This post is dedicated to those of you who are either new to using Instagram stories or still feel a little weird about showing up in your stories. I’m going to give you a tutorial on how stories work, the best way to use them to grow your biz, and fun features to include that will make your stories more engaging for your audience. In other words, this is the ultimate beginner’s guide to Instagram stories!
How to Post an Instagram Story
To create a story, click on the plus sign where it shows your profile picture in the upper right corner found on your home page or your profile.
From there, you have the option to either add a previous photo or video from your gallery or you can record a new one. If you want to record, just hold down the white button and it will run for a full minute. If you want it shorter than that, just let go of the button and it will end the video. For anything longer than a minute, you will need to press the button again to continue your video.
Instagram Stories Drop-Down Menu Options Explained
Create: This feature gives you a collection of pre-made templates you can use in your stories. You can scroll through these options and see which one you would want to use for your story!
Boomerang: Boomerangs are super popular in stories right now. You use a boomerang mostly when you are doing some type of small motion and want it repeated. Example: doing cheers with a group of friends and you’re recording all of you clinking your glasses together.
Layout: This is where you can do more than one video or picture at a time. You will see a grid icon with this feature, so you can choose which type of layout you want to use for your story.
Hands-Free: This feature allows you to record a video without needing to hold down the white button for the entire recording. You’ll want to use this one if you want to use your hands in the video or just don’t want to hold the button down the whole time!
How to Add Instagram Stories Effects
Once you’ve landed on the photo or video you want to post to your stories you can scroll through the effects to see if you want to add any extras to make it more engaging.
At the bottom of your screen, you’ll see circles you can swipe through that represent different effects you can add to your story. The effects include different filters, such as a green screen and holiday-themed icons.
If you scroll to the very end of the effects, you’ll see a search icon. This is where you can search for a specific effect that you want to use in your story. From here, you can also view what effects are trending, aesthetics, and special effects.
Using these effects in your stories is a fun and simple way to add some of your personality! When your stories look a little more jazzed up than what people are used to seeing, they are more likely to stay and watch!
Step-by-Step Tutorial for Posting Instagram Stories & Reels
Let’s say you want to create a reel. Hit the plus button, and this time instead of clicking stories, you’ll click reels. You start the same way you would with stories by recording your video. Once your video is recorded, you should see different icons at the top of your screen.
“Aa”: This icon is where you add text to your video. You can scroll through the text and pick which one you like the best. This is also where you find the option to add your location and mention an account. You can also play around with the color to pick which one you want your text and/or text box to be. (Hold down on the colors and it will give you more options!)
Sticker/Smiley Face Square: You can do A LOT in this icon! Once you click on this icon, you’ll see an entire menu of options for you to add to your reel. The first few listed should be location, mention, captions, “add yours,” question box, music, etc.
Take a minute and browse through this feature. There are GIFs and tons of other animations that you can add to your video to make it more exciting for your audience.
I recommend using engagement stickers as often as you can in your stories. (E.g. polls, question box, etc.) This is how you get people to interact with you and form a relationship with you. And the stickers are a great tool for you to see how many people are watching your stories and engaging with you.
Music Note: This will give you the option to add audio to your video if you do not want to use the original audio you recorded. This is where you will find trending audio to post with your reel.
Play Button: You’ll press this icon if you want to add other videos to the reel to make a compilation–or if you have multiple clips and want to form it into one video/reel.
3 Stars: This is where you can add aesthetics and special effects. There are tons of different options to choose from–most being fun add-ins that may not be appropriate if you are posting something more serious. You can scroll through and decide for yourself on your next reel!
Scissors: Tapping the scissors will allow you to edit your reel in layers. You’ll have your video layer, audio layer, and text layer. This layering system speeds up your editing process and helps you get clean and precise cuts.
Volume/Mute: The next icon is a volume button, so you can click that and mute your video. This will make it so you don’t have to hear your audio over and over as you’re editing it. You’ll also want to use this feature when you want to post a reel without the original recording and instead play a song or other type of audio.
Picture: This one allows you to browse through your photos if you want to add some to go on top of your reel.
CC: This will turn on captions for your reel. It’s always a good idea to add captions to your videos. Your audience may not have the volume playing while watching your reel, so they rely on captions. Captions give them the option to watch your video and still know what you’re talking about. Without the captions, they’ll scroll right past. I like to include captions and a text box with a quick sentence about what’s in the video which will make people want to stick around.
Mic: Tap the mic if you want to do a voiceover for your reel. You’d use this feature if you are explaining something like a tutorial or showcasing an item/product and listing all the things you love about it.
3 Interconnected Circles: Tap this icon to swipe through the filters to see which one looks best for your reel.
How to Publish Your Instagram Reel and/or Story
Once you’ve uploaded your video to your stories, you have a couple of options. You can add it to a highlight or turn it into a reel. If you want to turn your story into a reel, click the Create button at the bottom of your story and it will give you the option to do so.
Highlights are the bubble icons at the top of people’s Instagram accounts where it’s a collection of stories on a specific topic. For example, let’s say you have a whole series of stories about skin care. You could create a highlight titled “Skin Care” and save all your stories there. This is handy because your stories can live there forever rather than only for 24 hours like they normally do.
It’s 3 simple steps to add a story to your Highlights:
1. Tap the three dots where it says “more.”
2. Tap “Highlight.”
3. Select which highlight bubble to add it to or create a new one.
Once you create your highlight they will show up at the top of your Instagram content on your profile tab.
FAQs About Instagram Stories
How to Repost a Story on Instagram?
Open the story you want to share and tap the paper airplane icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. This will bring up options–find the one that says “Add to story.”
When reposting, make sure to tag the original creator so they get credit for their content. Sometimes the owner of the story has privacy settings that prevent you from reposting their story. If this is the case, the option to repost will not show up when you click on the paper airplane icon.
How to Change Background Color on an Instagram Story?
When editing your story before you post it, you can use the draw tool to fill the screen with a solid color. You do this by tapping the 3 dots in the top right corner and selecting “Draw.”
Next, tap the pen icon and choose a color. Press and hold the screen to fill it with your desired color. You can use the eraser tool and drag your finger across the screen to reveal your image.
If you want a specific color you can use the Eyedropper tool at the bottom left. Next, tap the color from your image that you want it to match and then apply it to your background.
How to Add Multiple Photos to an Instagram Story?
Once you get to the screen to select photos to add to your story, tap the “Select” button. This will allow you to select multiple photos to add to one story. As you select them, they will line up across the bottom of your screen to help you know which ones you’ve selected. You can add up to 10 photos at a time.
If you want to put multiple photos on one story, select the first photo you want to share and that should take you to the screen to edit your story. Use two fingers to shrink down the photo and drag it to place it where you want.
Next, click on the stickers icon and then click on “Photo.” This will bring up your other photos for you to choose from that you want to add to the story. You can shrink this one down and drag it to place it where you want. Continue this process until you have all the photos on the story you want to post.
How to Add Music to an Instagram Story?
Once you’ve selected the photo you want to share on your story you will find the option to add music on the editing screen. Click on the sticker button (it looks like a square smiley face) and then tap the “Music” button.
From there, you can either browse through the listed trending music to add or you can type in the search bar for a specific song to add.
Once you’ve picked the song you want to use, you can drag your finger across the white bar at the bottom of your screen to choose what part of the song you’d like to use. Also, if you tap the icon of the music on your story, it’ll shuffle through different ways to show up in your story.
Main Takeaways
- Instagram Stories has 5 features in its drop-down menu to help you captivate your audience. Each is explained above.
- Dual
- Hands-Free
- Layout
- Boomerang
- Create
- To add effects to your Instagram stories, swipe through the circles at the bottom of your screen when editing your story. You’ll find different things like filters, music, and more. There’s even a search feature where you can look for something specific (song, stickers, etc.) to add to your story.
- If you want your story to last longer than 24 hours you can save it as a highlight bubble on your profile. It will live there unless you go in and delete it. Influencers usually make categories for each highlight bubble and then put their stories in there that fall under that category.
The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Instagram Stories
Stories are one of the most powerful tools on Instagram. It’s a way for you to get in front of your audience every single day in an authentic way. Showing up on your stories will speed up the process for your audience to connect with you and trust you. Now that you have the ultimate beginner’s guide to Instagram stories, you have nothing holding you back! Can’t wait to catch you in your stories!
If there are things you’re still a little bit confused about, make sure to watch my YouTube video at the top of this post! Sometimes seeing it while I talk about it helps answer the rest of your questions! And make sure you’re following me on Instagram @iammichellegifford so you can keep getting the best tips for promoting your biz on social media and beyond!
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