Instagram Story Ideas for Small Businesses

I know what you’re thinking. Why should I post to my Instagram stories? Small and large brands alike are using the power of Instagram stories to boost their following and connect with their audiences.

As an entrepreneur, you do what you can to reach potential leads and new clients. The fact is that video using Instagram stories will get your business new leads and notoriety when done correctly.

The next question you have is “what am I supposed to post?” This is where you’ll need to get those creative juices flowing and think outside of the box to get more eyes on your business.

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Behind The Scenes

Remember that customers and clients are people so they want to actually see you and what you do. Give your followers an inside look into your life and work process. Did you visit the park? Go to a networking event?

Go ahead and pull out that smartphone to get some behind the scenes footage into your life as an entrepreneur. Behind the scenes, Instagram stories will let your audience know who you are, what you do and how you do it.

Share With Your Peers

Think about the people you’ve hired and co-workers. If you don’t have co-workers anymore that doesn’t mean you can’t team up with someone else in your industry for an Instagram stories takeover.

When using Instagram stories for your small business you’ll need to stay creative to keep producing engaging content. What better way to surprise your audience than one of your peers.

You can appear in other people’s stories as well. Just get out there on the online streets and start networking.

Use Someone Else’s Post

Avoid stealing someone’s post without giving them credit. Proper content creation etiquette means you ask before screenshotting and reposting. There’s actually an icon on Instagram where you can send someone’s post to your stories without having to screen shot it.

Again, make sure to ask permission and give the original poster credit for their content. Tagging someone else in your Instagram stories also boosts your engagement so it’s a win-win situation.

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Take a Poll and Ask Questions

This is another great way of boosting your Instagram story engagement. Depending on your audience and target customer you can ask industry-related questions or easy questions like “Do you prefer tacos or pizza?”

The more interesting or fun the question is the better. You can easily take a poll by using the add-on buttons in the Instagram stories section. Try to ask questions that are so easy that your followers automatically want to interact with your business account.

You may even want to get your audience’s view on a new product or service launch.

Show Off Your Awesome Work

Successful business owners aren’t shy to show off their amazing work. Screenshot your latest win and post it to your stories. You can also go live to chat about customer reviews, and how awesome your business has been doing.

If you recently outsourced or found a new connection go ahead and share that too. People actually do want to see you win!

Comedy and Inspiration Always Grab Attention

Comedic posts and inspirational quotes perform pretty well on business pages. Be sure to keep your branding strategy in mind before finding a quote or meme to post.

You can also create your own graphics using an app like Canva. Add a few emoji’s and gif’s to these stories and you will be good to go.

Extra Features

Now that I’ve told you all about creative Instagram stories for business owners you need to know the other features. You can add hashtags, gifs, stickers, emoji’s, tag others and even share your location on IG stories.

You’ll want to use these features to not only boost Instagram stories engagement but also to inspire a response from your audience.