In today’s post, we are covering the perfect “Instagram Story Size” plus my best tips for increasing your engagement on Instagram stories! First of all, Instagram stories are amazing to grow your account and build up a brand around yourself. But, I know we all struggle with showing up online in face to face video as well as being consistent.
So today I want to share my best tips and tricks to make your stories look good, with the perfect Instagram story size, plus my best tricks and tips for having a bunch of engagement and returning followers! If you are a non-native English speaker and you shy away from speaking online or in stories check out this post on my “6 best tips for blogging in English as a non-native English speaker!”
Also, don’t miss to download my FREE INSTAGRAM PDF GUIDE on “How to Find your Instagram WHY to become Successful on the Platform” here:
Instagram Story Size
Have you noticed that sometimes images and videos get cut up and are all wrong when you upload them to Instagram stories? This can be super frustrating because maybe it just cut off your text, face or other fun aspects of the video.
Now there is a specific Instagram story size which Instagram defined so if it is super important for you to have the perfect dimension in your stories, this is what you can do:
The ideal Instagram story size is 1080px by 1920px ( or 9:16 – 1080px wide and 1920px height).
If you don’t adhere to these Instagram story size guidelines, Instagram sometimes crops or zooms in making your image or video look all weird.
There are basically two ways you can ensure that your Instagram story size will match those dimensions:
- Film vertically on Phone
- If you use your phone to record your Instagram stories, hold your phone vertically and the video size should automatically match the Instagram story size guidelines.
- Professional Instagram Stories
- Maybe you are creating professional Instagram stories for a brand or your online shop then I love to use the tool Snappa. Snappa has Instagram story templates you can use to customize to your brand’s needs. Here is a quick tutorial on how you could use Snappa to create videos with the perfect Instagram story size:
1. Showing up with your Face in Photos or Videos
My No. 1 tip for more engagement on Instagram stories is to show up as yourself and with your face 😉
Now maybe you are a brand or a shop, then there are other strategies you could use but as a blogger or influencer, you really are the face of your brand. This is a tricky step. I totally get it and I have been there. You don’t really want to show your face on social because you shy away, feeling self-conscious and maybe you did not have the time to do your makeup or did not feel like doing it in the first place.
However, where I see so so many people go wrong on Instagram is that they believe people are following you just for your images and feed. No, people on Instagram (like in the real world) are craving for connection. We want to connect with you and get to know you! If you want more engagement on your stories shows up as yourself. Maybe this is making you cringe while you are reading but there are a couple of ways how you could approach this.
First of all, ideally you show up in a video where you are talking and engaging with your audience. We are all so frustrated because engagement is down and no one seems to care about our posts and stories! But the truth is, are you engaging with other people and your followers yourself? Are you showing up for the followers you have, commenting on their posts, talking to them on stories, sharing the love on their accounts?
Be the change you want to see.
I love this by creating a video of myself Mo-Fr where I respond to questions about blogging and social media. I ask my followers how they are doing and what is going on in their lives. Did the have a great weekend and whether they are struggling with something they want to share with me! Just like with my friends in real life.
If this is too much for you, you could start by showing up in photos of yourself you post to stories. This could be a Boomerang video, a slow-motion videos or a regular photos with a funny caption. Once you feel more comfortable showing up like this and seeing the positive reactions you will get by your followers, you can move to the next level we discussed above!
We are all craving for connection and once you allow this connection to happen, your engagement will go through the roof! Don’t focus on looking perfect, we anyways never do in our own eyes. Focus on showing up for your followers instead!
2. Using Polls, Questions and Gifs
One of my favorite ways of creating more engagement is by using polls, questions and gifs to pimp up my stories.
These are great ways to prime your audience to start engaging with your content. Now, I don’t know about you but I first have to connect and get to know a person, like in real life, until I share my heart and opinion with them. So maybe you want more comments on your posts or create a true tribe on Instagram, then I would start with little acts like polls or questions. Your audience simply has to tap yes or no to give a quick response.
Once they get to know you better and know that you value their time and opinion, they will start sharing more and more. Maybe start answering your questions and giving you more of their time. I mean it’s very simple. We are all very busy and if you are not able to connect on a deeper level with your audience, why would they spend a second engaging with you, answering your story question?
You have to build that relationship and then start priming your audience to engage more and more. First a little with maybe a funny gif, an easy poll and then you will see that when you actually engage back you start building that relationship where people will start taking the time to respond to story questions or even comment on your posts!
Also, don’t miss to download my FREE INSTAGRAM PDF GUIDE on “How to Find your Instagram WHY to become Successful on the Platform” here:
3. Consistency + Schedulers
Showing up consistently makes a huge difference in your Instagram story engagement!
As mentioned before, you are trying to build a relationship with your audience and posting a story every other week will not grow consistent engagement! If you would not showing up for your friends in real life or just when feel like it, how would they react? Do you think they would care about you? Do you think they would show up for you?
Now, obviously, this is super hard. I don’t feel like showing up every single day on Instagram stories! Who am I? I have bad days, I have makeup-free days and I have days where I just don’t want to! But know what, this is just another lie we tell ourselves to skip something which is uncomfortable! Do we really need to look perfect when showing up on Instagram stories?
NO, that’s a total lie!
Again, people are craving real connection, not a curated barbie who is always in a good mood and life just seems to be perfect all the time. Just show up no matter what!
If you simply don’t have the time to spend 20min in the morning to film and post to your Instagram stories you could also put aside an hour a week to pre-film little snippets you could schedule out during the week. I love using Tailwind to schedule out Instagram stories! You can do that?
YES! Woop Woop.
Now you can start your free trial with Tailwind and check that feature out yourself! Tailwind allows you to both schedule and posts images as well as videos to your Instagram stories on auto-pilot! Start your FREE TRIAL HERE and check out their full article on “How to schedule Instagram stories with Tailwind” here.
4. Practice
Now, who said you had to be a pro at creating Instagram stories from the beginning? If you feel like practicing you go for it girl. I have my good days where I simply film a video and I am happy with the first take, but girl, there are other days…!
You can totally check out different light situations in your home, practice what you want to say in front of the mirror and create a short bullet list of things you want to address. Then go and create your first video by phone and re-play it to see what you did well and where you could improve. Retake the video and try to implement what you found sounded weird.
Just a quick reminder. Your story does not have to be perfect. It’s not an add! You can show up in an authentic way by just being you. Always remind yourself that the people who follow you chose to do so. No one is forcing them to follow you. They are probably really interested in hearing what you have to say.
So do a practice run, maybe a second one and then jump in the cold water and post it. The more you post to Instagram stories the easier it will get and the more comfortable you will feel. You will start to recognize the things which work really well and continue to post similar videos of funny clips. It’s honestly a bit of a trial and error for everyone! Just start and practice and you will see that engagement increase!
Now, I hope you enjoyed these tips on how to create the perfect Instagram story size and my tips on how to increase engagement in your videos!
Let me know your best tips and experiences in the COMMENTS!!!!
Lots of love
Katie
Also, don’t miss to download my FREE INSTAGRAM PDF GUIDE on “How to Find your Instagram WHY to become Successful on the Platform” here:
Other posts which could interest you:
Best Tips to grow your Instagram in 2019
6 Tips how to beat the Instagram Algorithm
How to use Instagram to grow your Blog
6 Instagram Hashtag Strategies to triple your Likes
The 45 Best Instagram Tools to grow Followers
How to use Everliker to grow your Instagram Account
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