You’ve seen them, you’ve posed for them, you click through them every day: Instagram stories. Instagram stories are not just for your personal feed anymore! Keep reading to find out how you can better utilize Instagram stories to connect with your audience in a way that makes sense for your brand. 

Instagram stories are a tool that helps your brand become real people with a story to tell. Humanizing your brand helps make an emotional connection with your audience and increase your following and customers. They’re a great tool for showing potential customers and existing followers why your brand is relatable, interesting, and valuable to them. So, how do you best utilize Instagram Stories? That’s what I’m here to help with. 

Instagram is a great way to show off your brand and products, but it's also a really useful tool to listen to your audience's needs. A creative way to listen to the opinions of your audience is to ask! The poll feature, which Instagram recently rolled out, is a creative way to create easy interactions with followers. Honest and natural feedback from customers can be hard to get. The poll feature is an easy, carefree way to get real answers to your questions on customer preference. Let’s say you are a clothing company and are stuck between two pairs of shoes to order for the next season. The poll feature is like a customized focus group of your brand’s biggest fans. It also tells your audience that you value their opinions and want to give them what they want!  

Another crucial mistake brands make is not linking their stories out to their other information! This means particular pages on your website, a facebook event, a subscribe button, or your newest blog post. All you have to do is post a relevant photo and a caption that says check the link in our bio to learn more. This always users a convenient way to find exactly what they need while they are interested. During March of 2017, over 120 million Instagram users visited a website, got directions, or contacted a business to learn more about them from Instagram. Brands utilize social media to get information to customers as soon as they need it and this is huge. Allowing a product to be one swipe away are impulse buyers worse nightmare. 

The last creative tip to utilize in your Instagram stories is to build relationships with Instagram influencers and brand ambassadors. The way this works is by offering them a free or discounted product to promote with Instagram Stories and in their feed. You can also give the influencer a coupon code so that their followers can ship at a discount and you can track how many leads that particular influencer is generating. Creating ways to make social media measurable is key to the success of long term branding. It also is a great way to engage with your industry's community and connect with people who truly care about the same things

Implementing these three creative tactics in your Instagram stories can enhance your brand and help tell your real human story. It can be hard to stand out from competitors, so be yourself and connect with people who care. Comment below how these tips work for your brand and if you have any other tips! 

At The Burnette Agency, it is our aim to tell your story through a variety of mediums, clarifying your voice and bringing overall brand awareness! Visit our website and fill out our contact form here or call us at 404.850.2081 for more information.