37% of US adults use Instagram daily. It’s one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, but are you making the most of it?

When it comes to Instagram, there’s more to it than just posting photos–you need to be creating stories as well. Stories are temporary photos or videos that appear when a user clicks on your profile photo.

Are you looking for Instagram story tricks to improve your stories? If so, keep reading to find our top tips for turning your stories from average to amazing.

1. Create a Poll

Sure, Instagram stories are a lot of fun, but you can also use them to engage with your audience and can offer valuable insight.

With the poll option, found by clicking on the sticker icon, you can create a poll to ask of your audience. Ask them any yes or no question, allowing you to learn more about their interests or preferences—you can use this data to tailor your content to their liking.

2. Save Your Story Highlights

Have you ever made a series of stories so great, you wish they could last forever?

While stories only last 24 hours, one of our top Instagram hacks is to save your best stories to your highlight reel.

Do this by clicking on ‘New’ on your profile page. It then brings up all of your past stories.

With this feature, your epic travels or experiences can last forever, so more viewers can see them.

When it comes to stories and looking their best, you should make sure you’re using the right size photos—you can learn more about Instagram dimensions here: https://setapp.com/how-to/instagram-sizes-and-dimensions-guide.

3. Add Music

Why not make your stories more fun by adding music? It’s easy to do, just click on the music icon under the stickers tab.

You can add top hits, classics, or just about any song you can think of. A great tune may encourage viewers to watch your story for longer.

4. Use the Awesome ‘Swipe Up’ Feature

Do you have a blog or a link you want to highlight as part of a brand campaign? If so, share it with your viewers via the ‘swipe up’ feature.

This allows you to include a link to any website in your story. Unfortunately, it’s only available to those with at least 10k followers, but if you’re not there yet, it’s a good goal to work towards. Reaching 10k followers is not easy, but it’s not that difficult to reach 1000. Here is a guide for you: how to get 1k followers on Instagram in 5 minutes.

5. Ask Your Followers for Tips

Heading to a new city and want top tips on the best places to eat? If so, why not ask your audience!

Using the questions tab, you can ask a question and your viewers can answer. Or, they can ask you questions!

Even cooler, you can share their responses in future stories, a fun way to give a shout-out to followers.

6. Tag Your Friends

A fun way to get notice of your stories is by tagging your friends—especially if they’re in the photo or video!

The person tagged is then able to share the story on their own page, a cool way to get more notice. You may also want to tag businesses and brands, as they may share on their page if they like your content.

You can also geotag locations, and your story will then appear whenever anyone searches for that location.

7. Stickers and GIFs Help Your Personality Shine Through

When it comes to Instagram tips, make sure you use stickers and GIFs! People love GIFs, especially humorous ones.

If you add a relevant sticker or GIF to your story, it helps express your personality and mood, which makes you relatable.

Having a bad day at work? There’s definitely a GIF for that!

8. Have Fun

When it comes to Instagram, many of us put a lot of time and effort into curating the perfect images for our grid. You want your feed to look polished, professional, and get noticed, especially if you work with brands.

This is why stories are so great—there’s no pressure to be perfect, so you can have a lot of fun with them. They’re only temporary and they don’t show up on your feed, so no need to worry if they are inconsistent or ad-hoc.

Have fun with your stories, as authenticity is a huge thing on social media. You’re likely to attract more followers if you have a relaxed and fun attitude toward your stories.

9. Check Your Stats

Curious about how many people watched your story? It’s easy to find out, and useful information if you need that data to share with a brand.

You can see the number while watching your own stories, but the best way is to switch to a business Instagram account. This will give you more analytics and let you see all of your story data within the last two weeks.

10. Turn Your Face Into a Sticker

A neat trick—want to turn your face (or your pet’s) into a sticker?

Under the stickers tab, click the grey camera icon. You can then take a selfie and it will appear wherever you place it on the photo.

Is it necessary? Not really. Is it a lot of fun? Heck yea!

Have Fun with These Instagram Story Tricks

To make the most of your Instagram account, you need to be using stories! To make the most of this fun feature, use the Instagram story tricks above to start thinking of creative and interesting ways you can share moments of your day through the stories feature.

With stories, you can showcase your travel, daily life, or special moments with followers, and they’re a lot of fun to make and to watch.

Get started today and see if stories can help you grow your account or lead to a higher level of engagement with your audience.

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