According to Instagram, Instagram Stories are meant to be “fast, memorable and fun” — but figuring out what that looks like for your business can be anything but!
First introduced in 2016, Instagram Stories have since become an integral part of the Instagram experience as a whole.
In fact, of Instagram’s more than 2 billion active users, 70% watch Stories on a daily basis, so it’s not a content feature you can afford to ignore.
But deciding how to best use Instagram Stories to build your business or brand is no easy feat, with many potential pitfalls along the way.
So to give you a leg up on your journey, let’s take a look at five of the most common mistakes that businesses and brands make with their Instagram Stories, and — most importantly — how you can avoid them.
Mistake #1: Posting too many Stories, too often
Want to get unfollowed? Post a lot of Stories! All the time!
While Instagram allows you to post up to 100 story frames in a 24-hour period, you definitely shouldn’t do this. Even more than six frames a day is considered excessive by some.
(credit: raymond wong/mashable)
In Rival IQ’s 2023 Instagram Stories Benchmark Report, one of the biggest takeaways was that the more frames you publish, the lower your audience retention rate.
In other words, the more stories you post, the less your audience is watching.
The biggest dip in audience retention naturally occurred from the first frame to the second frame (100% to 87%, on average).
But after that big initial drop-off, the retention decline slows down and stays above 75% through six frames per day.
What does that mean for you?
In general, it’s best to only post 1-3 story frames at a time, and no more than 4-6 story frames per day.
That said, every brand is different, so check your analytics. If you’re posting 10+ frames a day and your audience is loving it, continue to post away!
Mistake #2: Sharing content to Instagram Stories without adding context
Another account mentioned you in their Instagram Stories and you want to share it in your own Stories — that’s awesome!
Or maybe there’s a helpful post from another account that you want to share with your audience in Stories — great idea!
But here’s a key part that often gets missed: you HAVE to add context.
I see this all the time — posts that are shared to Stories with no explanation whatsoever.
It leaves your audience struggling to figure out what it is and why you’re showing it to them. Or worse still, just tapping forward and swiping on by.
Whenever you’re sharing posts to Instagram, don’t make your audience go searching for meaning — always make the context loud and clear.
Mistake #3: Not using interactive Instagram Story stickers
Don’t want your audience to “tap forward” or tap “exit” from your Stories?
Then give them something else to tap!
Using Instagram’s interactive story stickers is a great way to get your audience to engage with you.
Here are just some of the options:
- Have fun with and gain valuable insights from your audience by using Question, Poll or Quiz stickers
- Make it easy for your audience to shop straight from your Stories by adding a Product sticker
- Use the new Get Quote sticker, which encourages potential customers to get more info by completing a simple form
- Use the Countdown sticker so your audience can opt-in to automatic reminders for your events, sales, etc.
Mistake #4: Adding others’ Instagram Stories to your Stories without enlarging them first
OK, I have to confess: this is a huge pet peeve of mine.
When someone mentions you in their story, you have the option to add it to your own Stories as well — which is great!
However, when you do this, the default size of the shared story is too small, so you need to manually adjust it and make it larger to fill the frame — especially if it has text that could be hard to read.
Instagram is currently re-working this feature so the shared story will automatically take up the full screen, but in the meantime, be sure to adjust it yourself. Your audience (and I) will thank you!
Mistake #5: Spending too much time on Stories and not enough time on your feed posts
Instagram Stories are a great tool for engaging with your followers and developing
relationships over time.
However, as the Rival IQ report reveals, on average, Stories only reach 4.8% of your followers, while posts reach 16.3%.
Note: These statistics apply to accounts with less than 10,000 followers. The numbers are even more dismal for larger accounts (e.g., 5% and 0.9% respectively for accounts with more than 200K followers).
Does this mean you shouldn’t bother with Stories? Definitely not!
But it does mean that you should make your feed posts — like carousels, images and Reels — the priority, and treat Stories as a nice way to complement them.
Want more Instagram Story tips?
Feel free to contact me or send me a DM on social! I’m happy to answer any questions you have.
And be sure to sign up for my email list to get FREE social media tips and strategies delivered straight to your inbox every week. Click here to get on the list now!