You might understand the basics of how to use Instagram Stories, but I know that sometimes you need a little creative inspiration to get your social content machine whirring. That’s why I’ve put together some of the savviest Instagram Story Content Ideas with tips on how you can replicate these tactics for your brand.

1. A Day In The Life

Brand Example: Dubsado
Dubsado does a great job allowing their employees to showcase what a day in the life looks like at their offices.

What Your Brand Can Try: This is one of the most effective techniques a brand can try on Instagram Stories Instagram Stories enables your brand to give followers an up close and personal look at the day-to-day aspects of the job. Start by choosing someone who would like to share their experience and have them go through their day at your company.

2. Instagram Fill in the Blank Templates

Brand Example: WHATABURGER

Instagram Templates became popular early 2018. Influencers started to create “Fill in the blank” “This or That” “Never have I ever” templates. The idea of the template is for users to screenshot the template, post to their own story and tag the creator. This tactic increases engagement and profile views. WHATABURGER adopted this trend and had their audience share how they like their WHATABURGER.

What Your Brand Can Try: Creating branded templates and questions that pertain to your brand.

3. Polls

Brand Example: HelloFresh
Instagram Story polls are the new survey. One such example comes from HelloFresh, which used the new polling feature to see what recipes or food creations might resonate with its audience. These types of insights could easily be used to help inform their actual product moving forward.

What Your Brand Can Try: Get to know your audience by having them answer polls. You can also use polls as market research for an upcoming launch, event, product or service.

4. User-Generated Content

Brand Example: Man of the Woods Tour
The latest Instagram update allows users to share tagged Instagram Stories or posts. User-generated content is perfect for a brand because it showcases your audience raving about your products/services.

What Your Brand Can Try: Encourage your audience to share their experiences by tagging your account in the post or IG Story. Showing user-generated content will not only allow you to showcase your audience but also build trust in new views. If you have apparel like custom jackets (check it out over at Imprint), then your audience can enter competitions for them to win a jacket, a hoodie, or a shirt, and so on, so you can engage more with your audience and get them to feel more connected with you.

5. Selfie- Contest

Brand Example: San Antonio Start-up Week
To promote their upcoming start-up week San Antonio Start-up Week used decals to activate the workshop spaces. To get more eyeballs on their event, they created a selfie-contest. The user is encouraged to go to the areas where the decals are at, take a selfie and tag their account for a chance to win Spurs tickets.

What Your Brand Can Try: A Selfie-Contest

About The Social Butterfly Gal: I’m Christina Jovanna Olivarez, founder of The Social Butterfly Gal. I’m a social media consultant, online marketing expert, & community builder. I help established brands achieve greater visibility online with intentional social media strategies. I’m also the co-founder of Hustle + Socialize, a conference & community for women entrepreneurs. In between the sips of coffee and social media notifications, you will find me living up to my brand name; being a social butterfly; attending various networking and local events around San Antonio, TX.