In August, Instagram released “Stories” to capture the ground Snapchat was making on the instant messenger scene. This feature allows users to create temporary videos that don’t appear on your feed, but rather the function strings together the images to form a gallery. Since the “Stories” launch, it’s reported that more than 100 million people are viewing stories each day and 50 million+ people are using Instagram to create stories content daily!
It doesn’t end there… only last week verified accounts have the ability to include links in their Stories, you can tag a brand via a mention when you add a new story and also look to include Boomerang video by swiping right and accessing the Boomerang mode when you hit the record button. This is a feature worth testing for your brand and getting your head around the opportunities it can offer while it’s still in its infancy.
Learn how Instagram Stories works
Introducing Instagram Stories from Instagram on Vimeo.
Just this week, Instagram unveiled another new offering in the form of ‘live’ Stories, extending the video content option even further.
Here’s how to create an Instagram Story
- When you are on the home page of your Instagram account, you’ll see a small plus sign circled in the top left-hand corner of your screen. Simply click on this to start to create your story or simply swipe right from the main screen.
- Then you tap on the circle button at the bottom of the screen and take a photo or hold down to record a video.
- Edit the photo or video with text by drawing over the top. There’s scope here to be creative and also use one of the seven filters.
- Should you wish to add more photos or videos to your story so that it appears like a slideshow, you simply keep adding more images.
- Should you want to make a boomerang video (a video that plays backwards and forwards), you simply swipe right on your feed and under the record button of the corner you’ll find Boomerang mode where you can record.
The photos and videos that you add will be a series that people can swipe through for 24 hours – and a colourful circle appears around your profile picture to let other users know that you have a story for them to view.
To remove a story, you can simply tap on the three dots at the bottom right hand side of the photo or video, hit delete, then confirm.
Want to limit the comments or choose who sees your story? Head to your profile and tap on the sun symbol, then the story settings, then choose who you’d like to view the content.
