Expert Advice: 5 tips to increase your Instagram story views

Getting potential consumers to view your Instagram story is extremely important in terms of generating leads from potential or repeat customers. Whether you are a brand, product or service, your Instagram story is incredibly important both visually and financially.  

As the landscape of social media, and Instagram in particular changes, it is extremely important to be aware of the latest and most lucrative methods of keeping your consumers engaged and essentially creating new sales.

1. Don't post on your story for over 24 hours

Something not everyone knows but this resets the Instagram algorithm. Therefore, having a short break actually increases our story views. 

2 Post stories that purposely invite replies

Receiving replies from your Instagram story directly signals to Instagram that your story is getting a high level of engagement. This will automatically move your story to the front of the queue therefore giving your brand more exposure to potential customers. 

3. Caption your stories

These days, a lot of people choose to watch stories with the sound off. This means when the people in the video are speaking, this could lead to the audio content being ignored and inevitably the slide skipped. Captioning the slides is vitally important to help with engagement and making sure your audience receives the right information. This is also important for the portion of your audience who are deaf or have a hearing impairment.

Lorna Luxe (Influencer) does this on a daily basis which is a clear cut example of how successful this is. 

4. Use the questions box

Getting to know what your audience wants is key to knowing what to provide next. By using the questions box, you are openly inviting conversation with your audience, recording their answers and therefore tailoring your content more specifically. 

5. Posting a selfie in the first two stories can actually help! 

Finally, believe it or not your audience loves a Selfie! this maybe out of your comfort zone, however research shows people always tap to see more if they are selfie focused! This works incredibly well in the beauty industry as a lot of content is face focused, e.g. tutorials, makeovers and certain looks.

Anna Khanna is Director of Socialista Media, specialising in Instagram Management, Training and Techniques.