16 Instagram Story Ideas to Engage With Your Audience

Are you looking for inspiration to have new Instagram story ideas? You came to the right place. Whether you are a digital influencer or own a company or are the marketing professional responsible for creating content for the stories, planning them is fundamental. But, it's normal to lack ideas sometimes. 

The stories are a way to connect with your audience, develop a conversation with them, increase engagement rates, build trust, and become closer to the followers. So, it's essential to post interesting content, which catches their attention.

You can post funny videos, quizzes, moments from your everyday life, or the company routine, it depends on the goals and who your audience is. Check out the articles, and start planning your next stories, enjoy them to reach more people on Instagram.

1. Promote New Products or Services#

Use Instagram stories to present to your audience the product or services that your company offers. If it's a physical item, you can film the details of the package and the item itself, besides showing the benefits it provides to the customers. 

If you are promoting software as a service (SaaS), use the stories to show the software interface and its main features. For instance, record the screen presenting what the software can do, and how to use it on the desktop computer or smartphone. 

When we are talking about Instagram story ideas to promote a service, explain what the service is about, how the viewer can hire it, and what demands it will solve for the customer. In all of these cases, the essential is to be creative and use the images to catch the viewers' attention. 

Insert gifs, stickers, and emojis for people to react to the stories, but every element needs to be related to the topic you are talking about. Also, be careful not to add too many things, remember that the attention should be on the product or service. 

2. Ask for Feedback About Your Product or Service#

Enjoy the interactive aspect of Instagram stories to discover how you can enhance your product or service. Post stories with quizzes, polls, or making questions to the customers. You have a direct channel of communication to know more about what your leads and clients want, enjoy it.

After releasing a product, for instance, you can make a story asking people what they found about the package design, the delivery process, or the customer support. You can get valuable insight hearing from them, and it also shows that your company cares about what customers have to say. 

3. Open a Question Box to Interact with Followers#

What questions do your followers want to ask you? With the question box feature, you have the opportunity to enable them to send their doubts through stories. You can choose a specific topic or let them ask about anything.

That's an interesting tool for professionals who work in healthcare, such as Nutritionists, Dermatologists, Pediatricians, and so on. For instance, a dermatologist can open a question box for people to make their questions about acne, then select the most pertinent questions and record videos explaining each one. 

This helps become closer to your audience and gives them valuable content that they can share, expanding your reach. For digital influencers, people get very curious about aspects of their lives, and it's an opportunity to show the viewers some curiosities. 

4. Show Behind The Scenes of Your Company#

Have you ever wondered how a product is made or how is the routine inside a startup, a chocolate factory, or a fashion brand's office? Your Instagram followers probably have the curiosity to know what employees do in your company as well. 

Use that in your favor, and make stories showing the different sections of your company building. You can create a schedule to show one area per day, and explain what this section is responsible for. Does your office have a space for employees to relax? Show it as well.

Another thing that instigates curiosity is how products are fabricated. Another Instagram story idea is to record the whole production process, from the raw materials to each step until the final product. Release the stories of every part on different days of the week to keep the audience's curiosity. 

Behind-the-scenes stories contribute to developing a closer relationship with the viewers as they feel part of your company routine. Besides, it helps to increase trust. For example, if a person wants to buy a product from your company when they see images from the office, or how the product is made, it conveys credibility. 

5. Introduce Your Team#

Humanizing your brand is an important aspect to promote engagement, and build a relationship with your customers. When you present the people who are part of your team you are doing that. Make stories showing the people responsible for the different processes in the company, and explain their functions. 

6. Ask Each Team Member to Takeover the Stories for One Day#

Takeovers are an interesting way to show more about a company from different perspectives. The tip is to plan the stories for the month, include the segment "Takeover",  and choose a specific day for it to happen every week, like every Tuesday, or Wednesday.

Select the team members who will be responsible for the takeovers, and assign a date for each one of them, so they can prepare themselves, and don't be caught by surprise. The idea of the takeover is that they show their routing. For instance, when the person arrives at the office, what they do during the week, and who their co-workers are.

Once more this is an opportunity to humanize the brand and bring the audience closer to you, making them feel integrated. 

7. Give Tips related to Your or Your Company's Area of Expertise#

Let's imagine a vegan skincare company on Instagram, this company's area of expertise is how to take care of your skin, right? So, they can use that knowledge to deliver valuable knowledge to their audience and help solve their demands.

For instance, they could give tips about their products that are more recommended for acne, or for people who have sensitive skin. As a vegan brand, another possibility is to give tips about sustainability.

If we are talking about the Instagram profile of a nutritionist, the professional can make stories giving tips about how to maintain a healthy diet, and explain the benefits of different vegetables and fruits. 

For a digital creator in the makeup sector, stories showing hacks to apply makeup products is something that many of them do, and which catches the attention of their target audience. Think about what the demands of your followers are, and how you can give them useful information to help solve those demands. 

8. Show Customer Testimonials#

Customer testimonials give your brand credibility, it's a way to prove that people who aren't being paid to promote your products or services are really satisfied with them, and this conveys trust. But, remember, it needs to be something natural.

After someone completes a purchase, you can send them an email or direct message asking if they liked your product. Or, if you already have a base of loyal customers with a solid relationship with your brand, send them a message asking to record a video, or audio or write the reason they chose to buy from your company. 

Select the best product reviews, the testimonials, and post them on your Instagram. It would be interesting to make an Instagram highlight of it, so everyone who accesses your profile can see what customers think about your brand. 

9. Make a Quiz to Test Your Audience Knowledge#

Quizzes are fun, and they promote engagement since you are inviting the viewers to directly interact with the stories. There are endless possibilities of quizzes topics, you can make multiple choice questions about a specific product, the history of your company, or any subject related to it. 

For instance, if you have an Instagram profile of your clothing store, you can make a trivia quiz asking about the clothes that were worn in the past centuries. People will learn from the stories, and probably want to mark an option even if they don't know, just to discover the correct answer. 

10. Share Inspirational Phrases #

What about creating a segment on your stories to share an inspirational quote every Monday, or on another day of the week? Select quotes that are related to your target audience profile, and your brand's values. You can even encourage people to send the story to their friends.

For example, after publishing the "quote of the day", post another story saying something like "send this message to someone special for you, to make their day better", or "Did this message remind you of someone? Share it with them". 

11. Promote Events From Your Company or that You Will Participate in#

Is your company making an event or will you participate in a conference, or give a lecture, for instance? Instagram stories are the perfect place to promote the event. You can insert a countdown, and post the event banner. 

If it's open to the public, even better, post the link for the people to subscribe. Also, explain what the event is about, the topics that will be discussed, and its goals. On the day of the event, post stories showing it.

12. Post Memes #

One of the most simple Instagram story ideas is sharing memes. You don't need to produce anything super special or that will take you a bunch of time, just repost. But, it's fundamental to select the memes that have to do with the identity and type of content that's shared on your Instagram profile. 

Source: Best Funny Memes

Select memes that are aligned with the interests of your target audience, and aligned with what your brand is about. Sharing memes offers you the opportunity to turn the conversation in the stories into a more casual and fun one. If that's part of your brand's identity it's perfect. 

Some brand profiles on Instagram even separate a day just to share memes on stories and help their viewers to have a fun time, laugh, and relax. Another advantage is that people love to share memes, so it can help you increase the engagement rate, and gain more visibility. 

13. Share an Exclusive Promotional Code#

Who doesn't love a sale or discount, right? A way to show your customers why it's worth it to follow your account on Instagram and keep their eyes on your stories is by creating special promotions or coupon discounts that are only going to be published on the stories. 

It's like you are offering a special gift to your followers, this makes them feel rewarded. Besides, it's an opportunity to increase sales. 

14. Repost Stories and Feed Publications that You Were Tagged#

Did someone tag your Instagram profile on a story in a feed post? First, take a look to see what it's about and check the profile, if it's interesting content, repost it on your stories. You are giving space and voice to your followers, it conveys credibility since it's organic content, and it also encourages other people to tag you when they post a picture using your product, for instance.

15. Promote Posts From Your Feed#

Enjoy Instagram stories' visibility to direct viewers to your feed. When you post a new reel or picture, tell people on stories. You can share the post without showing the full content, for instance, by putting a sticker above the post to instigate the audience's curiosity, so they will click on it and go to the Instagram profile. 

16. Make Polls#

Polls are another Instagram story idea to promote engagement. You can even use them to include your followers in the production process of an ad campaign or the design of a product. For example, you can ask them to choose what color they prefer for a package or a banner, making them feel they are heard and part of the brand.

Another possibility is to create fun polls, such as asking what they prefer in terms of hobbies and habits. You can make polls dividing the screen with two images, for instance, asking "What do you prefer?", then putting the choice, "coffee or tea", "pizza or hamburger", "tv shows or movies", "high heels or flats", and so on. 

You will get to know more about your audience behavior, which can give you insights to make other posts, and stimulate engagement as well. 

Personalize the Instagram Story Ideas#

What did you think about these Instagram story ideas? Do you already use some of them? Before putting them into practice, always keep in mind who you are talking to on your Instagram. 

Knowing the age range, location, and preferences of your audience will help you to develop highly engaging content, and that catches their attention. Develop a tone of speech, and respect your brand's identity to be coherent, and original. This way, you can distinguish your brand from others. The Instagram story ideas are just the beginning, personalize them the way it suits you best.