Are you ready to get smarter about Instagram Stories? Today, I’m going to share with you five secrets that you may not know about Instagram Stories.
Secret number one: Did you know you could upload video directly from your camera roll? This has been something that you probably have known you could do for some time; however, I want to give you a little secret bonus hack. Not only can you upload photos and videos from your camera roll, if you’re like me, you’ve got a lot of photos and videos on your camera roll. One of the things I like to do on my iPhone is I actually create an album of certain things that I know that I want to upload. I might have an album of some images or videos. I put them in that album so I can make it really easy to find so when I go to my Instagram Stories and I want to upload, I don’t just upload from my camera roll. I will look for that specific album. That way, I can upload them quickly and easily.
It also helps if I’m creating a little bit of content. Maybe I’m using a couple fun apps on my phone to create content, like Word Swag is one of my favorite apps to create content for Instagram Stories. I’ll save those in a specific album on my phone so they don’t get lost in the day-to-day of pictures of my kids and all kinds of fun stuff that we’re doing.
Tip number two is that there are three different options when it comes to creating a story. There’s your regular option of just recording like I’m doing right now, but the other two are really fun. The other one is Boomerang, and Boomerang is that quick video action where you’re doing something, and it creates a quick Boomerang. That’s a really fun thing to do, especially if you’re just being a little silly and maybe you’re drinking a glass of wine or you are just showcasing something really fun. A Boomerang really makes it a fun piece of content inside your Instagram Story.
There’s also a feature called Superzoom, which is really fun. If you’re trying to zoom in on something like maybe the front door of a beautiful home or you’re at a concert and you want to zoom in, you can do something called Superzoom, and there’s different options that will include music.
Generally, what I like to do is use either Superzoom or Boomerang at least a few times a week. I feel like when you’re changing up your Instagram Story to not just be images or video, it helps keep people interested, and that’s the name of the game.
Tip number three: Did you know you can auto-save all of your stories? Within the settings of Instagram Stories, there’s actually a feature called auto-save, which means it will automatically save those to your phone. Now, if you’re doing a lot of Instagram Stories like I am, you may not want to turn on that feature because then every single Instagram Story is downloaded.
What I typically like to do is when I create something with Instagram Stories, if there’s something I really like, there’s a little button right there that will allow me to save that individual piece of my story right to my phone, or if you do want to save everything, maybe you’re creating stories that you want to repurpose over on Instagram TV or maybe you want to repurpose them over on Facebook Story, you can auto-save those to your phone, and then repurpose those at that point.
Tip number four: Did you know that you can add different filters for each part of your Instagram Story? Now, I know this might be something that’s a little bit of a no-brainer, but for those of you who are newer to Instagram Stories, there’s different filters. There’s face filters. When you’re creating an Instagram Story, you can tap on your face, and there’s all different kinds of fun filters that you can use, but you can also swipe through, and it’s fun to see a lot of the fun filters that are available with Instagram.
Now, here’s another one of these extra little bonus tips. What I like to do, if I’m doing an Instagram Story, maybe I say something that I mess up, maybe I had a little bit of a flub, or when I share something behind-the-scenes, I will use that black-and-white filter as that behind-the-scenes, like, “Oh, my gosh. I can’t believe I actually said that,” type of filter. What you’re seeing a lot of times in my Instagram Stories is you’re seeing me, I’m sharing tips, I’m sharing advice, and then if there happens to be something else that might be black and white, it’s a little bit of sort of that behind-the-scenes, and really kind of that realness that I think a lot of us are really craving. That’s how I use that black and white filter. I find that that’s a lot of fun to use.
Tip number five, secret number five that you may not realize that you can do that I love using is the search bar inside Instagram Stories. When you’ve created your Instagram Story and you found the right filter, there’s a little search bar, so if you want to search for a house or a heart or somebody saying, “Yay,” or excited, you can search for that, and it will pull up emojis, but you can also go right to the gif feature, click on gif, and use that search bar. I try to use that fairly frequently because especially if you’re using Instagram Stories to maybe promote your business, to showcase what you do and your expertise, you don’t want to get too stuffy, you don’t want to get too dry, so you can change it up using some fun emojis.
For example, if you’ve got a call-to-action for someone to call you about something, go to that gif feature, search the word phone, and you’ll find some fun gifs that you can add into that. If you’re trying to call attention to your website or specific link on a landing page, maybe you use a gif of a little moving laptop or something fun. Movement creates action, and when you can have fun with the platform, but also use it as a way to drive traffic to whatever it is that you’re trying to do in your business, it can make a big, big difference.
I would love to hear from you! Are you using Instagram Stories in your business? Yes or no? Leave me a comment below. As always, if you’re on Instagram, I want to connect. Drop your link below. Let’s connect on Instagram! Also, let’s connect over on Instagram TV. There’s some really awesome things that are happening over there as well.
