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If you aren’t using Instagram stories yet, you should be! With over 250 million daily active users, Instagram stories is quickly becoming the corner stone of any good Instagram strategy. Not only is it easy to use, but it is one of the best ways to grow your following and engagement across the entire platform.
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It’s clear that the short snappy video is here to stay. Snapchat shot to the top of social media popularity with the short video concept. However, as of April 2017, Instagram stories has officially surpassed Snapchat in popularity.

So how can you use Instagram stories for your business? Easy, here are a few ideas to get your started. ​
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Instagram stories is a fantastic way to give your audience a back stage pass to your business and show them how all the magic happens!

Where you might spend a lot of time perfecting the perfect video for Instagram or Facebook; Instagram stories allow for short, spur of the moment style videos and photos to take centre stage. So get creative, take a short video of each of your team members waving to your audience, capture your product in action, shoot some short videos of an event or office party. Keep it casual!

Don’t be afraid to let your audience in on your creative process, capture a blue print, a model, or brainstorming session. You can then post on each stage of development and your audience gets to be a part of your product from beginning to end!
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You can offer specific promotion or deals to people on Instagram stories. Display the special offer and tell your audience to DM you to claim the offer. This will help create an engaged Instagram following and provide an opportunity to connect with your loyal customers.

​Or, create a specific landing page on your website and include the link in your bio and announce that the offer ends after 24 hours. The fleeting nature of Instagram stories creates a sense of urgency for your audience. The extra website traffic doesn’t hurt either!

A word of warning, as with all contests and promotions, make sure you’re offering something valuable to your audience, otherwise they will tune you out!
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Instagram stories has a number of different ways to capture the attention of your audience. Use stickers, write, type, and add images to get silly, creative, or informative with the content you’re sharing. Don’t be afraid to experiment, Instagram stories is more casual, fast paced atmosphere and experimenting with the different options is highly encouraged.
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Use your Instagram stories to provide snippets of your latest blog post or marketing content that you want your audience to engage with. Give them small pieces of enticing info over a number of posts and link them to your latest content.

Creating a fantastic “How to” post? Well you can visually walk your audience through the creation of your latest do-it-yourself masterpiece and then link to the blog post so they can get started! It’s a great way to pique interest and drive traffic.

Getting ready for a big Facebook Live event? Hype up your audience with Instagram stories and make sure they know when to tune in to Facebook to catch all the action!
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• Don’t be afraid to use your camera roll, any photo or video you’ve taken over the last 24 hours is fair game, that includes recently added photos.

• Swipe right to add filters to your images

• Make sure all your photos and videos are bright and clear

• Don’t be afraid to edit your images and add your personal flare before loading them up to your phone.

• Think before you post, make sure that your Instagram Stories are relevant to your business and on brand

• Don’t have a picture to use? Create a blank canvas. Take a picture of anything, click the colouring tool, select a colour and hold it down, this will create a background of that colour. Now you can write or draw whatever message you want!

• Click the Instagram Analytics icon to get up to date statistics on the engagement of your Instagram stories

• Be creative and have fun!

Now you are ready to get started using Instagram stories for your business! Feel free to comment with any great tips you'd like to share!