Instagram Stories Hacks to Give You Creative Edge
We all know the basics of Instagram Stories. But what are the secrets that only the pros know? That’s what going to be sharing in this article. The biggest hacks and tricks that are going to give your Instagram Stories that creative edge. Have you ever been watching Instagram Stories and thought, how do they do that? I didn’t know that feature existed.
In this article, I hope to give you the tools that are going to help you learn exactly how to create the kind of stories that leave others wondering the same thing. And if you stay until the very end, I’m going to tell you how to add a photo or a custom GIF onto an existing story to really make it pop.
This first hack is short and simple, and it’s a way for you to add more context and put a little bit more thought energy and effort into your stories. And the hack is to not post in the moments. So what I’m asking you to do is record your video or your photo and then save it to your camera roll before uploading it. Later when you have a little bit of extra space and time, finds the image or video that you took previously, select it, add it to your Instagram story, and this time you actually have the time to add text, to add that border, to make sure that it’s going to be as engaging as possible to your audience. The benefits of this are twofold. Firstly, it’s going to allow you to be more intentional with what it is that you’re posting. And secondly, it’s going to allow you to be more present so that you’re not buried in your phone during special moments.
The second hack is really cool because it allows you to use the question sticker in your Instagram Live within 24 hours of posting it. I’m going to tell you how it’s done. Earlier today, I asked my audience this question. Hey guys, I’m here at social… (fast forwarding) I need you to ask me any of your top Instagram story questions right now in the box below. Once you’ve recorded your story, the first thing you’re going to do is you’re going to tap on the sticker icon. From there, you are going to tap on the questions icon but you can change the text to anything you want. So, I’m going to type in, Ask me anything about Instagram Stories. From there, at the very top you’re going to see there’s like a rainbow circle, you can tap on that icon to change the colour to anything you like. And you can make it bigger or smaller by just doing this with your fingers, drag it anywhere you want. And there you have it; I like to decorate my stories. So, I’m just going to add a quick border with the Brush tool. Remember, you always want to make your stories branded. You always want people to see that story and know that it’s you. So adding a quick border, that’s the colour of your brand, is going to be a really fast way to do that. Every single person watching my Instagram Stories is watching it on silence, which means that they didn’t get the first part of what it was that I said, and I’m going to type in what it was that I said, so I’m going to say, hey friends, I’m here at Social Media Examiner today filming videos, and I need you to ask me a question.
Okay, so once you’ve got your text in, you can make it smaller, Centre it. And from there, I’m going to press Add to story. What we’re going to do is we’re going to leave it for an hour, let some questions run in and then we’re going to be able to show you exactly how to use those questions when you are on an Instagram story live to be able to answer the questions as stickers. Now I’m going to go live and use their responses in my video. So, the first thing that you want to do is you want to press the little question box that’s at the bottom right-hand side of your live. And that’s going to bring up all of the different responses that people had to your question sticker. From there, you’re going to select the question that you want to show up on your Instagram Live. So, in this case, let’s just take this one from Jordana. And as you can see, it’s now going to show up on your Instagram Live. It’s now changed it from a live category to a Q&A category, which you’ll see up here. And essentially what you’re going to do is you’re going to use this opportunity to connect with your audience, answer the questions that are there visible on the screen. And it’s just really cools because if anyone pops onto your live randomly, they know exactly what you’re talking about, which question you’re answering, and it also shows your audience that you are engaged and participating with them and that you want to hear from them. So, this is a question from Hope, and she says, what are your three must have Instagram story apps? Okay, Hope, thank you so much for this question. My three must have Instagram story apps are Unfold, In Shot and Cut Story. One thing to note while you’re answering questions on your live is that as you select different questions, it will actually fade that question so that you don’t pick it again. And that’s how you use the Questions feature during your live.
Hack number three is how to add multiple responses to the question sticker on one story. So, this is a really great way to communicate and create that sense of community with your audience. What I suggest that you do is ask a question where it would be interesting to see the answers of a variety of different people at once. So, I’m going to do it right now. And it’s not quite going to work because you’re just going to see a bunch of questions because I asked people to ask me questions. You are going to use this in a way where you’re actually engaging in conversation. So, the first thing you’re going to do is you’re going to go and find the question in your story, and then at the very bottom where it says how many people have seen that story, you’re going to tap on that. And it’s going to say Responses, See All, right? So you’re going to tap on See All, and it’s going to bring up all of the different responses. You’re then going to tap on the response that you want. And you’re going to press Share Response. From there, it’s going to bring up the camera screen, you’re just going to tap it, you can put a picture in the back if you want, but I like to just keep the background one colour, let’s go with the black colour, then you can drag and drop, you can make it bigger, smaller, shift it, rotate it, do whatever you want, then you’re going to save it by pressing the underlined downwards arrow. From there, you’re going to X out, you’re going to discard, you’re going to press the X, it’s going to bring you back to this space where you have all of your responses, you’re then going to pick another response. You’re going to press share response. And instead of taking a picture this time, you’re going to swipe up, and you’re going to select what you previously saved. You’re then going to drag and drop the second question around to be wherever you want it to be. Once it’s there, you’re going to press Save again. As you can see, you’re just going to keep doing this on and on and repeat this process until you have maybe five different responses. And then you’ll be good and ready to share that to your story.
My fourth hack is a really exciting one that not many people know about. So, here’s what I want you to do. First thing you’re going to do is open up the camera within Instagram Stories, then you’re going to slide all the way to the right-hand side of the screen of your filters until you see an icon that says Browse Effects. And that’s going to open up an effect’s gallery. You can select them, play with them, the bottom left-hand side you can see where it says try it, that’s going to allow you to try it, which is really cool. At the bottom of the screen, you’re going to see that there’s a variety of different filters. So, you can just scroll through tapping one by one, seeing what different effects they have. And as soon as you see one and you’re like, huh, this is one that I might actually like to use. You’re then going to tap on the name at the bottom of the screen, this one’s called Blossoming, and you’re going to press Save effect. All of your saved filters live on the left-hand side of your record button. So, if you open the story of someone that you follow, and if they are using a filter, you will see it right underneath their username at the top left-hand side of the screen. You can see right here it says Pink Pre-set 2, if you tap on Pink Pre-set 2, it’s going to come up with an option that says Save Effect, tap on that, it’s going to allow you to save the effect. And then you can use it for yourself. This is the big one that can really make your story stand out and really give you that extra edge to catch people’s attention. Typically, Instagram Stories will only allow you to upload one video or image in a single story. So, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be copy pasting an image into an existing story. This is a great way to be able to actually tell your audience, like hey guys, today I’m going to be talking about this, and then have a picture of it right there on your story.
Now, I recommend making a video about whatever it is that you’re going to share. But you can also do a photo, it really doesn’t matter. So, in this case, let’s just do a photo, cool. So, I’ve uploaded my photo there, but now we want to add another image. So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to go to our Photo app, you’re going to select the image that you want to add to your story, you want to select the icon at the bottom left-hand side, which is a little arrow pointing up and out of a rectangle. And from there, you’re going to press Copy Photo. Once you’ve copied your photo, you’re then going to go back into your Instagram story and you’re going to see a little pop up come up that says Add Sticker. However, if it doesn’t come up, it’s not the end of the world. You’re just going to select the Text tool, you’re going to tap on the cursor and then you’re going to press Paste, and that is how to add an extra image into your Instagram story. Not only can you add one image, you can add multiple images, and you can also add GIFs. So, if you have a custom GIF that you want to use and you’ve saved it into your camera roll, open its, press the bottom left hand side icon, that’s the little arrow pointing up and out of the rectangle, press Copy Photo, go back to your story, and again, apply the Text tool, tap on the cursor, press Paste and you’re going to see that your custom GIF has been added. This is so powerful because it allows you to add your own on brand photos and custom GIFs that may not be available in the GIF library. One extra tip for you is that if you do you want to draw on top of these images or add text on top of these images, place them where you want them to be, save them and then reupload them. And then Instagram Stories will allow you to add whatever you want on top of those custom GIFs and images. So, these are hard to discover.
