We’ve got our Social Media Coordinator [and resident IG stories creator extraordinaire, Lizey] in the blog-haus today answering the most frequently asked questions you all ask about Instagram Stories, because let’s be real … IG stories is, like, a second platform within Instagram itself.
Srsly.
Any of the workshops we run that cover off on Instagram? … we’ll start by saying, “consider Instagram as x2 different platforms, i.e you have your static content on your feed, as well as Instagram Stories” [and now IGTV, and reels!].
We’ve populated the questions we’re asked the very most, in the hopes that – perhaps – these are questions you’ve also had, or even better? … you didn’t even know to ask! 🙂
Caity: What are your favourite apps to use when creating stories?
Where do I begin?!
I’m a big fan of Inshot, VSCO and CutStory – I can’t live without these. They all hold different purposes, Inshot for trimming and adding backgrounds, VSCO for editing both photo and video content and then we have Cutstory, where I can chop those lengthy videos to 15sec or 1min to make it easier for me when uploading to stories.
Something that I like to do every month [when I can remember, ha] is to check out the latest photo editing/video apps in the App Store. I try to find the ones that are free [of course] and ones that are super easy.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve installed new apps but then deleted because nothing compares to my top three after testing it out. Yes, I’ve got the paid version but I only did that after knowing and studying the app a little bit more and realising that it was such a great investment.
Lizey doing her ‘thang … creating IG stories magic
Cherie: Why do you think IG stories are so powerful?
One of the first things Tess told me when starting at TDP is that 50% of your audience hangs out on stories and the rest on the feed. I’m obviously one of those people who hang out on stories more and I didn’t realise how many felt the same.
That is pretty much why stories are so powerful.
I mean don’t mind me or anything, but I’m uh … very nosey and I love learning about the ins and outs of business. I’m one of those people that want to see you packing those orders, I wanna see the behind the scenes of your offices, I wanna see your day-to-day and a life in a day of you.
I also love how Instagram stories is not as picky. What I mean by that is that because Instagram stories are only live for 24 hours [and then disappear], it encourages its users to be more carefree [to an extent] when posting stories. There’s less of the superficially squishing everything into a pretty feed, and you end up seeing each and every piece of content for how it really is.
It’s my humble opinion here, but I think that’s why it’s become as popular as it is, i.e the future is edited-non-edited, people.
Sav: What advice would you give to someone in a content rut?
- I would highly recommend jotting down some notes and ideas every time you’ve got an idea. I have notes EVERYWHERE! In my planner, phone, computer – you name it. So when I’m in a content rut, I can always have a look back at some of the ideas. I don’t know about you but sometimes randomly – at like 11:00 pm – I get a random idea so I make sure to jot it down before I forget [you just never know when that 11pm idea is the best piece of content you create for a client, ya know?!]. Keep your ideas general, so that when you’ve got that main idea of what your stories will look like, you can build from there. For example, I just had a look back at one of my ideas and all I wrote was ‘takeover’. At first, I was like … Que? But then I thought about what happens to those who attend our workshops? That’s when #lifeafterTDP came about – i.e a takeover by TDP grads.
- If you don’t have that just yet and you’re still werk’n on your stories bible [as I like to call it] … don’t fret! Try looking back at your ‘archives’ via Instagram then select stories to see all of the ones you’ve done in the past. Think about how you can build from that story or even ask yourself, “how can I make this even better next time?”
- Another thing is to always be open to the tools you have. Check out Youtube for editing hacks, TikTok for some tips and tricks on how to make your stories better or even Google some ideas on how to make your stories more engaging … I’ve been there.
Bobby: Whose stories inspire you and why?
@sunniesface – their branding is simple but oh-so-beautiful. They’ve also got some great graphics as well. They take anything they do to the next level and their page is so innovative and it inspires me to think out of the box.
@sunniesface simple but beautiful branding is next level and their innovative static feed always encourages us to think outside the box
@michellebanares – a great content creator that has great style and layouts for her stories. She uses graphics but also uses IG’s fonts and colours so differently to anything I’ve ever seen before!
We love the way @michellebanares uses graphics and Instagrams native fonts and colours, so differently to others on the ‘gram
@revolve – you can tell that they’ve gone above and beyond for their stories. I love their layout and style too. Whenever I’m looking at their stories I always think, bluddy heck their content creator went #neklevel with this, and it just looks so pro! How can I find a way to recreate what they’ve done with some of the apps/tools that I have?
So you’ll see that I have some IG’ers that inspire me, but the thing is this: the ones that I love aren’t super colourful and bright like TDP [they’re not like any of our clients, really]. But that’s the thing guys, I don’t follow pages just because they look like TDP or another client I’m doing stories for. No, sir. Instead? I let them help me think outside the box a little [well, a lot] and from there? I’m forced [and inspired!] to be even more creative.
Inspiration follows us everywhere, but it’s all about how you can take that inspiration … and make it your own [s’important not to copy, good humans. We don’t do that round’ these parts].
Tess: What advice would you give to someone who isn’t used to thinking in content, in order to help them extract ideas out of their everyday lives?
This is a great question and one that I get asked quite frequently. This is quite strange, but for me personally I learned to carry my phone in my hand, not my pocket – that’s when I realised that content is everywhere! I don’t mean that you have to carry your phone everywhere [like, you can have a toilet break, sis. #lol]. Honestly though? That’s how I started getting used to capturing content, i.e I see everything as being content creation possibilities – you might say that I have story/content coloured glasses on all o’ the time.
As you start your IG story journey, I encourage you to take things out of your everyday life to inspire you and create content. Was there a colour you loved in a magazine? Can you use the dropper tool in stories to find that colour and use it for a series of your own? Was there something that you did today that’s so relatable e.g one time I was on the plane and my AirPods disconnected and my music played so loud. I mentioned that in my stories and said ‘this is why I can’t have nice things’ and the engagement was pretty good because it was #sorelateable and the whole AirPod flex thing? Well … it was a vibe, ha!
Just because you don’t think it’ll be interesting to see on your stories … doesn’t mean your audience might think so. If you never know or never try? You’ll never know. It’s all about trial and error.
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Still feel like ya-just-can’t when it comes to IG stories?
We’d recommend our $299 IG intensive here.
Or if you just want the full-outsource [without permanently outsourcing to an agency], we can actually design all of your IG stories *for* you for $299 here.
