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Instagram always finds ways to stay one step ahead, and the Stories extension is living proof of that.
If you've used Instagram in the past few years, you must have come across this at least once. Nowadays it is said to be one of the most used features of the app – it's 400 million users talking every day.
The temporal nature of each message is perhaps what motivates its adoption. Rivals of the one and only Snapchat, Instagram stories seem to be moving away.
Here are some cool features of the additional function that you can use to improve your user experience and / or your marketing strategy.
Music button
Do you have a song in your head that you think will set the mood for a photo or video? Well, Stories' music button lets you add any song you want to the content.
You can select any part of the song that goes well with your video. It's pretty cool. Having music in your post not only makes it more interesting, but can also help get more attention to your downloads.
To add music to your stories, just press the Sticker button and search for your favorite song. Play the song and adjust it until it sounds perfect.
Once you are done, you are ready to publish.
Track your story metrics
Every story on Instagram has metrics that you can easily access. For businesses, this is a very important analysis tool. You can see how many times your stories have led to direct messages or profile visits.
To check this metric, just swipe your finger over a story to find out how it's going.
Save all your messages
Despite the 24 hour lifespan, you can still save the content of your stories after they are created. Using the recording feature allows users and businesses to share their post-edited photos and videos on other platforms. And you have different ways of exploiting this feature.
Mix different colors in your text
If you veer from the artistic side, this feature is for you. Most of us miss being monochrome and want to add some flair to our posts.
Instagram gives you the option to use up to 20 different text colors in all of your posts. Change it as much as you want.
Pin your best stories
If you post a lot of stories frequently, sooner or later you're bound to have a favorite. Your stories are automatically saved and archived so you can view them whenever you want.
The only problem here is that these stories will only be seen by you. To present your stories to other people after the 24 hour limit, you need to add them to your highlights.
Go to your profile, select the + button and choose from your archived Instagram stories. Pick your favorites and create highlights. You can get information from two or three competitors to determine how your highlights should be organized.
You can also design your highlights by choosing different cover photos and headlines. Viewers can only check your highlights when they visit your profile page.
Word limit
At one point, we all wanted to share a few words with our followers, but we went over the standard IG limit. To remedy this, the Stories feature now allows you to send SMS without any limits.
Hide your story
Being online exposes you to a lot of unsavory characters. Often times, you don't want to associate with these people, nor do you want them to watch you all the time.
You can prevent different people from seeing your stories. Navigate to the profile of the user whose story you want to hide and click the Hide my story button.
Use this to keep stalkers and crawlers away from your page.
Stickers
Instagram stickers are one of their best and fun ways to engage with your followers. Whether it's asking questions or adding songs, choose what works best for your stories and you're good to go.
[Bonus] Zoom
Have you ever seen a crazy outfit that you wanted to check out for details but couldn't zoom in? With the new zoom feature, you can easily use two fingers to zoom in on any image. No more need to take screenshots to zoom.
To zoom in and out on an Instagram story, you pinch the screen as you normally would. You can also record video in zoom in / out mode. Click the record button first, then drag that finger up / down to zoom in / out.
Above and beyond
Enhance your full Instagram experience with these features under your belt.
Stories are an effective addition to the successful social platform. Use any of the additional items listed above to better engage with your followers.
If you are a business, this is a great opportunity to further market your brand and products / services.
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