Instagram stories tips from TDP’s Social Media Manager

If you are a loyal follower who regularly taps away through our IG stories, you might have noticed they’ve changed up a little bit in the last couple of months … and that’s because I’ve been let loose on there [literally … after a couple of weeks of getting approvals, Cherie was like, “yeah … you’re killin’ it. I don’t need to approve anymore! Do you thang, KING.”- gulp.]

Are you following us on Instagram? If you answered yes, then thank yew, thank yew very much! If you answered no, well … in that case, I’m going to forgive you for slidin’ on out of this blog to hop on over to our Instagram page right this second and hit that follow button! G’wan, I’m waiting ….

Okay, you’re back. Thank YOU, I pinky promise you won’t regret doing that.

When I interviewed for the job at The Digital Picnic with Cherie and Cat, I waffled on and on about my love for video content and in particular – IG Stories. I think my passion came across because I landed the job! Then, when it was my first day, I sat down with Cherie for a handover on IG Stories. She opened up Canva and she started showing me the templates they’d been using, then she turned to me and said “feel free to change these up”, so I did.

I’d been out of the industry for a good year [long story … ] and every time I opened up Canva, my heart was feeling more and more complete. Content creation is my jam on toast. It’s what I’d missed for so long, and I’d like to think that kinda shows in what you’re seeing on TDP. I’m just a boy, head over heels in love with the company he works for, using his craft to help make others fall in love with that company too.

So here’s a few tips to help you elevate your Instagram Stories game!

Canva is your graphic designer friend

I know a lot of you are using this website already for all your design needs. Honestly, how bluddy life changing is it? It makes graphic design easy for everyone – even the non-designers amongst us.

Canva newbie? No worries. Go ahead and open that up on another tab, or you can download it to your phone.

Create an account, and then hit ‘Instagram Stories’, you’ll see this screen below. If you’re scared of the blank template, don’t worry – this website offers so many templates for you to choose from which you should be able to see on the left hand side. Have a look through, see whatcha like and tap on one that catches your eye.

You can then switch up the colour palettes and fonts so they match up with your brand. Add in your photos using the ‘uploads ‘button [on desktop this will be on your far left under templates, on your phone you’ll need to click on the grey + button in the bottom right hand corner and select camera roll]

Once you’ve locked in how you want your Stories to look, just go in when you need to, switch up the text and images, save them to your phone and voila, you’ve now got yourself some consistent on brand Instagram Stories on your camera roll to load up!

Take time over your gif selection

Okay, now we have our fancy looking IG Story from Canva, load that on up to IG Stories by going into your camera roll. Now we’re gonna animate it with some gifs. With so many gifs to choose from, it’s so easy to go a little over the top here and start slapping gifs on all over the place. It’d say take your time here searching for the perfect one that’s really going to compliment your brand, the design and the message you’re trying to get across.

At TDP, I get to use a whole fun bunch of gifs from dogs in sunglasses to Jack Black dancing, and I know not all brands [sadly] are gonna need Jack Black shaking his hips, or anyone for that matter. So to add a little animation, try searching words of different colours, or shapes, or if you’re trying to get people to swipe up to a blog or a website, search for ‘arrow’, ‘swipe up’, ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘point’ etc. We did an Instagram Reel on aesthetically pleasing gifs, give that a watch here for more tips on finding some gem gifs!]

Get creative with audio

Again, completely appreciate not all brand accounts can have as much fun with this as I get to, but even adding a bit of atmospheric music to your Instagram Stories can really help deliver that powerful message you’re trying to get across, or if you’re showing a ‘lil part of your day, try some LoFi beats. When you open up Instagram Stories, click the stickers tab, and then select music. Now try searching ‘beats’ and adding them into your Story. Just a ‘lil heads up, if you’re using video that has audio, using the music feature will then mute the audio from your clip. So if the audio is vital to your post, then probably don’t use the music feature.

Get your community feeling involved

With Instagram Story features such as polls, questions and even a quiz, there are so many ways you can make your Stories that bit more engaging by making them interactive. An example of how we’ve done that recently at TDP, was last week when we wanted to share a recent blog on how to show up on Instagram when you’re an introvert. The first Instagram story simply said ‘Introverted AF?’ and then a poll underneath letting viewers select ‘DAT ME’ or ‘Nope, not me’. Then after, we followed up with another post that gave more context about the blog and a swipe up link. The poll got our community involved, and we hope a ‘lil curious to keep on tapping to find out why we were asking that question.

So there you have it, a few ‘lil ideas to help you up your Instagram Stories game. I know Stories only hang around for 24 hours [unless you save them to a highlight] but you never know, a potential customer could be giving your Stories a ‘lil stalk and your Stories could be the make or break as to whether that potential new customer hits that all important follow button!