How Instagram Stories work

There is no doubt that having a live ‘real’ connection with your audience is vital to the success of your blog. People want to have relationships with authentic people and so this live connection is becoming increasingly important. I’ve spoken more about the value of Instagram Stories in a previous post – How to use Instagram stories to grow your blog, but today I wanted to share more about the actual mechanics behind Stories; How Instagram Stories work

How Instagram Stories work? I’ve been asked this question quite a lot frequently so I thought I would record a video to show you Instagram Stories in action.

WE’RE ALL DIFFERENT SO I RECORDED A VIDEO FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKE TO WATCH AND UNDERNEATH IS A TEXT VERSION FOR THE READERS OUT THERE!

If you’re a written word kind of person, don’t worry I got you covered – read on! Instagram Stories are temporary videos or photos (live for 24 hours) that are joined together to form a story gallery. Instagram stories sit in avatar circles at the top of a person’s Instagram feed.

So here’s how Instagram Stories work:

 

• Tap on the camera button (top-left side of your home screen) or swipe left in your main feed page.

 

• Use the circle button at the bottom of the screen to take photos by one tap or a video by holding down the circle button. Other options are Live broadcast, Boomerang, Rewind, Hands-free. 

 

• You can then edit the photos or videos by adding text, emoticons, stickers or by drawing freehand. 

 

• You can add filters by swiping left or right and scrolling through until you find one you like.

 

• It is possible also to add Snapchat style filters just click the face icon bottom right and select the one you want to use and then record and take the picture as normal.

 

• When you’ve finished tap + in a circle to save to your Story or click ‘Next’ then choose your story from the options. Here you can also send it directly to a person or a group.

To build up your images/videos into a ‘Story’ just add them in the same way, repeating the steps as your story builds up. There’s no limit to the number you can add.

Your Story will now be a series of images/video that people can watch through until one by one when they reach their 24 hour expiry time they disappear. This is why you should keep doing stories regularly. A yellow/gold circle will appear around your profile photo to let people know you have a Story for them to watch. Your profile picture will also appear at the top of your followers’ feeds. They can then tap your face to see your Story.

If you make a mistake and upload something you shouldn’t have just click the three dots on the bottom right of the screen and you can choose to delete it. 

WHAT ABOUT PICTURES AND VIDEOS IN YOUR GALLERY, ABY?

Don’t worry you can still add them too. All you have to do is to start a story and swipe down or press the tiny screen icon in the left hand corner at the bottom. Your gallery will appear, however it will only show media you’ve added during the last 24 hours.

A WORK AROUND?

You can use a handy app called MetaRemove (which is free). Just run any picture through this app and it will remove the meta data, which means it will pop back up in your camera roll and you will be able to use it outside of the 24 hour window.

 

Live video

Just like Facebook live. Simply open your Stories camera and chose the Live option. A Live tag will appear on your Instagram Stories circle to people that you’re live. Instagram also notifies some of your followers. If you press the Share button when you have finished broadcasting the live video will show up in you Story for the next 24 hours. 

 

Hands Free

Record a video without using your hands. Just tap and hold the Hands-Free button and a timer will pop. This counts you down until the video will start recording.  

Boomerang

Boomerangs are short video clips which play forward and backwards. You can just create yours right in your Story by selecting the Boomerang option, pressing the circle and keeping your finger down. 

Rewind

This lets you post videos that play backwards as the name would suggest. 

 

WANT MORE TRICKS?

 

• Change the background of text you’ve written by taping the square at the middle on the top of the screen.

 

• Add your hashtags and change the colour, pinch to reduce them and hide them in the picture so they are effective but not overwhelming on the image.

 

• When adding text if the colours aren’t what you’re looking for swipe left on the colour palette to show more options.

 

• Be creative use a sticker and make it bigger and adjust the position so you are using a section of it as a banner.

 

• Use any photo and select the drawing tool. put your finger on the photo and keep it down the screen will fill with colour so you have a colourful background for your text. 

 

• Use the Drawing Tool and tap on the pointed marker, pick your colour and tap on the three-dots button on the bottom left side of the screen. Adjust the line that appears toward the top of the screen which will make the marker huge. Then you can use it to make dots (holding down your finger to increase the size of the dot).

 

• You can make stripes by choosing the angled marker instead of the pointed marker. Then tap the screen. to add little stripes.

 

• Tag brand or friends in your story. They will be notified that you mentioned them.

 

• If you want to pause on one part of a story tap and hold your finger (then lift!) on the photo and it will start again.

 

• You can also send people text responses to their stories but also video’s, boomerangs, anything you can do in Stories. 

 

• You can check who has viewed your story. Just open your story and swipe up. At the bottom of the screen will be a view counter and the names of the people who viewed it. 

 

• Sick of someone? Tap and hold their icon and you will be shown an option to mute their Story.

 

• Don’t want a certain person to see a Story? Then just select that the Story settings. Go to your profile and tap the sun symbol (on iOS) or the three dots (Android) in the top right of the screen. Then choose Story Settings from the menu and then tap on Hide My Story From. Select the person you want to hide the story from on the list and click Done. 

 

• You can even share your story to your main Instagram feed. Just open your story, tap the three dots (bottom right) and select Share as Post and after editing tap Share.

 

• If you have over 10k followers and a business account you can add a clickable link on your stories. You simply select the link icon at the top and pop in the link. Make sure you reference this in the Story so people know to swipe up to access the link.

 

• Take a video or a picture in the Story camera, then save and open it in an app like Legend and Hype Type add more customisation. Save and then select it from your camera roll back in Stories. Click add to Story for more variety.

REUSE YOUR STORY?

Why not download your Story and then use it on Facebook or even upload to YouTube. You could save any you’ve done for brands and include them on your Work me me page too!

Do you love Instagram Stories? Do you have any tips on how Instagram Stories work for you?