Enhancing Your Instagram Stories: Creative Editing Ideas and Tools
- How to edit Instagram Story before posting
- Use hashtags
- Add interactive questions, polls, or quizzes
- Use the location sticker
- Add stickers or GIFs
- Feature links to your website or store
- Quick tips on editing engaging video Stories
- How to edit Stories on Instagram after posting
- How to edit Story highlights
- Best time to post Instagram Stories
- How many stories should I post per day?
- Improve your social media strategy with VJump
Instagram Stories is a unique tool for interacting with your audience on this social media platform. The uniqueness lies in its time limit, as the Story will disappear in 24 hours after posting. This time limit can create hype especially if the content is edited in a way to add some points to the viewer’s engagement. In this way, Instagram stories editing is essential if you want such a piece of content to make a significant impact. In this guide, we explore how to edit your Instagram story for posting, what tools to use, and what features are available out there to improve your content beyond the platform limits. We discover a whole strategy that will make your Story outstanding and generate interest.
How to edit Instagram Story before posting
Here is a comprehensive strategy for posting your Insta-Stories aimed to get a higher reach to the audiences.
Use hashtags
Hashtags – a blend of letters, numbers, and even emojis prefixed by the # symbol have become a staple across various social media platforms. When you incorporate hashtags into your Instagram Stories, they act as clickable links that categorize your content. This categorization not only organizes your posts but also makes them discoverable to users who aren't your followers but are interested in the hashtag topics you're using. By strategically using hashtags, you can extend your reach and connect with a broader audience that shares similar interests.
Add interactive questions, polls, or quizzes
Integrating questions, polls, or quizzes into your Instagram Stories is a fantastic way to engage your audience. These interactive elements not only make your stories more engaging but also provide valuable real-time feedback from your followers and others who encounter your stories. This direct interaction can help gauge audience interest and preferences, making your content more relevant and tailored to your audience's needs.
Use the location sticker
Adding a location sticker to your Instagram Story is an excellent strategy for promoting your business and informing your audience about where you're based. This feature is not only useful for local visibility but also helps define a geographical context for your content. For instance, if you operate a local news outlet, using a location sticker can help ensure that your stories reach people in specific areas like a city or state, making your content more relevant and targeted to an audience that is likely most affected by or interested in your updates.
Add stickers or GIFs
Stickers and GIFs are the perfect tools for visually expressing feelings, emotions, moods, or states of mind in your Instagram Stories. These playful elements not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of your posts but also add a human touch to your messages, making them more relatable and engaging. They are incredibly effective for drawing attention and adding a layer of fun to your content.
You can creatively combine stickers and GIFs with other interactive elements, like calls to action or poll stickers, to enhance engagement and encourage viewer interaction. Such combinations can lead to impressive results, making your stories not only more entertaining but also more interactive.
Feature links to your website or store
Incorporating links to your website, blog, or e-commerce store in your Instagram Stories is a simple yet effective way to encourage your followers to visit these online destinations. By adding a link, you provide a direct pathway for your audience to explore more about your brand or products. The flexibility of Instagram allows you to include any link you desire and customize the sticker text to suit your preferences. This customization option enables you to craft compelling calls to action that entice viewers to swipe up and discover more about what you have to offer. Whether it's promoting new products, sharing blog content, or driving traffic to your website, leveraging links in your stories can significantly enhance your online presence and drive engagement.
Quick tips on editing engaging video Stories
- Go Vertical: Opt for vertical posting. Research indicates that vertical-format videos tend to perform exceptionally well on Instagram Stories, maximizing viewer engagement.
- Aspect Ratio: Keep in mind that the standard aspect ratio for Instagram Stories is 9:16. This ensures that your videos display optimally within the platform's interface, providing a seamless viewing experience for your audience.
- Be Concise: With a 60-second time limit, aim to succinctly convey your ideas. Prioritize clarity and brevity, ensuring your message is effectively communicated within this timeframe. Utilize concise storytelling techniques to capture and retain viewer attention throughout the duration of your video.
How to edit Stories on Instagram after posting
Many think that there is no way back to editing after posting your Instagram Story. But here is a deal: you can still add some touches to your content but do not expect to get all the variety and flexibility of the tools you had before posting. In this regard, if you are looking for crucial changes to your content, you need to recreate your Story and remove the old one.
If these circumstances meet your goal here is how you do it:
Select the Story to edit and tap on the ‘More’ button which allows you to get into ‘Story Settings’. In this way, you get into ‘Strory Controls’ which enables this list of features:
- Control your Story's audience by excluding specific people from viewing it;
- Select your Close Friends - Designate a select group of friends or followers with whom you'd like to share exclusive Instagram Stories;
- Set permissions for who can respond to your posts - choose from everyone, only those you follow, or no one;
- Preserve your Instagram Stories by saving them to your Camera Roll or adding them to your Highlights for prolonged visibility.
How to edit Story highlights
Story Highlights is a way to prevent your Stories from disappearing within 24 hours. If you have some favorite story, like the one you made a lot of work on by this guide, you can still save it in Story Highlights. This feature is located right above your posts and below your bio.
To highlight your story and save its existence:
- Find your Story to highlight
- Make a title for it
- Create or choose a thumbnail from the app
- Apply
This option preserves your Story, but you are still able to make changes to it like deleting, promoting, or editing in the future.
You can also stack multiple stories within one highlight so that it would be your Story library under a specific tag. To do that you need to go into your highlights and tap ‘More’ where you can choose the Highlight Editing option. Then you need to navigate to the ‘Archive’ where you select the Stories for this. Then you just need to Edit over and change the name of your Highlight.
Best time to post Instagram Stories
To find the best time for posting your Instagram stories several factors should be considered for a better reach:
- Understand Your Audience's Timing - Assess your followers' demographics such as location, age, and gender, and pinpoint their peak activity times on the app. This detailed data is accessible only with a business account.
- Monitor Your Competitors - Keeping track of your competitors' success on Instagram can provide valuable insights. While directly copying their strategy isn't advisable, you can draw inspiration from their most engaging posting times, information which is available through tools like Socialinsider.
- Publish Only When Satisfied - Never compromise on quality. Dedicate sufficient time to crafting your Instagram Stories. Ensure each story reflects your creativity and boldness without feeling rushed to publish.
How many stories should I post per day?
Considering the shortage of the Strories lifespan of 24 hours, Instagram does not limit you on the number of stories to post per day. But, this also means that frequent updates are necessary to stay on trend and to please platform algorithms. As for the ideal number of stories, although there's no universally prescribed quantity, research points to posting about two stories per day as optimal. However, depending on your brand's engagement goals and audience preferences, posting anywhere from 1 to 7 stories daily can be effective.
If you're uncertain about the best frequency for your content, consider analyzing your story performance using tools like Socialinsider. This analysis can provide insights into how different posting frequencies impact viewer engagement, helping you tailor your strategy to better meet your audience's interests and behaviors.
Improve your social media strategy with VJump
To get additional variety enhancing your content use our Instagram story editor app powered by VJump. The platform offers you access to thousands of templates stand for 3D effects and transitions gathered from trends of different platforms including Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. In this library, you will find tools to further enhance your short-form content and stories with just a few taps on your iPhone. All the hard work lies in recording your footage in clips following the template instructions. After you have done recording the clips, you just send them for processing in the app. On our end, there is a team of pro editors who manually render your clips according to the template to achieve the effect or transition within. So that, you don’t need any specific skills in editing software on your own as our editors handle this routine for you. VJump greatly interacts both with iOS and Android devices and you can find it in the App Store or Google Play in accordance.
Author
Editor with 15 years of experience and enthusiasm about the digital video industry. Managed video editing processes for projects with billions of views and created flagship video products from idea to successful launch. He reads over 40 books a year and travels extensively.
