April 7, 2022

Top 30 Instagram Story Ideas to Try in 2022 (For brands & influencers)

Instagram
Top 30 Instagram Story Ideas to Try in 2022 (For brands & influencers)

Over 500 million users post stories on Instagram daily. Therefore, it’s fair to assume that you are reading this to find some engaging Instagram story ideas to help you stand out in this over-saturated crowd.

In this post, we’ve put together the best tips to show you how to create a story on Instagram & achieve the ideal aesthetic IG stories that you desire to help you connect with your fans and clients alike.

15 Instagram Story Ideas For Influencers:

1. Post an exclusive series

Stories shouldn’t just be used for sharing random thoughts and throwaway content. You’re ought to post some exclusive content to keep your audience engaged and always coming for more.

Many content creators post exclusive content on their stories. And to help you get inspired, we thought we mention:

  • AOC: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez remains the only congresswoman that posts exclusive content about her work life at The Congress. It literally cannot get more exclusive than that!
    But you can, instead, share quick vlogs about the work you’re getting done every single day! You can even share your “influencer to-dos list”! This would encourage you to get more things done & impress your followers with Instagram stories updates about those small successes.
  • Joy The Baker: uses her stories to share exclusive & easy to follow recipes with her fans.
    Maybe you can share more content about your diet and eating habits in your stories too!
  • Shivya Nath: posts some of the most informative story content on Instagram! His Instagram stories range from facts about historical locations, all the way to facts about biology!
    What are you interested in? Books? Novels? Astrophysics? Let your IG fans know more interesting facts about these things!

So, why won't you follow the footsteps of these creators and post some mindful and exclusive content on your stories as well?

2. Use them for cross-promotion

Thanks to the swipe-up feature, Instagram has managed to become one of the biggest hubs for cross-promotion on the internet.

As an influencer, you should be taking full advantage of this opportunity to promote all your other socials.

Here are a few promotional Instagram story ideas:

  • Promote your YouTube channel:

Everyone does it! And you can, as well, use stories to show sneak peeks of your YouTube videos to your followers. The story works just like a movie trailer! It will entice your excited Instagram fans to migrate to your YouTube. 

Want more convincing? Not only will this process boost your YouTube numbers, but it will boost your reach by over 25% and increase your followers by 30%!

  • Promote your blog

If you have a blog where you share written content, Instagram stories are a no-brainer booster for newly published content! These are the most creative techniques to share blog content on your IG story:

  • Take a screenshot of an interesting paragraph & post it to tease your fans.
  • Post a short video summary of it to showcase the key points of the post.
  • Make sure to always leave a deep-link that takes your followers straight to your blog post.

Speaking of deep-links, Mysocial is the simplest & fastest deep links generator on the market. In fact, Mysocial is the best app on the market for all influencers, as it offers many amazing features.

Using the SmartLink feature, you can easily create deeplinks that will lead your Instagram followers to your YouTube channel or blog straight from the story that you posted with no hassle.

This will boost your engagement rates 8 times more.

Instagram Story ideas

Download Mysocial & discover the countless great features TODAY!

3. Review a product

As an influencer, you should be using any in-app features at your disposal to create networking opportunities. 

This is why you should be using stories to share reviews of your favorite products with your fans to increase your chances of getting sponsored by the brands you like the most.

4. Recycle your content!

Stories are the ideal place for you to repurpose your content that didn't make it into your followers’ feed.

As a matter of fact, over 24.9% of the content that is uploaded on Instagram is posted on stories. And over 68% of millennials in the UK view stories every single day!

This means that Instagram stories have an insanely high viewership rate! They are the ideal place to showcase to your followers the amazing content that they may have missed.

5. Ask a question?

Asking questions will help build a two-way relationship with your fans; thus giving them a sense of belonging to your page. This explains why posting polls is one of the best and most engaging types of stories to post on Instagram.

Polls are also a very handy tool for you as an influencer because you can use them to help distinguish the different tastes and opinions of your followers to better cater your content for them.

Here are some of our best Instagram poll ideas for you:

  • Play a quick round of trivia to see what your followers know about.
  • Use the emoji slider to know your fans’ mood/reaction to something.
  • Use them to make your followers choose between different things; controversy is a sure-fire way to boost engagement on your page.

6. Share your reality

Speaking of giving your followers a sense of belonging, giving them a glimpse of your life is sure to do the trick.

Sharing moments of your private life with your fans will make your content more relatable, and thus, will increase the engagement on your page.

Here are a few examples of relatable stories to post on Instagram:

  • Share your or someone else’s personal experiences with your fans and give them advice.
  • Share your frustrations as well & showcase that life as an influencer isn’t as perfect as some people may think.
  • Tell your followers about your achievements and the goals you want to achieve in the future.

7. Tag your favorite brands

You can make your chances of getting brand deals much higher if you tag a specific brand on your story! Whether you are reviewing one of their products or just merely talking about them, it won’t hurt to tag them!

8. Tag other content creators

Always with networking, you can share content from the content creators’ accounts in your niche and tag them on your story.

Doing this will increase the chances of getting your content shared by those influencers as well. And this will certainly help you grow & succeed as an Instagram influencer!

You can also use the help of Mysocial to ease your quest for networking opportunities by using the Matchmaking feature.

This feature lets you easily find influencers in your niche to collaborate with using a swiping system that is very similar to Tinder’s.

making instagram stories collaborations with other influencers.

9. Do an AMA!

AMA’s (ask me anything) are some of the most popular and engaging forms of content that any content creator can post. 

This is because giving your followers the opportunity to ask you anything will give them the chance to know you on a deeper level as a person, rather than just a talking head on a screen.

10. Go live!

Last but not least, we got the most important feature within Instagram stories and that, of course, is live-streaming.

Livestreams have the highest engagement rate out of all the features of Instagram. According to a study by New York Magazine, over 82% of users prefer watching live videos over normal posts.

So, grab any chance you get to go live and talk to your people! Do a Q&A, answer the replies, or even invite fans to go live with you!

11. Make tutorials

Sharing short tutorials on your stories is a very entertaining, yet useful, kind of content.

For instance, if your page is centered around beauty, you can make short makeup tutorials or dress-up guides to post on your story. If you’re a filmmaker, let the people know how you put spells on shots!

This kind of content is very prevalent and popular, as over 59% of users are looking for content to teach them something.

12. Share some fun facts

One of the best Instagram story ideas is to share fun facts. People love to know something fun every day.

You can tell a fun fact about you, your niche, or just anything interesting in general. Sharing fun facts in your Instagram story is a sure-fire way to keep your fans entertained.

13. Share your location

You can share your current location by using the location sticker on your Instagram story. Using the location sticker will increase your content’s visibility to your targeted audience, and it also massively increases your engagement rate.

According to SocialInsider, posts with a tagged location on them have a 79% higher engagement rate than normal posts!

14. Share a day in your life

People are nosy! This is why content about daily routines is so popular on social media.

There are many things about your daily life that you can showcase, including:

  • Skincare routine (if you have one)
  • Your workout schedule/plan
  • Something as simple as sharing your meals with your followers can be really entertaining for them. A good example of this is YouTube legends Smosh and their extremely popular series Lunchtime with Smosh.

15. Play a game with your followers

Another great Instagram story idea is to play games with your fans to keep them addicted!

There are many engaging types of games you can play with your followers using the features on Instagram stories, such as:

  • Pop culture quizzes using the multiple-choice poll feature
  • This or that using the two-choice poll feature

And many more!

social media manager app - generate original instagram ideas

15 Instagram story ideas for brands

1. Use them for market research

One of the most important Instagram polls use for brands is to test the waters in the market to figure out what the followers want out of the brand.

Not only will this process help you refine the niche of your brand to suit your clients, but stats also show that 81% of internet consumers want brands to get to know them and know how to approach their needs. This means studying your follower's needs is a must!

2. Use the chat sticker

Using this feature, you can create exclusive chatrooms that your followers can easily access from your stories. This type of chatroom allows you to make product pre-orders much easier for your customers. They also allow you to share discount codes for your most loyal clients!

3. Ask for donations

If your business or startup is still rising, you can give your current customers the chance to be a part of your empire! You can request donations to invest in your next project in exchange for exclusive products in the future!

According to a study by SheerID, brands that offer their clients exclusive products have increased their conversion rates by 8 times!

To add to that, 68% of consumers have stated that exclusive offers have a much greater appeal than other offers.

4. Use them for announcements

The 15-second window you get on your stories is the perfect amount you need for a quick announcement. You can use it to promote your upcoming sales, discounts, new products, giveaways, and much more…

5. Promote your products

Using product stickers is one of the best Instagram story ideas to implement when promoting your merchandise or services to your followers.

It’s a very effective marketing technique for all brands; it’s been proven by a study conducted by 99 Firms that over 58% of people have become more interested in a product after seeing it on an Instagram story!

You can easily increase conversions rates on Instagram using deep links. With the help of the Mysocial app and its SmartLink feature, making deep links won’t cost you more than a few seconds!

Instead of Instagram opening your products’ links in its integrated browser, the deep link will send your customers directly to their own preferred browser, where their billing info & other useful data are saved. This will facilitate their buying experience, thus increasing conversions!

6. Show your followers ‘behind the scenes’

Giving your followers a sneak peek at how you do your work gives them a better understanding of what you actually do.

There are many ways you can showcase your work to your fans in an engaging way:

  • Show your followers a time-lapse of how your products are made.
  • Give your followers an insider look into your team and how they work at the headquarters. This will boost the followers’ sense of belonging & loyalty to your brand.
  • Provide updates on your future projects to keep your fans excited.

7. Share client testimonials

The best way to provide reassurance to your clients is by posting testimonials and positive reviews on your Instagram stories.

According to Big Commerce, 72% of consumers say that seeing positive testimonials has increased their trust in brands!

8. Share shoutouts about your brand

Posting shoutouts that your brand has received from other accounts is an excellent promotion opportunity and will increase your clientele.

According to an experiment by Drop shirt, whenever an influencer gives a brand a shoutout, over 0.2% of their followers end up following that brand.

To put that figure into perspective, if a content creator with 100k followers shouts your brand out, you’d be getting a minimum of 200 new followers. And with the help of a well-established sales funnel, these prospects can be turned into leads, and then into paying customers!

9. Ask for feedback

Asking your followers for feedback on your projects or products is essential to understanding the market and customer behavior. You can leverage the interactive tools Instagram offers you on its stories feature to harvest precise data about your customers, directly from them.

Next is to use this understanding and map a personalized and seamless digital customer experience (DCX).

Research that was conducted by Vedia stated that: brands have recorded a spike of 20% in sales on average after offering their clients personalized experiences, such as asking for their feedback.

10. Offer special deals

Offering your fans exclusive discounts on your story encourages them to swipe, thus keeping your engagement thriving. This will increase your account reach & help get your Instagram page more views and why not customers!

According to a study, 58% of consumers prefer buying through exclusive offers, so you better take advantage!

11. Do a story takeover

A story takeover is when you let one of your employees, ambassador, or an influencer who doesn’t usually have access to your account, post anything for one day. This is a cool change of pace to create some engagement for your audience.

A study by Buffer concluded that Instagram account takeovers can increase engagement by over 17%. So, it is a very effective marketing technique for your brand.

12. Show your HQ

A fun Instagram story idea would be to show your headquarters to your followers. This way, your followers will get the impression that you’re transparent, and therefore trustworthy. This will also increase customers’ sense of belongingness and being a part of your brand. And needless to say, that’s a huge win for you and your business!

The reason for this, according to the legendary economist and philosopher Abraham Maslow, is because belongingness is one of the driving forces that determine human behavior, so take advantage of that!

13. Interview one of your employees

Use your stories to make a short interview with one of your employees and ask them some fun questions. This way, your followers will get to know what does your brand’s work environment looks like.

Having trustful clients is a must, according to a case study by Adobe, 7 in 10 customers will buy more from brands they trust!

14. Do a giveaway

Who doesn’t like free stuff every once in a while? This is why you should consider promoting giveaways on your stories to both: spoil your fans & keep the engagement growing stronger.

15. Show love to your fans

Your brand is absolutely nothing without your clients. This is why you should show them a bit of appreciation every once in a while and keep them loyal to your brand.

Here are a few examples to do this through your IG stories:

  • Share screenshots of DM’s and comments you get from your audience to give them a sense of respect and reassurance.
  • Showcase the profiles of your most loyal clients to make them feel appreciated and respected.
  • Re-share posts your account is tagged in by happy customers.

Top 5 apps to create good Instagram stories

Now that we have a set of inspiring IG story ideas, it’s time we help you even further and provide you with the best apps you can use to make good story content.

These are the best apps to make your ideas come true on Instagram stories:

  1. Adobe spark post: This is one of the best and most easy apps to use when it comes to creating Instagram stories. It allows you to use many animated effects and colorful templates to give your stories the spark they need.
  2. InShot: The advantage of this app is that it offers a 9:16 aspect ratio from the get-go, which is the ideal image format for Instagram stories. This app also offers many GIFs and templates to make your stories pop.
    InShot is favored by most influencer and video editors as it’s easy-to-use & preserves the quality of images and videos. Surprisingly, the app is totally free and you can remove the watermark simply by clicking the (X) mark.
  3. Unfold: This app has an amazing feature called ‘story mode’ which allows you to get a preview of how your story will look on the app. With this, you can make sure you made the most aesthetic IG stories before you even post them.
  4. Canva: This app has over 60,000 different templates for you to use on your stories, in addition to 150 different fonts to make your content stand out. Canva has both: a free & a paid plan.
  5. Over: This is the best app for all the quote lovers among you, as it has the biggest inventory of fonts out of any app on the market.

You can browse more content creation tools in our blog post about the top 20 free photo editing apps.

To wrap up:

Instagram stories remain one of the best places for you to share your content on the whole platform. With the help of these ideas & tools, you’re left with no choice but to go out and be awesome! Let’s do this!

Latest blog posts