Being active on social media is a great way to keep growing your practice and Instagram is still one of the most used social platforms worldwide. Your educational posts, business info and links are displayed on your main Instagram page but Stories is where you can be a little more creative and spontaneous.
Instagram Stories allow you to showcase your day to day life, behind the scenes, promote new services and share a call to action for 24 hours. It gives your audience (and potential new patients) a chance to follow along and learn a little more about you on a daily basis.
Using all of the available features in Stories helps you stand out as an expert and many of the features are interactive. Best of all, the more engagement you get on your Stories, the better you fare in the tricky Instagram algorithm which gets you discovered by even more people!
Here are 5 top tips and tricks that can really help your Instagram Stories stand out and amplify your reach.
1 – Add Links to Your Stories (without 10k followers!)
Swipe up links are only available to Instagram users with 10,000 followers +. But let me let you in on a little secret – there is a way to add a link in your Stories using IGTV! Here’s how:
- Create an IGTV video with a solid call to action in the title, i.e, “tap on the title of the video to get the link!”
- In the IGTV caption, add your link.
- Post the video to your page.
- Next, open up Instagram Stories and click on the link icon on top of your screen.
- Select + IGTV Video
- Select the IGTV video that you just created, and that’s it!
- Your audience will now be able to swipe up, see your video, and click on your link in your IGTV caption.
2 – Green Screen Video
Green screen allows you to share any image you want in the background of your Stories. Great while talking about facts or using photos for reference. Here’s how to do it:
- Scroll through the filters at the bottom of your Stories screen till you get to the magnifying glass; tap to search.
- Search “green screen” and select Instagram’s green screen filter.
- Tap Add media to choose your background video or photo.
- Take a picture or make a video in front of this fake backdrop and there you go – green screen magic!
3 – Scheduling Stories with Facebook Business Suite
For those days when you’re too busy with your practice to spontaneously post on Stories, you can now save some time and pre-schedule content using Facebook Business Suite. This option is great for Stories that are sharing new services, recent blogs, testimonials or calls to action.
4 – Music
The soundtrack to your life! Music makes Stories that much more engaging and fun to watch. Here’s how to add a little musical element to your Stories:
- Once you have your Story content (recorded video or picture) tap the music note icon on the top of the screen.
- Scroll through and select your song.
- You can then edit a few elements of the Music feature such as:
- Scroll to choose a specific part of the song to feature during your Story clip.
- Choose to either showcase lyrics, album cover or just title and singer of your chosen song.
- Change the colour and or completely shrink the song icon so it’s not visible on your Story at all.
5 – Hide Hashtags and Mentions in Stories
Adding hashtags and mentions in your Stories helps you get seen all over Instagram (hashtags are like a search engine after all) but if you want them tucked away out of site here’s how to do that:
- Click on the letter icon at the top of your Stories to add a text box on top.
- Type your hashtags and mentions.
- Next, click on the rainbow wheel at the top of the screen.
- Tap the eyedropper icon below.
- Tap a spot on the photo to change the text to that same color for it to blend in.
- Pinch the text to minimize the text and it becomes virtually invisible!
Bonus Tip!
Want to use more creative font styles in your Stories? Check out Instagram Fonts Generator! Type in your message and hit enter to see your font options. Copy the message and paste into your Instagram Story text box.
Want more social media and marketing strategies that work for natural health practitioners? Check out our trainings here!
We cover everything you need to know – Social Selling, Growing Organically on Facebook, Utilizing Facebook Groups and Mastering Instagram. These easy to follow trainings can help you get clear on what you can be doing to grow your brand online right now!