If you are active on Instagram, you’ve probably uploaded a story at least once. This feature lets you post videos and pictures in a story format for your followers to see what you have been up to. The Instagram story appears as a red circle on top of the Instagram app and lasts for 24 hours. Anyone that wants to see your story just has to click on the red reel.

In case you’ve never shared an Instagram story before, here is how you do it:

1. Touch the camera icon to open the story section
2. If you want to take a picture, just tap the capture button
3. On the other hand, if you want to take a video, just hold down the capture button
4. There is also the option of taking a picture from your gallery and sharing it
5. If you want to add a text to the story, you can tap the pencil icon and type something
6. After you’re done uploading everything for the story, tap the share icon on the bottom left

Making your Instagram Stories more Interesting

1. Use a Link to redirect people to more Interesting Content

Perhaps you found an amazing chill out spot in your area and have decided to create and share an Instagram story of the place. So that you can avoid questions about that destination, you can include a link in the story. After you’re done uploading the media content, you will see a link option at the top right of your screen. Tap on it and paste a URL to a website describing the place. You can include a text asking people to swipe up if they want to access the link directly.

2. Highlight your Stories

Sometimes you want your stories to last longer than a day. To do that, you have to share the media content as a highlight. Go to settings and turn on your Instagram stories archive feature by enabling ‘save to archive’. You should be able to add a new highlight below your bio after that.

3. Re-share Posts as Stories

Perhaps your Instagram story includes pictures of you and your friends. If you are close, you can also re-share some of your friend’s posts by including them in your story. To do this, just go to view your friend’s post and tap the share icon; it should give you the option to add it in your story. The good thing about Instagram stories is that they will show the original post owner. This means that you could also help your friends get more followers.

4. Using a Mention in your Story

A good story should not be told by one person. All the participants should be given a chance to explain their side of the occurrences. You can tag a user using the @mention feature in your story to give them a chance to continue with the narrative. They usually have 24 hours to repost that story and add additional media to that story.

5. Create a Poll or Ask Questions

If you are an influencer that has a large following, you can decide to engage your audience by creating a yes or no poll. Ask a simple question related to your story and watch how they respond. To create a poll, click on the ‘poll’ sticker and type your question. This feature allows you to get more insight on what your viewers really love. You can also ask more open-ended questions like which is the best website to buy followers on Instagram? For such questions, tap the ‘slider’ sticker on the story page.

6. Create Layers for Captions

You may want to include several captions on the same picture. To do that effectively, you have to layer the pictures. To do this, write a caption for that picture. Then, first tap the save button followed by the share it to my story icon. After that, go back to your gallery and choose the saved picture, write another caption for it, save it, and add to the story. This is how you layer the captions. You can do that as many times as you want.

Conclusion

Your Instagram stories don’t have to look like everybody else’s. Use the above tips and tricks to make them more interesting. And always remember to inform your friend if you are about to tag them in a story. That way, you avoid unnecessary conflicts.