 Welcome to The Journey. Today, we're talking about 10 Instagram story ideas that you can use to help gain more followers. Think of Instagram, you think of that polish, curated content, that perfect feed. Totally, but luckily with Instagram stories, I say luckily because I love to just like throw out some content. Don't overthink it. Instagram stories allows for you to do that. It's less polished, it's less meticulous, and it's what we like to say a little bit more raw and authentic. And if you haven't posted because maybe you're just, you don't know what to post, here are 10 Instagram story ideas that you can use to help engage with your customers more. Tip number one, behind the scenes. I love this and for all types of businesses, I even saw a roofing company, yes a roofing company do an excellent job on Instagram stories with their behind the scenes. So they're traveling to Charleston to put some roofs on some houses and they even documented like in the morning where they went to breakfast as a team so that behind the scenes and then they even showed the house that they'd be working on, the workers wall on the roof, and last but not least, they had a drone where they documented a lot of the roofing. So they even did it like step by step how to use the drone. They totally rad behind the scenes and it brought that roofing company and their job to life on Instagram, thanks to Instagram stories. Yeah, there's millions of people that watch Kylie Jenner per se eat cereal and what cereal she's eating, but basically they just want to see that behind the scenes footage. It makes them feel included and it shows off the company in a more unique way. Totally, or maybe it's like your favorite coffee shop where you only spend a little bit of time with them each day just to get that cup of coffee, but it's amazing what your customers want to see. They actually want to see how you've made that latte, have it come in together, pulling the shots of espresso, maybe doing some latte or like a bakery. Or a bakery. Do we make this? Yes, I would watch that. I would watch that too, or maybe like your local skate shop, like when you think about a skate shop and you think about the boards they're selling, that's just polished curated content, but how about putting some grip tape on the board or putting together a whole skateboard, like let me see the behind the scenes and then maybe when you're out shredding in Venice at the skate park, that'd be cool too. Our next idea is showcase some fun events. So say you're having a grand opening or you know some type of a local festival, you have a booth, these are really great ideas of things you can help showcase for people who can't be there. Yeah, or I noticed one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego, they actually are part of the farmers market every week, so they do that with their Instagram stories to show like, hey we're out here, come by, stop by our booth. Yeah, and your followers may not even know that they go to the local, you know, farmers market. That's a great way to help get the word out about that. Another tip, show the production process. How did this come together? Whether that's something, as like mentioned before, the bakery, or even I saw a dealership, car dealership, where they showed a new truck that was, you know, out on the lot and they went through each of the features that it had. So the guy took you through, opened the door, showed you like the new interior and the way the layout is. So whatever it is, a product, a service that you offer at your business, how can you turn this into a production process? I love watching like artists do time-lapse at their work and you're like, how did you do this? That's so cool. I would watch that for hours. Yeah, and we like things to be fast, right? We can blame technology for that. So our attention spans, they're shorter. Let's say you are a fencing business and you're putting up a fence around someone's yard. Take a video of that and do the time-lapse. So it's do-do-do-do-do. All of a sudden, it's there. Do I want to watch you put up a fence for hours? No, but do I want to watch a time-lapse of it? Absolutely. Absolutely. Another tip and best practice in corporate, sneak peeks. I love sneak peeks. One of my favorite clothing brands, Aviator Nation, they are opening another location in a new city and so they did a little sneak peek from the outside, what looks like they even did a little bit of the painting inside to get the store ready and then some of their new hot items, clothing items that they're gonna have, but you didn't get to like see the whole new line. You didn't get to see the whole new property that they bought in Florida. You just got to get a little sample. Yeah, you can have a lot of fun with that. So you could even, if you're gonna showcase a new jewelry line, you know, take a really close-up picture of like a quarter of a piece and be like, oh, you know, that's creative. Exactly, because then they don't know exactly what it's going to be, but you're helping build that hype and build that excitement around it. Yeah, you're not seeing the jewelry on someone where you really envision, it's like, oh, just a little angle of it. I wonder how that looks. You can even say, guess what our upcoming newest product is gonna be. That's actually another tip. I was just thinking, I know there's another one that I love that's really engaging. It's when the business asks questions. It might be, let's do ice cream, because I had ice cream recently. What's your favorite flavor on our menu and then what flavor would you like to see? And let them do the creative work and then you whip up that recipe of something that they mint lavender, I don't know, something wild. And Emma, that leads right into our next idea. Pull the people. So we can put a little pull up. It's so much fun. Like, hey, which one of these products do you like better? Do you like the red shirt or do you like the blue shirt? Up to you. Our next tip, leverage your employees. We do that actually at GoDaddy, the GoDaddy Life account on Instagram. So they'll do every Wednesday, an Instagram story dedicated to an employee here at GoDaddy. And they get to tell kind of like a day in the life of what they do, starting from their mornings to what they do at work. Maybe they're friends that they hang out with to decompress. It's awesome. Even as a GoDaddy employee, I still get really interested in watching those because I want to know what the other offices look like. It gives you that inside look at what other roles do, which I have no idea about. I've totally done that, especially because I work from home for GoDaddy. So it's kind of like a way for me to be like, oh, this is what my teammates are doing in Austin, or this is what the office is like in Arizona. So I get to kind of get a sense of even the local area, because they'll take you like, oh, this is where I run before work. The next thing you can do is feature your followers. This is a really great way to get some of that user-generated content, plus it's super easy. So if someone actually tags you in their story, you can just share this to your story. We both love doing that. Love it. It is effortless and great. Yeah, and it saves you time, right? But be sure to ask permission. I was actually getting ready to book a hotel. One of my favorite hotels, the Lion Hotel. They're in Kreatown, Austin, and DC. But one thing that I love about their Instagram is they do a lot of user-generated content. So fortunately, their guests take pictures while they're there. They tag the Lion Hotel, and it makes it really easy for the Lion Hotel to then get user-generated content. Also, I noticed even when there was this cool picture, they have this great pool in Austin, and it was a bunch of little kiddos running around, and the mom took a picture of her kids while they're there. Well, I saw in the comments from the Lion Hotel, like, hey, would it be all right if we shared this to our Instagram page? And of course, she was, like, probably stoked, right? They have a ton of followers. It's like, yeah, that's great. And then they reshared it, user-generated content, and it's showcasing their followers, their guests. Our next tip is cross-promote. So if you just came up with a great new YouTube video or if you have something on TikTok, you know, you're really up with all the trends, like Nealey or Facebook posts. I mean, all of that, you can link from your Instagram if you put a link in your bio, or really there's a lot of different options to help get more exposure on those other platforms. Yeah, diversify your audience, right? And I know with Instagram, I get asked about this a lot, like, how many followers do you need to actually have to swipe up? So you always have to say link in bio, and it's 10,000 followers. So get out there, find creative ways to gain followers so you can do that. Yeah, get those 10,000 followers, and then you'll be in that elite status. Swipe up. Swipe up to shop. Last tip, experiment. Have fun with this. I mean, it's disappearing content after all, which is why it's so appealing. It's gone in 24 hours. And what's also cool about when you go and experiment with Instagram stories is it doesn't have to be so cohesive. It doesn't have to be this clear storyline, right? So have fun with it. Remember to experiment. Get creative. It's going to disappear. And if you want it to be a little bit more cohesive, you do have the option to highlight it to certain stories. So you have a new product launch and you want to make sure that all of that is in one story highlighted together. You can definitely do that. Plus, Instagram is always coming up with new widgets and new things you can do with stories. So be flexible and try them out. And that's a good thing about highlights too, because there is sometimes there's that story that you don't want to disappear. Like you said, like maybe a new launch of a product or a service or a line of clothing. Put that in your highlights. I saw this recently with the salon that I go to in San Diego. They do highlights of the stylist. But yes, you have like Ali, for example, the stylist. She's known for the balayage. Easton is known for just some pretty awesome haircuts specifically with long hair. So it's just a great way to highlight their staff and stylist. And it's great because if you miss the story, I know before I've looked at a businesses page, you see the end of the story and you're like, wait, hold on, I actually really wanted to see that. Yeah. And then you can look at their highlighted stories and it's all laid out there for you. So you just learned 10 Instagram story ideas that you can use to gain more followers. Be sure to like this video and comment down below. Let us know what your favorite Instagram story strategy is. Yeah, and ring that bell to be the first to know when our next video comes out and be sure to subscribe. This is The Journey.