Video is great for Instagram Stories, but a simple photo works wonders too. You don’t need a fancy photoshoot. Hold up a product, snap a pic, name it, and share.

• Share a recent shot from a photoshoot or product photo and add a link sticker.
• Bonus: Add a link sticker to shop that product on your website.

Share customer testimonials to your Instagram Story, either one directly from a customer’s Instagram feed post or create your own with a photo, the customer’s review, and their name (if applicable).

• Pair a review with a link to the product or another call to action.

Add a touch of mystery to your Instagram Story and direct people to your latest content.

Personally, I notice a substantial increase in likes, comments, and shares when I share one of my Reels or Instagram posts to my Instagram Story. It’s a basic idea, but highly effective at boosting engagement.

• Share new Reels, carousels, and posts to your Story and slap a “New Post” sticker over top so viewers have to tap on it to see your full post.

Similar to the above, repost content where your audience mentions you to your Story — it’s great social proof!

No one can resist a one-tap, multiple choice poll sticker. No one!

It only takes someone a moment to answer your poll and each click counts as engagement. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to subtly drop product features to educate your audience.

• Ask for feedback from your audience about what products they want to see, or other valuable insights.
• Use a poll to educate your audience by posting it alongside “Did you know” style questions with your product features as the answers.

Quiz stickers are interactive and a fun way to gamify your Instagram Stories.

Ask your audience trivia questions about your brand or products, or have them try and guess what’s coming up at your upcoming launch.

• Mega engagement Instagram Story idea: Link to a product page, then use a quiz to ask questions. Enter those who got the correct answers into giveaways.

Reached 50,000 Instagram followers? 100,000? Sold your 100th or 10,000th order? Thank your audience with a quick Instagram Story to commemorate the occasion and express your gratitude.

• Host a celebration double whammy by having a staff party. That way both your employees and audience feel appreciated.

Just like hashtags on posts and Reels, Instagram Story hashtags are searchable and can help boost reach and brand awareness.

• If you’re posting about an event, be sure to use that event’s hashtag to be added to the content people are finding for it.
• Encourage your audience to share UGC content using a specific hashtag to make it easy for you to find.

Start a weekly or monthly series to highlight your V.I.P. customers, or as Tourism Kelowna does here, members of their business community. It’s a great way to share your values without being self-promotional.

Use question stickers, polls, or even ask people to message you to gather opinions. The information you gather could help make merchandising decisions, identify upcoming trends, or crowdsource new product ideas.

• Not sure what to ask? Start with asking for product reviews or your audience’s opinion on current trends, then branch out into specific questions designed to get customers involved in your creative process.
• Save the Story as a highlight as a virtual “suggestion box” people can use anytime.

• Hosting a company dinner? Meeting a client for coffee? Traveling to a new city? Tag the places you go to be added to the Instagram Stories of those locations in the app’s map.
• If you have a physical business location, tag it often in Stories.

You’re not limited to the default text or brush colors Instagram gives you. When adding text to your Story, tap the eyedropper icon at the bottom left. Drag it around your image to use that color for the text or drawing tools.

• Stand out with only a few seconds of effort by matching your Story text to your brand color(s), or to colors within the photo.

Generate buzz about an upcoming event with the countdown sticker.

• Countdown to a product launch, sale, or other event.
• Pair it with a sneak peek video for more excitement.

No matter what industry you’re in, you have some kind of “behind the scenes” teasers to show your audience. You can show everything from your warehouse and the team members who keep your deliveries going out or the creative processes of the people crucial to your success, such as this feature on the prop master of a TV show.

• Curiosity gets engagement: yes, even the most boring-seeming behind the scenes content can be interesting to your customers.

Use the Instagram Stories question sticker to get your audience to submit questions that you can answer in Stories. Answer questions about your products AMA style, or “Ask Me Anything.” Or bring in an expert for a special Q&A, such as Truly’s example below. The skincare brand had a dermatologist answer audience questions.

• After the Q&A is finished, save it as a highlight so your audience can access the valuable information anytime.
• Share commonly asked questions in a FAQs highlight.

Build bridges and potential collaborative relationships with other brands by tagging them in your IG Stories. This can encourage the other brand to share your Story to their own, and even potentially reach out to collaborate further on campaigns.

• Start with brands you use in your business, such as one of the paint brands you use for your work.
• Share your honest review of the brand’s product or how it contributes to your own success.

If you’re specifically looking for creative Instagram Story ideas to grow engagement on Stories, there’s no better way than offering an exclusive discount in Stories.

• Post about the discount in your Instagram feed but make people watch your Stories for the code.

If you use Instagram Stories highlights to communicate information, keep them updated.

• Start a series on IG Stories you can save as a highlight and keep updating, such as the TSA’s prohibited items one above which is informative and often funny.

Punch up your Stories with one of Instagram’s built-in interactive stickers. They are quick and easy for people to engage with. For example, this “emoji slider” sticker only takes one tap and drag for viewers to respond to.

• Question stickers are great, but require more effort for someone to fill out. Make life easy for them (and make it more likely they’ll engage with you) by swapping a “long answer” ask to an emoji slider.

• Use a question sticker to collect guesses, or use other interactive elements like the emoji slider or a poll.

Give your audience a glimpse into how your product is made with this Instagram Story idea for product-based organizations of all sizes. People love knowing what goes into making the items they buy, especially when those are hand-crafted or made by small businesses.

• Create a video, GIF, or photo slides showing how your product is made, or the steps in delivering your services. Infuse your passion for what you do into it.

What’s better than one photo? More than one photo. Collages offer you an opportunity to creatively show off your products.

• Show your product from different angles, or sandwich a video between two photos for a delicious engagement sandwich.
• Feature multiple customer posts in one Story, or snaps of a recent event as a recap.

Create an eye-catching visual by selecting a photo for your Story’s background as usual, then layering another photo on top using the photo sticker.

• Take a screenshot of customer testimonials and layer that on top of a product photo for an easy Instagram Story idea.
• Mimic this effect by sharing a new feed post and layering it on top of a photo.

This Instagram Story idea needs no introduction.

• Using either regular emojis or Instagram’s emoji-style stickers can turn a basic photo into something hilariously memorable.

If you sell online, tagging your products in Instagram Stories is a huge opportunity to convert attention into sales. With one tap, a viewer can checkout without leaving Instagram.

Your Instagram Stories highlights are a great place to communicate key policies or programs, including your rewards program.

• Summarize the program, add a link sticker to sign up, and save it as a highlight.

Show your audience how to use your product or tips for the best experience. Or educate them on something related to your business, such as this hair tutorial from a hairstylist.

• If you’re not sure what you could create a tutorial about, ask your audience what they want to learn.

Finding top quality employees is a challenge for all organizations. Whether you’re hiring for specific positions or always on the lookout for talent, social media is a great place to get the word out. Share careers-related news on your Stories and save those as a highlight on your profile to make it easy for applicants to find.

• Create Instagram Stories for open positions and save them to a careers highlight.

Instagram Stories has countless options for creative text, from color options to drop shadows, outlines, mixing fonts and sizes, add emphasis with stickers, and more.

Always having active Instagram Stories means you’ll keep showing up near the top of your followers’ Instagram feeds when they open the app. That means you’ll have a higher chance every day of reaching your audience.

If you’re a coffee shop, restaurant, or other business where your products or services change often, consider using Instagram Stories as a main way to communicate those changes.

• While educational content is important, it’s equally important to make it entertaining. Consider creating a video to communicate your information (and repurposing it for other channels).
• Save tutorials as Story highlights to extend the life of them past twenty-four hours.

Partnering with a creator is a great way to get exclusive, custom content without having to make it yourself.

Don’t be shy! For a personal touch, get in front of the camera for authentically on-brand videos, whether you’re a solo business or large company. Instagram Stories are all about authenticity, and nothing is as powerful for building trust with your audience.

• Instead of posting a photo of a new product, film a short video of you talking about the product as you hold it. Or, talk about why you started your business or lessons learned along the way.
• Repurpose video used in IG Stories for Instagram Reels, ads, and more.

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