If a picture is worth a thousand words, then businesses are saying more than ever with the help of Instagram. There are over 200 million businesses that use Instagram every day to showcase their products, services, company culture, and the happiness of their customers.
Nearly 70% of Instagram users head to the app to research their next purchase. Why? Seeing is believing, of course, but more than that, Instagram leverages the power of communal influence–users get to see what other people are saying about a brand and if it adds value to their life.
Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
Knowing this, you should be using Instagram for your business. But how? One of the best and simplest ways for brands to share content is through Instagram Stories.
In this post, we’ll first help you understand what an Instagram business account is and how Stories work. Then, we’ll give you some tips and tricks for making yours look professional as we show you eight companies that are absolutely crushing it with these Instagram Story examples.
Set Up An Instagram Business Account
Setting up your account as a business is easy if you haven’t already done it. A business profile allows you to use certain tools to help grow your business, like analytics on posts and stories, additional CTAs, and various profile buttons.
Go to Settings (the gear icon) and tap on your account. Then tap “Switch to Professional Account.” Once you select “Business,” you’ll be able to choose from dozens of categories that best fit your company. Select the one that’s right for you.
That’s it. Now you have an Instagram business account.
Instagram wants you to succeed as a business (it helps them, too, of course!). To help you get going, Instagram provides free tips to develop a solid marketing plan on their app. Take advantage of it.
What is an Instagram Story?
If you’ve been on Instagram for a while, you know what Instagram Stories are. If you’re new, here’s a quick explanation.
Instagram Stories is a feature that lets you share photos and videos in a slideshow-type format that automatically disappears after 24 hours.
Stories are designed, according to Instagram, to allow you to share any moment of your day. As you share more, these moments build on each other to create your “story.” You can add text, buttons, links, tags, stickers, and other a host of other creative elements to make your Story unique and fun.
The primary goal for businesses is to increase customer engagement.
If you manage to create stories that bring in tons of engagement it can be a great way to fuel word of mouth marketing since your most loyal viewers will share your strories with their followers or friends.
You can post as many Stories as you want, but it’s helpful to know that each Story is just 10 seconds long. If you upload a 60-second video as a story, it will be automatically split up into six 10-second segments.
Here’s what a Story looks like, from Instagram’s own account.
8 Instagram Story Examples
Discovery
Discovery’s mission is to bring the world to you and that’s what their Instagram Stories do, too. What they do so well is take their followers on an adventure. They can’t always be with them, out in the wild, but they draw them in so that they wish they were there.
Most of their stories revolve around “Virtual Field Trips” somewhere in the world. These digital experiences help you learn history and facts about elements, fungi, dinosaurs, or just about anything else in the natural world.
Discovery’s Stories are very scientific and fact-based (though not hard to understand). But they make it fun. They use stickers, graphics, music, and mind-blowing video footage to give the viewer as immersive an experience as possible on a phone app.
Of course, the home of “Shark Week” never forgets to use their Stories to promote what’s coming up on their TV channel so you won’t miss a minute.
Teva
Founded in 1984, Teva is a footwear company that makes sandals, shoes, and boots for adults and children. They occasionally use Stories to promote their footwear with links to their Instagram shop, but that’s not the norm (they use their posts for that).
Instead, their Stories spotlight the lifestyle of people who wear Teva to show that Tevas are for everyone. Their Stories show customers sharing their thoughts on nature or being active and adventurous. It’s that connection to the great outdoors that Teva really sells. And they do it well.
Teva also uses a unique Stories strategy to help followers stay connected to their brand. They have a series of Stories that show people how to create items that pair well with their footwear products.
Teva also uses their stories to educate readers on political issues, particularly sustainability, indigenous peoples, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Avocado Green Mattress
Avocado Green Mattress makes natural and certified organic sleep products. They were recently listed as one of the best mattresses of 2022 that comes with a year-long free trial.
Their tone is professional, gentle, and calm, as you’d expect from a mattress company. With two brick-and-mortar stores in the United States (New York and California), it’s easy for them to use their Stories to introduce their staff and actually show you what their physical locations look like. Of course, you can still shop online through that handy “swipe up” link.
A major facet of their brand is being environmentally conscious and their Stories feature that prominently. They also use their Stories to hold child sleep Q&As with a pediatric sleep expert (free advice for tired parents!).
A pro-tip for you: if you have expertise in your field or connections to someone who does, leverage that and ask people to hold similar Q&A Instagram Story sessions on your profile. These sessions are a great way to generate leads for your business.
Nani Swimwear
Nani makes fashion-forward, active swimwear for women. With just over 80,000 followers, they have the fewest followers of any business on our list, but they’re growing a community of confident swimsuit wearers.
Nani promotes their products through their Stories and they do a great job driving viewers to their website through Instagram’s “swipe up” links, which helps their website SEO. They want to sell swimsuits, of course!
But more than that, they want to sell a feeling. If you’re a woman or you know a woman, you know it can be intimidating and frustrating to buy a swimsuit! Nani wants to disrupt the swimsuit industry so that women love the way their body looks and feels in their swimsuits.
You can follow Nani’s example. Don’t just try to sell a product. As you brainstorm your Stories, remember that your product solves a real-life problem and brings your followers a new, positive, and (often) unexpected emotion. If you do this, it invariably helps you build client relationships.
Harvard Business Review
You probably know Harvard Business Review (HBR) for their general management magazine that provides insights into leadership and management in the workplace. Their Stories is a master class in follower engagement. They humanize their Stories so well. They show you not mainly how to sell something, but how to make your brand likable and relatable.
The tone of HBR’s Stories is casual, fun, yet professional. Their goal is to engage their audience and also provide practical instruction for everything from work-life balance to negotiating to dealing with distractions.
One distinctive of HBR’s Stories is that they often feature their editors and podcast hosts in their Stories. This is a way to show followers that you have real people behind a brand. It helps the viewer humanize HBR (which, let’s be honest, can be intimidating when you hear the name “Harvard”).
This Story is from an HBR editor who shared how he finds quiet times as a work-from-home parent. Some of the responses were posted on subsequent Stories.
Clean Simple Eats
A small business in the health and wellness space, Clean Simple Eats (CSE) is known for its macro-balanced recipe books, tasty protein powders, natural butters, and pre-made meals for delivery.
As a small business, it’s hard for them to compete with the big brands that offer similar products. What they offer as an alternative is belonging to a community of people who are pursuing the same goal together: holistic well-being without sacrificing taste.
A major way they seek to create that community in their Stories is by helping you get to know the founders and owners, JJ and Erika, a husband-wife team. They welcome followers into their home, life, and business. And if you’re a small business, this is important to understand. Why? As a small business, you are often synonymous with the brand, whether or not you’d like to be.
Yes, you have products or services (and hopefully they’re amazing!). But to stand out in a loud social media world, letting people see you as well as the business behind the business will earn your followers’ trust and reap huge rewards.
As you’d expect with a health and wellness brand, CSE also shares Stories from followers who experienced physical transformation from their nutrition and exercise programs. Like other quality social media accounts, CSE has built a community on Instagram
Ben & Jerry’s
If you followed Ben & Jerry to find salivate-inducing photos, you found that and them some. Their Instagram bio, “Peace, Love, & Ice Cream” gives you a glimpse into what they hope to accomplish on social media.
Ben & Jerry’s Stories fall into two categories: ice cream and social justice. They are a company devoted to making the world’s tastiest ice cream and, more importantly, making the world a better place.
Some might think it’s unnecessary, or even foolish, for an ice cream company to get as political as they do. But Ben & Jerry’s isn’t shy about speaking out because they believe have a duty to use their privilege, power, and voice to speak on behalf of marginalized and oppressed people.
You may not decide to become as politically outspoken as Ben & Jerry’s, but you may still consider how to use your social media influence for good.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. was around before the invention of social media. We’re talking 1837 around. They are a great example of how a legacy brand can evolve with culture and technology to become a massive presence online (they have 13.5 million Instagram followers).
You won’t find any selfie-shot, takeover-style videos. There are no stickers or humorous GIFs. Their tone is stable and dignified. Every video is professionally shot (we’re talking Super Bowl ad-worthy here). Would you expect anything less from Tiffany? Since they are about 185 years young, we’d say it’s working for them.
Wrapping Up Instagram Story Examples
Your followers want to know your brand’s story. Instagram provides a simple, fun, and interactive way to do that.
Show off your products or services, promote your events, or highlight your partnerships in a bite-sized format that will be sure to engage your audience in ways you haven’t before. There are constantly new ways to use social media to sell products and generate leads- live shopping, partnering with influencers, creating user generated content and so much more.
Try out Instagram’s various creative features to make your Stories attractive and memorable. One easy way to get immediate customer interaction and feedback is to create an Instagram poll in a Story. Pay attention to relevant hashtags and insert those in your Stories to expand your audience. Whatever you end up doing, be sure to include a CTA link!
Creating Stories on Instagram is fun, but it’s also good for business. Now that you have some examples of companies using Instagram Stories like a pro, don’t waste any more time. Start sharing your own Story today!