Instagram Stories: The Next Cool Kid On The Block

Around here, all the members of the CarmellaCrew love to document their fun-filled, adventurous lifestyles, and while we often use multiple platforms to do so, the Instagram (IG) Stories function has quickly become our biggest go-to. And in keeping pace with one of our other articles, we want to ensure you, dear reader, are hip with the Crew.

As of June, Instagram Stories had 250 million daily active users; surpassing Snapchat’s 166 million daily active users. “If you think about it a year ago when we sat together, Instagram Stories didn’t exist,” explains Carolyn Everson, Facebook VP/global marketing solutions, “Today on the platform, we not only have 250 million people using it, but actually a third (of the most viewed stories) are businesses using Instagram Stories and one million are advertisers.”

Using the Instagram Stories feature, you can choose to go live, post a photo and/or video, insert a boomerang (Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and backward), use the rewind feature or opt to click and video hands-free. Moreover, you can add your location, temperature, time, hashtags, stickers, fonts, drawings, etc. With IG Stories, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

Here is what you need to know when sharing your personal life via Instagram Stories:

• Your Story follows the privacy settings of your account. If you set your account to private, your Story is visible only to the followers you have accepted.
• You can hide your Story from anyone you don’t want to see it, even if they follow you
• As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your Story.
• With Instagram stories, you don’t have to feel like you are over posting, you can share as much as you want throughout the day!
• You can integrate tags from other companies/brands you love, or link to articles or videos you want to show your followers.
• The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in the feed.
• You can save your photos and videos – individually and as a group – to your phone before they disappear

Whether you are posting from your personal account or for your business, remember the golden rule: have fun! Provide your followers with captivating content that will have them clicking your Story icon for more – and more!

12 ways to use Instagram like a Pro
by professional Photo Journalist, Cengiz Yar:

Tip 1: Use your phone’s native camera for pictures or video. 

Tip 2: Download and save everything captured.

Tip 3: Shoot vertically.

Tip 4: Edit and upload at the end of the day. 

Tip 5: Keep your videos between five and 10 seconds in length.

Tip 6: Make your text short and to the point.

Tip 7: Use the phone’s edit feature to crop your pictures.

Tip 8: Upload old material by exporting from editing software with new metadata.

Tip 9: Set the scene.

Tip 10: Use editing software to add text over your images.

Tip 11: Place your font wisely. 

Tip 12: Use your friends, family, and colleagues as presenters (and tag them).

As more and more influencers and users click over to Instagram Stories to distribute content to their followers, it’s imporatan to note not all Stories are created equal. With this in mind, check out these three IG accounts, as curated by Lindsey Peacock at Hootsuite, who are truly killing it with creative, funny, or unexpected content via IG Stories.

1. General Electric – great visual storytelling.
2. NASA – adds context while promoting other content and channels.
3. GoPro – the perfect mix of original and user-generated content.

Have you been using the IG Stories feature as religiously as our content creators have? Share your favourite ways to use it, and be sure to comment below with any questions you have or perhaps any other IG accounts who have Stories that simply cannot be missed.

Happy Storytelling!

-The CarmellaCrew