Instagram Stories Refresh

Instagram stories can be a breath of fresh air for social media managers. When a page is tagged on a post or another story, for example, it is easy to share it to your stories, add text to the post, interactive stickers, or GIFs. It can be easy for stories to become a passive portion of social media management. Being intentional and creating curated stories rather than relying on reposts can draw people in and make it more likely that they will interact with the stories and create a connection with your brand.

The basics:

• The recommended size ratio is 9:16.

• The top and bottom 14% of your story could potentially be overlapped by the app’s interface so do not put text there.

• The recommended resolution is 1080x1920.

Branding for Story Graphics

Your brand colors, fonts, logos, etc. should always be a priority when posting to Instagram stories. You want followers to know a post is coming from your brand without them having to check the username. Canva premium allows you to create branding packages so you have everything on hand when creating stories.

Since we associate green, red, and white with Christmas, you may be inclined to use just these colors when creating a story for your brand during this holiday. Depending on your color scheme, you could try to incorporate the Christmas colors as accents instead and use your brand colors as the main colors.

We, however, don't suggest using the exact same template from Canva over and over again! You want to freshen up the design so it's new and fun for your viewers to look at.

Add Motion to Your Stories

Images on stories appear for five seconds, and chances are viewers will tap over to the next story before the five seconds are up so you want to make sure your message is clear and captures their attention!

DO: You can use Instagram “stickers” to retain your viewer's attention. Using polls, questions, countdowns, links, and other stickers will help boost your engagement because the viewer will often engage with that content. We all love a "this or that" game on Instagram stories! We can't help but participate when those come across our stories scroll.

Also, try adding GIFs to your static image stories. These fun moving images can spice up any image and play into the message you're trying to share.

DO NOT: Don't rely on the auto-captions text that you add to a video where you are speaking. Your viewers will likely skip over and won't listen to the whole clip. Social media is all about instant knowledge and viewers do not want to wait even 4 seconds for all of the text to appear to have all of the information they need. Don't forgo the auto-captions completely, but instead also add text somewhere within the video that summarizes the information you are sharing.

Show Up For Your Audience on Stories

Your audience wants to build a connection with YOU or the 'face' of the brand! The more you start showing up on your stories the easier it will get. Feel free to pop on there and share the behind-the-scenes and get real with your audience. That's exactly what they want to see!

If you're not comfortable talking, that's totally okay too! There are plenty of ways you can show up. Find what works for you! Set up the camera and film a short timelapse of you working on something with text, or talk about something you're working on as you video it if you're not comfortable showing your face.

Instagram stories play an important role in your connection with your followers. If your stories are not enticing or spammy, followers will stop watching them and they will no longer be suggested near the beginning of their stories panel. Stories are great for the real-time, in-the-moment type of content! They don't have to be perfect and there are so many ways you can use stories to fit your brand and personality. Always be intentional with every piece of content you post, it pays off in the end!