Creative Instagram Story Ideas Worthy of a Best-Selling Book

Instagram has missed the mark before when it came to some features. Remember when it showed everyone the photos you liked? That used to get people into trouble. This Insta story thing seems to be here for the long haul, though. This means that you should seriously look into mastering your own brand needs. To stand out from the crowd, you’ll need some creative Instagram story ideas.

Your stories are an extension of your brand, after all. They represent you just as much as any post on your feed. They could do a better job at engaging your following. They last only 24 hours, so there is an appeal to see it before it disappears. IG does let you screenshot content in stories without detection. That hasn’t stopped people from being a little more liberal there.

If you’re worried about the approach you should take to your stories, stick around. We’ve been paying attention to this feature for a while and think we have it down. We can tell you all the tips you need to know to tell your unique story.

Cute Instagram Story Ideas To Keep Your Followers Invested

Instagram stories weren’t around when IG first started. It would have been nice to have an extra place to post content. Back then, we were stuck with placing lackluster photos besides the good ones on our feeds. This doesn’t mean your stories are for random photo dumps. If you aren’t sure what to do with this new real estate, we can help you. We have some cute Instagram story ideas we’d love to share. Here are some key tips for both personal and business accounts.

Play Some Instagram Story Games

We’re adults on this app, but we can appreciate a little fun now and then. You can’t invite your followers from around the world over for Monopoly and Cards Against Humanity. Still, IG lets you all come together for some fun. You can use IG tools to create light-hearted quizzes for your followers. They can guess facts about you by playing “Two truths and a lie.” A quick game of “This or That” will show you what people think about you.

Don’t worry. You can craftily phrase the questions in such a way as to elucidate information from your followers. Find out what they think of you and what they want to see from you. Then, you can curate your content to meet their needs. You’d keep consistent with your brand identity, of course.

Incorporate Some Instagram Stickers

Stickers are not just for kindergarten. They can be a powerful tool to share content if you know how to use them. Currently, IG offers stickers for polls, quizzes, and questions. If you think your stories need a boost in your engagement rate, this could be the way to do it. This way, people can have a reason to reply to what you have to say. 

Of course, you could just use stickers to make your stories more attractive. They come in all types of colors and graphics. You could likely find one for your favorite TV show or expression. Drop one in your stories. Your audience might get excited when they find out what you’re interested in. Maybe you’ve honed in on a particular niche on IG. That’s great, but followers may crave to get to know you outside of that niche. An Instagram sticker could be the plug of personality you need.

They could also be great for extra marketing. Link stickers, for example, can direct people to an external site where you sell your digital products. A countdown sticker could create anticipation for some new release. Stickers truly aren’t for children. These Instagram story ideas can incorporate both light-hearted and educational content.

Tag Your Location

Some influencers get a rise from being untraceable. It could be for safety or just part of the brand. Still, using your IG stories to keep your followers updated with your location is a good idea. You can show them the places you enjoy, reinforcing the brand identity you’ve built. Show them your coffee shop and beauty treatment lifestyle. Or show off the gym-rat, hiking trail fitness influencer routine.

IG gives you the power to geotag your location. This is a special sticker you can access when you try to upload a story. Your followers can click on it and find out where the place is. In fact, you could reach new followers this way. People who search for the location can see your story in the search results. Now, new followers can discover based on a genuine interest that they have. Showing your location also increases visibility to brands. You can build collaborations this way!

Check Out These Instagram Story Ideas for Photos

Your IG stories could be the same content as your feed. You shouldn’t have to think too hard about it. Still, where is the fun in that? It’s interesting for followers to expect different types of content in different areas of your page. If you need a little help, here are some Instagram story ideas for photos.

Show Your Followers Behind the Scenes

You work so hard to curate your Instagram feed for the masses. You plan out your content and make sure the feed is cohesive. We love the effort you put in, but sometimes deviation is tempting. No one is that organized all the time. It’s okay to let your followers in and show them how you achieve your final product. Show them behind the scenes of that viral photo shoot. Show them the struggles to get the best take for your pinned reel. The IG feed may not be the best place for this content. You’re working with a color scheme and filters that you want to stay true to. While your IG stories can follow the same trend, they don’t have to be as rigid. Share photos that won’t make it to the feed here. It will create a sense of relatability with your followers.

Share Before and After Shots

Who doesn’t love a good transformation story? Your followers may see the finished product all the time but don’t know where you were starting from. A nice “Transformation Tuesday” post could show progress for any type of influencer. Fitness influencers can show gym gains. Food influencers can show off how their ingredients became a four-course meal. 

While this type of content could be in a reel, stories let you into detail. You can offer winded explanations that you wouldn’t put in a short-form reel. People would be grateful for the extra information. It could further solidify you as an expert in your field.

Share Someone Else’s Photo

Some Instagram stories will involve your content. Others will involve other users’ content. The plan was for IG to be a community, not a rat race. You should feel free to share content from other users if they inspire, amuse, or puzzle you. The feed is too formal a place. While people can screenshot your stories, it’s still a less permanent place than the IG feed. Showing support for other users could make them more willing to show support to you and your content.

Go Unfiltered

Take a break from the glam and share a fresh face on your stories. It’s a great place to share a positive message on a good morning post. Encourage everyone to get the bread while showing that you wake up with your hair touselled and your eyes puffy. You can have a lot of fun in your stories. There is a sense of freedom there that you won’t feel on your feed. Take advantage of it.

Instagram Story Collage Ideas That You Might Like

That trip was iconic, wasn’t it? The endless pictures on your camera roll prove it. As a lifestyle influencer, you feel like you need to show the world what you’ve been up to. Still, endless stories with photos could be overkill. Not everyone likes to flip endlessly. Instagram story collage ideas would come in handy here. You’re always free to use Canva for collage templates. However, you don’t need to leave the app to get the job done. Here’s how to use one of the best Instagram story layout ideas:

1. Launch the Instagram app on your phone.
2. Go to your Insta Stories. You can do this by selecting the icon that looks like your profile picture. Click on the plus sign to add a new story.
3. IG lets you create a collage using a grid formation. Click on the icon to the right of the screen that represents this.
4. Pick the grid formation that suits you best. You have the option of between 2 to 6 photos per story post.
5. Then IG lets you sort through your photos to find the photos that cut your collage. You upload them from left to right.
6. If you want to add more, click on the icon that looks like a photo. There, you’ll get the option to upload even more photos. You can even make them into specific shapes.
7. When you’re satisfied, you can upload the collage to your story.

The best part is that you can do this a few more times. What could have been endless posts become only a few. This is one of the Instagram story ideas that maximizes the space on your story.

Move the Picture To Fit the Square

You may not like the position of the photo in the grid layout. Feel free to pinch and squeeze the photo to resize to your liking. This way, the photo can focus on whatever aspect you would like it to. Go ahead and drag it around, zooming in and out. The result is something that shows the best of all your photos.

Add a Filter to the Whole Collage at Once

Instead of editing each photo individually, you can edit all the pictures at once. Swipe across till you find a filter that you like. Of course, you would need one that suits all the photos. You can even play around with the more advanced filters. The great thing about using collages is grouping the photos that suit a certain filter together.

One of the Best Instagram Story Layout Ideas Is the Instagram Story Template

Do you take brand consistency seriously? If so, all your Instagram Stories should have a design and style consistent with the overall feel of your page. It’s not some lacuna in your content. What you do there still matters. While you may agree, you think that achieving consistency is difficult. The truth is that it is. How do you have people know that they are watching your stories without seeing the handle? It is that way with some creators. Even if they are posting about fashion or food, you know it’s them before you look up.

We can help you achieve that level of brand identity strength. The trick is to use an Instagram story template. Keeping the same font and color scheme can get tricky. Using your default template can cure all the time you’d spend editing. To not be too monotonous, you’d change and tweak a few things. Still, it would be nothing like starting from a blank canvas.

Do a Background Check

Every inch of your story matters. To make sure no pixel goes naked, start with a strong background. If your followers know you for it, it could solidify your overall Instagram aesthetic. Do you have a brand color scheme or font? Your background incorporates that straightaway. Make it versatile, too. Maybe you haven’t honed in on a particular niche area in content creation. You want to make sure your IG story background can match up with anything you want to share that day.

Choose a Font

Lady Bridgerton has a font. The Games of Thrones brand has a font. You need a font that is just as iconic if you plan to stay around for a while. It may even be more than one. You can mix script with cursive to draw attention to something particular. This can be useful when posting user-generated content. Use one font to quote a review from a customer. Use another font to name the product they are reviewing.

Share Your Creative Instagram Story Ideas With More People

Do you want to hear a story? It’s a dramatic story about a very talented Instagram influencer. Once upon a time, they started that new Instagram page and got their close friends and family to follow. They posted the best content they could muster on a partially regular basis. They couldn’t post content consistently, though. Eventually, their growth trajectory flatlined.

Does this story sound familiar to you? Well, it doesn’t have to be this way. Maybe we can change the ending together. Plixi has an expert team of social media influencers who can help you with your growth plans. We want you to benefit from the social proof that comes with a large following. What’s even better is that we use an AI technology that we’ve been developing for ten years. The result is the ideal arsenal of tools to get the results that you want. Your growth doesn’t have to be a foreign concept. While you brainstorm those creative Instagram story ideas, think about how many people you want to see them. We think you should maximize your targeted following as best you can. We can help. Start growing your following with Plixi!