How to use Instagram Stories to reach local audiences
If there were a tool you could use to get your product or service in front of the right people without spending a dime, you’d use it, right? Instagram Stories is that tool. You can push paid ads through Stories, but it’s also an incredibly effective organic way to reach specific audiences.
Making Instagram Stories
Before you look to get your content seen by the desired audiences, you’ll need to make it. There are two main ways of doing this: directly in the Instagram app, or using a design tool.
Whichever method you choose, ensure your creations are consistent with your visual branding and tone of voice.
Creating Stories in the Instagram app
You can create Instagram Stories using photos you take directly within the app, or by swiping up to access your gallery. Then you can add visual assets like animated GIFs, geotags, interactive elements, etc.
One of our favourite techniques: have a template saved on your phone to use as the base of your Stories. You can then copy and paste additional images onto the template, making each Story unique but consistent and recognisable.
To copy and paste images onto your Instagram Story:
On iOS, go to your iPhone’s Camera Roll (in the Photos app) and tap open the photo you’d like to drop in. Hit the Share icon and scroll to ‘copy photo’. Then go back to Instagram, swipe over to Stories, add a piece of text, tap and hold in the text box, and hit Paste. Done!
On Android, you’ll need to install SwiftKey as your keyboard to make this work. Go to Instagram, swipe over to Stories, add some text, and open the Gallery view in the keyboard’s emoji library. You’ll be able to paste in any picture saved on your phone with a single tap.
These inserted photos will behave similarly to other visual elements added to Stories. You’re free to move it, rotate it, and resize it using your thumb and forefinger.
If you save an image as a transparent PNG (with no background) and follow these same steps, you can add your logo and other brand assets as overlays and watermarks!
When you add text to Instagram Stories, you’ll have a range of font colours to choose from. Elevate your designs by using the Eyedropper tool to match the text colour to the rest of the Story.
If you don’t want to use a template for your Instagram Stories, another option is to make the entire background one of your brand colours, before adding photos, graphics, logos, etc.
To do this, take or import a photo within the Instagram Stories creator. Select the Draw tool from the top-right corner and pick the colour you want for your background. Then, tap and hold the screen and the entire Story will turn your chosen shade. Check it matches your brand palette perfectly by pasting in your logo for comparison.
Creating Stories using other apps
If you’re a dab hand at design, you might find it easier to prep your Stories using apps like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. But if you’re not familiar with those, don’t fret — there are loads more apps on the market that can help you fulfill your goals and maintain a consistent feel through your Stories.
Social media design app Canva has a seemingly endless bank of great templates that you can use for free, as well as a paid subscription tier to unlock more powerful features on desktop and mobile. Check out our blog on how to make social media graphics for your restaurant using Canva.
We also recommend the app Over for video and image editing.
Enhancing the reach of your Instagram Stories
Once you’ve created your Stories, it’s time to publish! You’ll want them to reach as many people as possible. There are a few tricks to help maximise views — here are some of our faves.
Hiding Hashtags
You can include up to 10 hashtags in each Instagram Story. In some cases, you may want these to be seen — if you’re running a campaign with its own hashtag, for example.
Do a bit of competitor analysis to see which hashtags are working for your industry, or tie your Stories in with holidays like Christmas, Halloween, or National Burger Day.
We recommend using all 10, but! Hide them in the shadows of your Story visuals. To hide hashtags in your Stories, first, type them out as usual. Then find somewhere in you Story that has a solid block of colour, and use the Eyedropper tool to select that colour for your text. Once you’ve changed the colour, you can drag your hashtags over to the colour block and resize if necessary, making them virtually invisible (unless prying thumbs tap them).
Don’t forget to keep a note of the hashtags you’ve used so you can see what performs well.
Geotagging
Adding a location sticker to your Instagram Story can have a huge impact. If you’re a bricks-and-mortar business, it’s tempting to use your own location listing. But if you tag the town or city in which your shop/venue is located, you’re likely to be seen by more people browsing the area’s geotag.
London is a great example. You could tag a restaurant’s location in your Story, but tagging somewhere broader like ‘Carnaby’, ‘Brixton’, or even just ‘London’ will increase your chances of being included in Instagram’s curated city-wide Story features.
Tagging partners, influencers, and people you love
Another great way to extend the reach of your content is to get other people to share it. Let’s be real: people will always take the path of least resistance. Tag people in your Stories so it’s as easy as possible for them to share to theirs!
You could tag someone you think would like the content, an influencer who’s agreed to share your content, or anyone who actually directly appears in your Stories. For example, if a celebrity has eaten in your restaurant, tag them in a Story thanking them for coming!
You can hide handles in exactly the same way you can hashtags, but don’t forget: if you’re using someone else’s assets, you must publicly credit them.
Make sure you share Stories you’re tagged in, too. Social media is a reciprocal world, and it’s great to help other people whose content you enjoy reach a wider audience.
Engagement
Social Media, is, after all, a social place. One of the best things you can do to get your content seen by more relevant people is to be active in your community.
If you publish a series of Stories at once, and someone has watched the whole lot, you can be pretty confident they’re interested in what you have to offer.
You can peek at who these people are by clicking the ‘seen by’ button on the bottom-left corner of your Story. Reach out to your most avid viewers by sending them a message with a ‘starter question’ — ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘how’, or ‘where’. These are great catalysts for meaningful conversations that you can nurture into valuable follows, connections, and conversions.
Careful — since early 2019, you’ve only been able to access the information on who’s viewed your Stories in the 48 hours after posting, so be sure to make full use of these lists while they’re available!
On a role
If all of the above still makes you want to flush your phone down the toilet, empower your staff to take the reins. Social media — like it or not! — is an essential, unavoidable part of today’s marketing toolkit, but much of the content side is easy to learn. With the right direction, your staff can do amazing things for your venue. Watch the movie Chef for inspiration, or get in touch to see how we can help!
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