instagram stories features real estate

Shine on Instagram Stories: Part 2

Shine on Instagram Stories: Part 2

New Instagram Stories Feature I Love and Heartbreak Over What Went Away

There are changes to Instagram Stories features that I want to make sure you know about.
Stories are a super-easy way to be present on Instagram without worrying about posts being “forever” on your grid. When they add new features or obsolete others, though, it can make things complicated.

Instagram is the perfect place to tell your daily brand story in an authentic way, and we covered a lot of tips on how to do that in Part 1, but now comes the feature changes. We covered a lot in Part 1 of Shine Bright on Instagram, but now we’re talking about the most recent feature added and my heartbreak over a feature that ended.

New Stories Feature Alert! Captions Rock!

My biggest pet peeve with Instagram Stories is when people are talking up a storm and they aren’t showing their face! Studies say 92% of mobile consumers watch videos with the sound off, so your audience might have no idea what you’re narrating or if there’s talking at all.

Tada! We’re in luck! Just a few months ago Instagram added auto-captioning to Stories! That same study suggests that 80% of consumers will watch the whole video if there is captioning. So as you’re narrating a walk-through, your afternoon routine, or the location of your favorite cafe, we will be able to understand! Hallelujah! This might just be one of my fav Stories features.

You can find the caption sticker right where the other stickers conveniently are. You are able to edit the transcription if it’s incorrect, switch out the way it is shown (the same options as when you add song lyrics), and the color of your font.

Not one to post on the go? You can upload videos you’ve taken in the past and still add the captioning! It is not exclusive to in-app recording.

So, go bananas on Instagram and give Stories captions a try! I want to see what you’re up to!

Big Bummer! Stories Features They Took Away.

Instagram Stories took a big hit in the amount of reach you could get when they changed how hashtags work in Stories. The location and hashtag story has been removed. Remember when you would click on a hashtag or location within Stories and you’d be taken to a page where you’d see the tags for that particular hashtag/location AND a daily curated story?!

  1. This feature was magical for a couple of reasons:
  2. I want to know what’s poppin’ before heading to a location or event! I used to use this feature all the time when I would go out with friends. It’s cool to see if it’s crowded, what other people are wearing, OR maybe I’m having a little FOMO and I want to see what’s going on.
  3. Follower Growth and Impressions. It was amazing if you got featured in the curated daily story. Your impressions would explode where people could find you through common hashtags and locations. I had the best luck at events! An event hashtag would all be in one place so I felt like I didn’t miss out on much.

Other Thoughts.

Check out Part 1 of this series to see how to the location sticker instead. It is still important to give context to your Stories but I have not put hashtags on my Stories in over a year. They take up the limited space on a Story but they also do not lead anywhere. The only case I would suggest using one is if it’s your branded hashtag and it leads the consumer to other Grid posts that have used the hashtag as well.

Now we’ve gone over what will get your audiences’ attention, get them engaged, and keep them informed.

I saved the best for last, Lead Gen through Stories! Check out Shine Bright on IG Part 3!

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