Instagram stories are fantastic for building a community around your account and helping your followers and customers understand your brand.
Unlike our feeds, anything goes on our Instagram stories. It can be an unpolished version of our carefully curated Reels and photos and because of this, a lot quicker to create.
When done right, Instagram stories can drive potential customers to your products and website, so I will show you how to increase Instagram story views.
I have found 8 strategies that help me to increase story views on Instagram –
- Letting my stories “drop” before uploading new content
- Adding an extra story just before the stories I want to push expire
- Adding an engagement sticker such as questions, polls or emoji sliders.
- Building up a new project or product and asking followers to add me to their close friend list
- Creating a more detailed step-by-step tutorial on a recent project
- Location tagging and hashtags
- Posting stories when my followers are most engaged
- Replying to DMs and commenting before posting stories
How to increase Instagram story views
To get around the Instagram story views algorithm, first, we need to understand how Instagram sorts story views.
Whenever you go to your home feed on Instagram, unseen stories will be displayed across the top in order. What does the order of Instagram stories mean and how does Instagram sort this order and decide who you will see first?
Although the Instagram story views algorithm is a closely guarded secret (like most things with Instagram), we can assume there are several things taking place.
- Instagram is all about engagement and building a community, so primarily it will show you content from the people you engage with the most.
- Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are all interlinked, so if you are friends with someone on these other apps, they will also be bumped to the beginning of your story feed. This is all about Instagram trying to boost your relationships with friends
- If you have recently been chatting to someone in their DMs on Instagram, you will find that their stories get bumped to the top of your story views.
- If you have saved content from someone’s feed, they will also show up first.
So, with that in mind, THE most important thing you can do to increase story views on Instagram is to interact!
1. Letting stories drop before uploading content
If you want to increase story views on Instagram, I have found this tactic to work the best for me! How does this work?
If you have looked at your insights for your stories, you will see that a sequence of stories will slowly get fewer people interacting and viewing as the stories flick through.
Firstly, if you are finding that many people are dropping off from your first story, you need to rethink your strategy and create more engaging stories to keep people viewing.
However, people will always drop off. You can’t please all of the people all of the time!
I always get my biggest views on the first story, so if I have something big to share or a product to promote, I will let my stories expire before I upload new content.
There can be a difference of several thousand views by sticking to this strategy!
2. Adding an extra story just before the stories I want to push expire
If you have let your stories drop and then added a new sequence of stories, sometimes they will still need an extra boost.
If I am working on a collaboration, I will let my stories drop before I start the story collaboration and let them run for the day.
Then, when these stories are about to expire, I will add one or two more stories at the end of the day to boost views and increase story views on Instagram
I will make sure these stories are extra engaging with stickers and engagement tactics to boost views that little bit more!
Every little helps.
3. Adding an engagement sticker
This is self-explanatory really.
As Instagram keep stressing, they want the app to be a place of engagement, community, and interaction.
If you add an engagement sticker to your stories, you are actively asking people to become engaged with your content. This can explode your views!
It will also make people stay on your story longer as they read your sticker and interact. A win-win!
Polls, question stickers and emoji sliders are the best way to encourage your followers to engage and create hype around your content.
4. Adding people to your Close Friends or Favourite List
Again, Instagram is trying to push connections and friendships, so by using the Close Friends feature, you are telling Instagram you want to interact with this person more.
When you add someone to your Close Friends or Favourite List, their stories will appear with green around them and often be at the front of your story feed.
The people you have put on your Close Friend list will also see a green ring around your profile photo to let them know you have added them to your list.
Admittedly, we can’t add everyone to our Close Friends list, but we can add our most engaged audience and ask them to do the same.
The same goes for our Favourite List. By creating amazing and engaging content, hopefully your followers will want to see more and add you to their favourites.
Or you could just ask them nicely to add you! 🙂
5. Creating a more detailed step-by-step tutorial or product creation story
My story views go crazy when I am about to start a new project. I will get my audience to help me decide on paint colours, designs and wallpapers and use lots of engagement stickers to get them more involved.
I also make sure that this content is easily shareable.
By putting up mood boards, colour schemes and wallpaper ideas, people will share these ideas with family and friends and boost my story views.
I also make sure that I put my Instagram handle in the stories which boost my account further.
6. Location tagging
Location tagging is a brilliant way to get your stories seen more.
If you include a popular destination in your stories, you will show up on the map when people search for this particular location
7. Posting stories when my followers are most engaged
My stories do best in the late afternoon and evening.
When I look at my insights, people are most engaged around these times, so it makes sense really. They have more time to watch my stories after work and in the evening when the kids are in bed and they are relaxing.
I try not to post anything in the morning as the views will already be at a disadvantage. This means as the day goes on, I will get fewer viewers as Instagram will not push my following story content.
Find out when your audience is most active and try to only publish your stories around that time.
8. Replying to DMs and commenting before posting stories
This all comes back to engagement. Instagram wants to build a community and will show you content that you have an active engagement with.
I always find that when I have had a conversation with someone in their DMs, their story will be at the front, or close to the front of my story views.
When I have liked, shared or commented on someone’s content, their stories and posts become prominent in my feed.
You have to let Instagram know what you are interested in so it can show you more of this content.
As with anything on Instagram, your content is key if you want to beat the Instagram story views algorithm!
If you are creating aesthetically pleasing, engaging and interesting content, people will want to see it.
You could follow all of the above tips, but if your content doesn’t resonate with your audience, you won’t get the views.
Always look at your insights to see what your audience loves best and make more stories like that. Try to use content stickers and location tags on a lot of your content and try not to go off-topic too frequently.
A lot of advice out there tells you that stories are more “real”, and people want to see more of your life.
But personally, this doesn’t work for me.
I don’t think my audience really wants to see what I had for lunch, or where I went for the day unless they can learn or get something out of it. It works for family and friends, but not for strangers on the whole.
Try to have a story strategy. Take note of what your audience loves the most and show them more of that.
Why are my views so low on Instagram stories?
A few reasons why your story views are so low –
- Unlike your home feed where you can scroll through and see many posts quickly, stories take a little longer to go through. You only have one line of stories at the top of your feed and each account can have several different stories in one sitting. It is much harder to be seen on Instagram stories
- Instagram has recently shut down bots generating fake followers, views, likes and comments. These bots would increase engagement and generate exposure, so we will all have seen a drop in views.
- You are not providing enough interesting material or engaging content for your audience
- You need to be more diverse in your content. Use all the stickers available, provide informative information and behind the scenes of your most engaging posts and reels content
- You’re posting at the wrong time. When are your followers active?
- You’re not spending enough time engaging with others. If you’re not talking to people in your DMs and comments, your content will not be pushed to the front of the queue.
If you follow all my advice above, you should be able to increase story views on Instagram which in turn will create more engagement around your content and increase your followers.
Instagram is a package of still images, Reels and stories. You need a strategy for all of them to help increase story views on Instagram!
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