8 Tips to Improve Your Instagram Stories

Content is the name of the game. The better your content, the wider your reach, the greater your traffic and the higher your follower number. That’s why we regularly write about how to create kicka$$ social media content, from 6 tips to improve your live streams to how to shoot a professional video.

Given that Instagram Stories are a boss way to connect with followers, here are 8 hacks that help you be a better creator.

2 Instagram Stories Font Hacks

Using your own fonts

Instagram has some great fonts, but at times you want a more personal feel to your Stories. That means creating Stories in your own font. Here’s how you do it:

• Download the Over app.
• AirDrop or share the .OFT file of the font you love to your phone.
• Open the file using the Over app.
• Create a Story in Over, and you will be able to use the font you love.
• Post the Story on Instagram

Centre, left or right-align text

Most Instagram Stories fonts have an alignment button on the top left corner. Some don’t, like Neon, and that can be a hassle. In these fonts, the text is automatically center aligned.

Here’s how you change the alignment:

• Type your text in the chosen font.
• Then swipe your finger left on the text, to left align it.
• Swipe right, for right text alignment.

It’s that easy-peasy.

3 Instagram Stories Colour Hacks

Background with solid colour

Seen those Stories with gorgeous solid background colour and some text or drawing? Wondered what the trick to colour-fill is?

• Open or click any image on Stories.
• Tap the pen icon on the top of the screen.
• Select the colour you love from the options available on the bottom.
• Tap and hold the screen for about 2 seconds.
• The screen will automatically fill with a solid colour!

Scratch card effect with the eraser tool

This tip to creating a better Instagram Story builds upon the last.

• Click or open any image.
• Fill the screen with a solid colour using the previous hack.
• Then select the eraser icon.
• Choose the size of the eraser.
• Now getting to tapping or swiping on the screen.
• It will reveal the image you had initially chosen underneath!

This tip is an excellent way if you want to tease new content with your followers or want to generate interest in a sponsored product!

More colours on Stories

The number of colour options on Instagram Stories seems limited. The keyword being ‘seems.’ Here’s how you can access any colour you can dream of:

• On Stories, select the brush tool.
• Tap on any of the colour options that appear on the screen bottom and long hold.
• A colour slider will pop up.
• Pick any customer colour you love for your Story and get to doing your Thng!

3 Instagram Stories Sticker Hacks

One story, many questions stickers

The question sticker is one of the greatest inventions of Instagram because it increases engagement. From AMA to advice from followers, you can really connect with your community using it.

That said, Instagram allows you to share only 1 question sticker in each Story. When you have dozens of followers answering your sticker, this just doesn’t cut it! There is a limit to the number of Stories you can post before your followers lose interest. Here’s how you sidestep it:

• Create a Story with your answer to a question sticker.
• Screenshot it and leave the Story.
• Open the screenshot and then create another Story.
• This time responding to another question sticker.
• Screenshot again and then repeat the steps.

This will give you many question stickers in one Story. Post it!

Creating a glow effect

Some days you especially want an emoji to stand out in your Story. How do you do it? You use an Instagram hack to get a glow effect.

• Open your Stories.
• Tap the screen so that you can type out a message.
• Pick the Neon font.
• Write your message with the emoji. Or simply add the emoji. It will have a glow behind it thanks to the Neon font!

Hiding too many hashtags

Hashtags are great because they make your content discoverable. But too many hashtags on a Story can ruin it. The trick is to hide some or all of them to get those pretty aesthetics.

• Write your hashtags.
• Pinch them as small.
• Cover them using a GIF or sticker.

While this is a great trick, it only works to limit. Why? Because if you make your # too small, Instagram doesn’t register them! It means your content will not be searchable for those hashtags.

So, here’s another way to hide hashtags on Instagram Stories is to write them in a color that matches the background exactly. This will blend them in the image. Talk about hiding in plain sight!

The Final Instagram Story Hack

The last hack for the day doesn’t help you create great content, but it does help you be a better content creator.

With your account Insights, you can gather a ton of data like how many followers you had recently, the number of impressions a post made, how many saves it has, and more. Yet, there is one information it doesn’t give you — how many times a post was reshared as a Story. Knowing this stat is helpful for two reasons:

• It lets you find user-generated content that you can repost.
• It gives you another statistic to show brands your engagement levels.

So, how do you get this figure?

• Tap on the three dots on the top right corner of the post.
• If it has been reshared as a Story, the pull-up menu will have a ‘View Story Reshare’ option in it.
• Click on it, and you’ll see all the public accounts that have reshared the post.

So, there you have it. 8 tips to improve your Instagram Stories and be a better creator!