Are you running out of ideas for creating Instagram stories?
“I don’t know what to talk about”
“What do people want to hear from me?”
“What would people engage with?”
If that sounds familiar to you, then you are in the right place because I have come up with some interesting and cute Instagram story ideas when you don’t know what to post.
There are tons of apps to make your Instagram stories look more appealing, but you can also make it with just Instagram tools.
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Want to create your own Instagram stories? Use Canva Pro to create your unique Instagram stories. You can find tons of templates, graphics and images to create your own customized Instagram story.
Why should you use stories to grow your Instagram?
Instagram is a great place to share photos, videos and messages with friends and family. Moreover, it is a tool for many people to make money from home.
Instagram has over 1 billion active users every month.
According to Instagram, over 500 million Instagram accounts use Instagram Stories every day. Also, according to a survey, people get more interested in a brand after seeing it in stories. Hence, it is a great place to start your online business. Be active on the platform, post consistently and develop your personal brand.
How often should you post Instagram stories?
About 3-5 stories a day would be a great start. If you post more than that, people may skip and move on to the next account.
When you open the app, Instagram arranges the stories in a way that you are most likely to see every day. For example, if you follow 100 people and If you keep skipping someone’s story every day, Instagram will move it to the last in the queue.
So, make sure your stories are interesting and worthy of someone’s time.
Ready-made Instagram story templates for you!
Check out these ready-made Instagram templates. It consists of 15 Instagram story templates and 15 Instagram post templates!
You can easily customize them with a free Canva account.
How to create amazing Instagram stories?
When you are partnering with brands and posting sponsored content, brands do want to see bright and professional images. Companies will reject you immediately if they see a crappy photo with their product on it.
Your Instagram feed should look appealing which will prompt the audience to follow you and click on your stories.
Here are some tools that you need to get started:
1. Use a good camera: I personally use my iPhone 12 Pro Max to capture high-quality images for my Instagram stories. In case your phone does not have a good camera, I highly recommend you to use the Canon G7X. It is the BEST camera to capture professional images.
2. Lighting: I don’t have good lighting at my home. It made my pictures look dull and dark. Hence, I had to invest in the Neewer ring light. The investment is totally worth it.
Cute Instagram story ideas
Posting regularly on Instagram can be challenging sometimes, especially when you have a creative block. However, there are tons of different ways to keep your audience engaged.
1. Share real-life moments:
Instagram stories are a great way to check what your friends are up to.
Similarly, your followers want to know what you are doing.
Instagram stories make your followers feel more connected to you as they can get a glimpse of your personal life.
If you are having some food in a restaurant or having a coffee, just take a photo and share it.
It might sound simple but this is something that your followers want to see on a regular basis.
Here are some examples of what you can share:
I have created this Instagram story using Canva. Sign up for the 30-day FREE trial of Canva Pro and you are good to go!
2. Promote Your Latest Instagram Post:
You might wonder if your audience has already seen your post in their feed. So, what’s the point of posting it again on the story?
Instagram users are more likely to tap on the stories rather than scrolling through the feed. So, many people might not even check your Instagram post. So, to earn exposure, you should share your post on your story too.
To share your post on the story, tap on the airplane icon under the post and then select “Add post to your story”.
3. Ask them questions:
You can ask questions to your followers by using the questions sticker.
This is another way of engaging with your followers. For example, if you are a travel blogger, you can ask them travel-related questions like:
- Guess how long it took me to create this product
- Your dream destination?
- Guess how many times I traveled to London
- Your weekend plans
4. Question sticker:
Apart from asking them questions, you can also have a session where your followers get to ask you questions. You can use the question feature on the Instagram story. Wait for them to respond and reply to all their queries.
5. Share quotes:
You can also share some inspirational quotes on your story. People love to have a daily dose of motivation and if you provide it, people would more likely to stick to your stories.
You could also share your opinion, ideas or any random thoughts that cross your mind.
6. Share other people’s posts:
Did you see a really good post on someone else’s page that relates to your brand? It could be a fact or a tip.
So, apart from sharing your new post, you can also share other people’s content on your story.
They might also share your posts on their story and you can end up getting more organic followers.
Sometimes, just reshare something interesting that you saw.
7. Share some valuable tips:
Share some tips on your story as well. Solving a problem is one of the best ways to keep your audience engaged.
You don’t have to write an entire article on your story. But it is definitely possible to write 1 or 2 bullet points on a certain topic. You can also explain it graphically.
For example, if you are a beauty blogger, you can share these:
- 5 ways to avoid pimples
- Hottest looks to try this winter
- Makeup tips for girls with glasses
- Antiaging skin care tips
Similarly like posts, you should also share some short and crispy content on your stories. It should be valuable and something that the readers will actually benefit from.
Again, this has been created using Canva.
8. Do Shoutouts:
It is a great way to build a healthy relationship with your followers.
Your followers love when you repost their Instagram posts. It means you actually care for your audience.
Not only your followers, but you can also do shoutouts of other brands too. If you genuinely love other people’s content, feel free to share their posts on your story and tag them.
Who knows, you might end up getting a shoutout from them too?!
9. Sneak peak of upcoming products:
If a new product is coming into the market, post a teaser of it.
This will create awareness among your followers and they will keep visiting your store to check if that product is launched or not.
This Instagram story has been created using Canva. You can get a 30-day FREE trial of Canva Pro using my link.
10. Contest and giveaways:
Giveaways are one of the best ways to boost your traffic.
First of all, decide what you want to give. Then, post the picture of the product along with some basic rules in the caption.
Give a time limit. To enter the competition and to be eligible for the giveaway, one should follow your account, like and share it on their story and tag a friend. You can select the lucky winner among them.
Giveaways will definitely spark your engagement rate.
11. Behind the scenes:
Behind the scenes is all about the realness and what it actually takes to make the end product.
Your followers definitely want to have a glimpse of the inside look as it helps them to understand better. Give your audience a sneak peek of your workspace, something you are working on or a picture of your team at work. If you are posting reels, show them the making of it. Or, if you are working from home surrounded by kids and pets, you can share a picture of it as well.
12. Share Testimonials/reviews
Try to collect testimonials from your happy clients and post in on your story.
For example, if you are a gym instructor and help others to lose weight, you can share your client’s weight loss stories or some before/after results.
I follow a bakery page on Instagram, where they sell courses on how to bake cakes so that people can start their own bakery business. When I visited their Instagram stories, it was full of good reviews from their students who have already tried the recipes. So, this will prompt other readers to purchase their course.
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13. Play games with your followers:
You can play some fun games with features like POLLS and quiz.
Here are some ideas in case you are wondering what games to play and what questions to ask.
THIS or THAT questions:
- Pizza or Pasta
- Call or text
- Job or business
- Cat or Dog
Never have I ever
- Got arrested by cops
- Lied to my parents
- Fought with a stranger in public
- Been cheated on
- Cried in public
- Lied to my parents
Quiz
- My age
- My biggest fear
- Guess my favorite ice cream flavour
- My favorite song
- My favorite movie
- My favorite web series
- My favorite YouTuber
14. Ask for suggestions:
If you are a YouTuber, ask them for content ideas, about what they want to see in your videos- be it challenges, vlogs, pranks or interviews. If you need an opinion on your new album or wondering which hairstyle is better, you can directly ask them by using the POLL feature.
How to add a link to your Instagram story?
You can only unlock this feature once you reach 10K followers or have a verified account on Instagram.
So, if you have 10K followers you can drive traffic to your blog and YouTube too.
Some tips to create Instagram stories:
Use Canva: With Canva, you can create Instagram stories faster. It has some ready-made templates where you can simply edit the text and download the image.
Use high-quality images: Make sure you use a good camera and post some captivating pictures. In some cases, you can also use free stock images from Pixabay, Unsplash or Pexels.
The Bottom Line: Cute Instagram Story Ideas
So, here were some of the decent and cute Instagram story ideas.
I hope you got some ideas for Instagram stories. These ideas will prompt your followers to reply back, leave a comment and engage with you in some way or the other.
Instagram stories are all about engaging with your followers. And I must say, if you are not taking advantage of the Instagram stories, you are hurting your brand.
You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and very broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!
very good jon mate. it helped me a lot tahnxss