How To Use Instagram Stories for Small Business: A Guide

About a month ago, Instagram introduced Instagram Stories and now, instead of having to choose a few photos for posting, Stories allows you to post a bunch of photos throughout the day. The photos, however, disappear after 24 hours.

Does this sound familiar? That's probably because Stories features remarkable similarities with Snapchat.

How to Use Instagram Stories for Business

Ready to get started? Here are a few basic steps for building your first Instagram Story.

1. Launching Stories

Tap the plus sign on the upper left corner of your home screen or you can as well quickly launch Stories by swiping right from the main screen. 

2. Uploading Photos

To take photos, tap the circle button at the bottom of the screen or tap and hold for up to 10 seconds to record a video. The thunderbolt icon turns on the flash, and the two arrows allow you to switch between cameras.

3. Editing of Photos and Videos

Edit your videos and photos by adding a drawing or text as you normally would. Select one of the three pen type options to doodle on your photo, swipe right to select a simple color filter, or add an emoji using your keyboard.

4. Sharing

When done, tap the checkmark icon to share. You will be able to view your story on your profile page and it will also appear at the top of your friends feeds. You can as well save your masterpiece by opening it and tapping the three dots on the bottom right, then click “Save Photo.”

5. Privacy Control

You can also easy tell the people that saw your story by swiping up when viewing the video or photo. Block particular individuals from viewing anything you add to your story by tapping the “X” that's next to their name. Another option for limiting access would be to go to your settings, which is available under the profile tab on the right hand side of your screen. From there, you can chose to restrict who can reply to your messages or hide your Story from certain users.

Should Small Business Owners Use Stories? 

If you are a small business owner or a marketer with a presence and an active audience on Instagram, you should definitely make use of Stories as it gives you the opportunity to create fun, lighthearted, Snapchat-like content without the challenge of launching a new channel.

Stories by Instagram also gives you an opportunity for increased discoverability as Instagram allows for use of geotags, hashtags and it also has a Discover section that makes it really easy for potential customers to find you.

If you have ever wanted to try out Snapchat-style content to market your business, then this is your chance.

Image: Instagram

This article, "How To Use Instagram Stories for Small Business: A Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends