How to use Stickers to increase reach and engagement on Instagram
Did you know that there are over 500 million active users on Instagram Stories every day? Use Stories to let people get to know your brand better and give them an idea of who you are. Stories should not be up-tight, but more personal and fun. Share real content and use Stickers to increase your reach and engagement. This is how to do it!
Location Stickers
Just as you can tag your location (such as a restaurant or neighborhood) in your regular Instagram posts, you can also use location stickers in your stories. These work in the same way as regular posts; your story will appear in the public feed for the given location. Then, people who search for this particular location on Instagram may have the opportunity to view and engage with your story.
In other words, using location stickers can help increase the reach of your stories so people who don’t follow you can see them too. Smart!
Location stickers can also be used if you want to drive traffic to a specific location; such as a physical store, a pop-up store or a conference you are attending. If you are going to throw an event, location stickers are great to use in advance to make people aware of the location of the event.
Mention stickers
If you’re working with other companies or sharing a user-generated post, it’s important to give a shout-out to their Instagram profiles by tagging them in your story. For this purpose, use mention stickers.
The user will then receive a notification that they have been tagged. Many people appreciate being tagged and gladly repost the story from their own profile, and voila, the opportunity to reach more people increases.
Mention stickers are also a great way to personalize your brand. Make people better acquainted with those who work in the business, partners or influencers.
Hashtag stickers
Hashtag stickers work like the location stickers. When you tag your story using a hashtag, users searching for that particular hashtag can also get the opportunity to see your story on Instagram.
Hashtag stickers are perfect to use if your company has its own hashtag that you want to convey (branded hashtags or hashtag campaigns). If a user clicks on the hashtag, they will be able to see all other posts that have also been tagged and have the opportunity to engage with even more relevant content.
GIF Stickers
GIF stickers attract a lot of attention and allow you to truly personalize your Instagram Stories. GIFs are perfect for using expressions and emotions and can make any story fun and interesting.
You can also create your own GIFs, which can help increase your reach, as people can search and post your GIFs on their own stories.
GIFs are great to use if you want to highlight your Call To Action. It doesn’t have to be more advanced than an arrow pointing where you want the user to click or a gif that shows “New Post” or “Link in Bio”.
Poll & Emoji Slider
These stickers are perfect to use if you want to get to know your followers better. You can run polls and find out what people think about your products, what interests they have, or just simply to entertain your users. It can be fun to run a quiz for example!
Poll stickers ask the user a question and give them two answers to choose from. Emoji sliders are quite similar, you ask users a question they can answer with a slide. But here the user is not given the opportunity to reply to an alternative, but must rather drag the emoji left or right to give their answer.
By adding a poll sticker or emoji-slider you can more easily let users engage with your stories. And the more engagement, the greater the chance of increased organic reach!
Question stickers
Unlike polls that allow users to “vote” on an alternative, question stickers work by letting your users ask the questions. In other words, it is your followers who decide!
Question stickers are perfect for running a Q&A, where followers can ask questions about things they are wondering. By using question stickers you show your followers that you are available and interested in talking to them. You can also learn a great deal about your audience and gather valuable feedback. Answers can be shared directly to your stories as a follow up post.
Countdown stickers
Countdown stickers are perfect to use if you have a special event planned, at a product launch or countdown to a sale. Users can then subscribe to the countdown so they get a reminder when the time is up.
A countdown often makes things a little more interesting and lets people take part in what’s happening. It’s a great way to make people aware of a special occasion. Just take a look at what Starbucks did to tell their fans their smores coffee is returning.
Shopping stickers
Shopping stickers are available through the Shopping on Instagram-integration. Business accounts with this sales channel enabled will be able to tag products in their stories.
Tagging your products with shopping stickers is a great way to showcase product details without making them appear too sales-oriented. Shopping stickers can be used in both pictures and videos. These stickers are perfect to use if you want to promote your products and generate sales.
Chat stickers
Chat stickers are perfect if you want to build a loyal and engaged customer base. With the chat feature, you can start a private group chat with up to 31 of your followers. This is a great way to start conversations with your most engaged followers. You can build a loyal fanbase and gather insights and customer feedback.
Conclusion
Instagram Stories is here to stay and is a great tool for your business to use if you want to reach existing and potential customers with engaging content.
Use different stickers for different goals and be creative. Not only can you increase your reach and engagement, but also gain valuable insight and feedback from your followers.
Remember, Stories should be fun and personal. Try it out!