was only available to accounts with more than 10,000 followers, but Instagram has changed that.

To share a web link, simply tap on the link sticker and enter your url. Your followers will only have to click on it to be redirected to your company website, blog, instagram shopping product page or another social network.

Identify other accounts to make your stories more viral

To boost your visibility and share your content with your friends, you can tag accounts on your photo or video.

If you identify other people, they'll be notified and can share your content in their own story. A great way to gain exposure and boost your visibility.

To do this, nothing could be simpler. Tag instagram accounts on your story, just by using the mention sticker or typing a text and using the @ symbol.

This trick can bring you a huge amount of visibility and boost your engagement. Don't hesitate to tag anyone concerned by your content.

Reposter a story

Discovered a story you liked and want to share it back on your story? This is called reposting a story.

Unfortunately, reposting another Instagram account's story is only possible if you've been mentioned in it.

If you haven't been mentioned in the story or the account you want to share is private, you won't be able to repost that story on your profile.

There is, however, a possible alternative for reposting content to story. We detail it in this dedicated article:how to repost an Instagram story?

Share your publication in story

On the other hand, you can share any publication from any account on the social network on your story.

Sharing publications from other accounts allows you to easily share content in story or redirect visitors to your Instagram feed.

Use this to share your inspirations, content ideas or content created by your followers that relates to your brand.

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To do this nothing could be simpler, just click on the paper airplane icon below an instagram content. Instagram will then suggest that you share this publication in your story. Press this button and you can prepare your story.

If you don't know how to create an Instagram story quickly this'is the best way to share content quickly.

Add your story to the front page

As you know by now, Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours. But you have the option of making them accessible for longer thanks to front-page stories.

Front-page stories allow you to compile your stories into albums that you've created yourself.

Gather, for example, your travel, tips, outfit or sunset posts so that your followers can find them easily.

To add a featured story, follow these steps:

1. Publish your story
2. Once it's online, click on the icon with the 3 little dots at the bottom right of your story.
3. You can then add it to the featured stories you want.

Once this is done, your story will be permanently accessible under your bio. Find out all there is to know about featured stories in this dedicated article.

Use Instagram story apps

You still want to improve your story publications. Use the right tools to edit them. There are many apps for your Instagram stories.

Use these tools to edit your images and videos, use templates or find post ideas.

Discover the best apps for Instagram story here.

Use your story to do a live

In case you've never seen it, Instagram offers its users the opportunity to do lives.

Doing an Instagram live is a great way to build strong relationships with your community. It's an opportunity to exchange with them live and answer all their questions quickly.

Once this live has been shot, it will be available 24 hours, and viewable via stories.

To make an Instagram story live on your device, here are the steps to follow:

1. Open the Instagram app and go to the story content creation area.
2. At the bottom of the screen, scroll down the carousel to the live tab.
3. All you'll need to do is program your live settings to launch it.

Instagram offers the option of testing your live in a masked way before making your video public. Don't hesitate to practice and test the tool.

Should you use a story viewer?

A story viewer allows you to constantly watch the story feed on Instagram automatically. This helps you boost your visibility and show other users that you're active.

So you can use story viewers to boost your engagement with your community.

This type of tool can help you get more followers and more likes.

How to view an Instagram story without being seen

When you view an Insta story anonymously, the user of the account they posted it to can see that you've viewed their post.

But how do you watch a story without being seen?Here are the steps to follow for one of the methods:

1. Open the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android.
2. Then go to your smartphone's settings and switch to airplane mode.
3. Then return to the Insta app and view the story you want to see anonymously.

In airplane mode, Instagram doesn't analyze your browsing on the app. So you can watch a story without being seen.

FAQ about Insta stories

How long is an Instagram story?

The maximum length of an Instagram story is 60 seconds.

It used to be 15 seconds, but Instagram has changed that to improve the experience for these users.

Find out everything there is to know about the duration of Instagram stories here.

How long does a story remain visible?

An Insta story remains visible for a maximum of 24 h.

How to put an Insta story on a computer?

You have the option of putting an Instagram story from a computer. To do so, various methods exist.

We share them all in this dedicated article:How to put an Instagram story on computer?

How to download an Instagram story?

If you want to download your story, go to the story you want to save. Then click on the 3 little dots at the bottom right of your screen and click save.

Your story will then be uploaded to your photo gallery.

You can also download your story publications from your story archives.

How to delete an Instagram story?

You want to delete a story you've just published. To do so, simply go to the story you want to delete, then at the bottom right of your screen click on the 3 little dots. You'll then have the option of deleting your story.

Where to see your old stories?

You have the option of finding all your stories published on your account since its creation from your archives. These archives are available in your Instagram settings.

Discover here how to see your old Instagram stories?

How to see your story stats?

As with all your content on Insta, your stories also have stats. You can see the full list of people who have seen your post and liked it.

How to like an Instagram story?

To like an Instagram story, simply click on the heart emoticon at the bottom right of the story you're viewing.

The account manager will then receive an Instagram notification informing them that you've liked their content.

You can delete this like by clicking on the heart again, but this won't remove the notification.

How to add multiple photos to a story?

You can add multiple photos to the same Insta story.There are various ways of doing this, but the easiest is to use the layout option offered by Instagram.

You'll be able to take or include your content easily to share a story with multiple photos.

Discover step-by-step how to include multiple images on a story in this dedicated article.