About a week ago I shared a poll in my Instagram Stories asking whether my followers received more engagement via their Posts or Stories. 75% of respondents answered: STORIES. Granted, that could simply be the result of publishing more Stories than Posts. It wasn’t a scientific survey, after all. But regardless, it’s something to think about.

Fact is, if you want to maximize your reach/results on Instagram—from a content standpoint—it’ll take a combo of Posts and Stories.

To me, Posts are logs 🪵 on the fire ; Stories are its kindling wood. In other words, Stories help to spark the flames of engagement as well as keep the fire burning. (Too cheesy of an analogy, LOL .)

In-between your Posts and when you Post, keep adding Stories. Because each and every time you add a new Story, you refresh back to the top of the Story Feed.

With Stories, it all boils down to the viewer list. Algorithmically speaking, the Story Feed and the Home Feed function similarly but not totally the same. Depending on the size of your phone’s screen, for instance, you can only see a handful of recent Stories until you scroll to the right.

Question is, whose Stories rank in the Feed first? Answer: the users with whom you most interact most frequently (DMs, comments, reactions, and interactions, for example).

So for all intents and purposes, that means when you comment on someone’s Post, for instance, and they reply to your comment (or vice versa), that exchange signals Instagram to (respectively) prioritize your content for that individual whenever you publish new Posts or Stories. The same principle is at work in your DMs too. Have you ever noticed how it tends to be the same handful of users who always view your Stories first? That’s the algorithm at work.

So whenever a user sees your Story, in a way, it’s priming them to see your future Posts too. And every time you add a new Story, it’s another opportunity to be seen. That’s the game and, in my opinion, a big perk of Instagram Stories.

Here are FIVE pro tactics to increase the reach of your Instagram Stories:

1. Make use of Story Stickers. Stickers are interactive, graphic-designed elements you can lay overtop of the image, video, or background of your Story: polls, questions, quizzes, countdowns, swipe-meters, captions, and more. Whenever a user “interacts” with a Sticker, it’s cues Instagram to prioritize your content for that individual. Views are fantastic, as mentioned above—however, interactions are next-level (from an algorithmic standpoint). Plus, it never hurts to make use of the features Instagram provide to its users.

2. Never-don’t have a Story. Continually adding to your Stories helps to maintain (and grow) your active audience. Gaps in publishing new Stories (and/or Posts) causes audience erosion. Remember… Keep the fire burning! If users aren’t on your top viewer list, they’re on someone else’s.
   
   What’s more, the life of a Post is (at most) two or three days. After that, the Post is filtered out of both the Home and Explore Feeds. Sure, Stories last for only 24 hours but, by comparison, they are WAY easier to produce. I.e., Stories provide a “kindling wood” sort of substitute to keep the fire going in between Posts.

3. Add up to 10 Hashtags via the Text Tool. Simply enter the “#” keyboard character and then start typing the first letters of a hashtag. Let the system auto-complete the chosen hashtag and tap to select it. ️ Don’t copy/past hashtags! Once added:
   
   • 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗸 ‘𝗲𝗺: perform a thumb-and-pointer-finger pinch gesture to resize to your liking.
   • 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗲 ‘𝗲𝗺: add another Story element overtop of the hashtag text.
   • 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗳𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗲 ‘𝗲𝗺: tap the color wheel and then press the eyedropper icon to match the font color with its background.

4. Use the Location-Tag Sticker. This will help boost “discoverability” in the IG Explore Feed.

5. Drop-in (exclusive) VIDEO content. Selfie-styled 🤳 thoughts and commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, and more. Maximum video duration should be capped at 60 seconds, which instagram will auto-chop into 15-second, Story-sized clips. PRO TIP: use the new Captions Sticker to dynamically subtitle your video.

6. BONUS: Mention another (influential) IG User. It goes without saying, don’t go tagging famous Instagramers you don’t know or when it’s completely irrelevant. That’s SPAM. However, when appropriate, make the mention!
   
   For instance, I get mentioned in a lost of Posts. When that happens, IG alerts me in the Notifications tab, wherefrom I can go in, like the Post, and leave a comment. That’s great and all—however, sharing that Post to my Stories requires a lot of extra steps. On the other hand, when folks mention me in their Stories, the alert goes straight into my DM inbox and includes a simple “Add to Story” button. One tap and I’m able to share that user’s Story to my own.
   
   My point is, if the right influencer opted to share your Story, the result could be monumental. So instead of only mentioning users in a Post, try (also) sharing your Post to your Stories and mention said influencers in the Story.