Tips on Using Instagram Stories and Multiples

The folks at Instagram have been adding a slew of new features that give users even more ways to interact with fans. The latest, and most newsworthy, have been the addition of stories and multiple image posts. For creatives, these new features make it even easier to engage with your fans, share new works, and drive traffic to your Redbubble shop. Since these features are still fairly new, we have a few tips that will show you how helpful these features can be.

Stories

The first thing to note, is that stories are not linked to posts in any way. They are a separate feature that allows you to share images, boomerangs, and videos in any way you see fit. You have the option to add text or even draw on any video/image, and whatever you share will disappear in 24 hours. However, you can download and save what you have created.

The great thing about stories, is that unlike regular posts the performance of the stories will not negatively impact your profile’s visibility. What this means is that you can share a story and not have to worry about it not getting enough likes. While stories are perfect for sharing daily moments and inspirations, or even images of a super delicious pizza you had, they’re also ideal for sharing work in progress images and videos. Think of them as another way to quickly inform your fans about what you’re working on at the moment. Stories are also perfect for contests. As the main feed is no longer chronological it became harder to share timed contests in your regular posts, but with stories your fans have 24 hours to interact. It’s a great way to engage with your fans and keep them coming back.

Here is an example of one of the stories we have published on the Redbubble Create Instagram.

Multiples

Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to share. Do you post an image of your latest design or how it looks on a tote-bag for example? Well, with multiple image posts you no longer have to decide you can share them all. This newest feature allows you to share up to 10 image and videos in a single post. This is exciting as you can really focus on your latest work of art in a variety of ways. Start out the slideshow with the finished work, then maybe some work in progress shots, some product shots, and then finish with a video of the work being created for example. The sky’s the limit. Well, there is one limitation as the image needs to be square in format, but that might change at some point.

In the example below Jennifer Smith shared an image of her latest design on a tote-bag, and when you click right you can see some close-ups of the design. This is a great way to give your fans a better look at your art and your art on products. Play around with different layouts like this and see what works best for you.

Pro-Tips

• If you want to use custom created images in your stories, make sure to create the images at the similar ratio to your phone screen. This way the image will fit in the stories without being cropped. We use 720 x 1280px for example.
• You can use the stories camera to take photos and download them. This way you know the image is the right size for posting later.
• When recording a video from within the stories camera, the audio will be recorded by default. Keep that in mind if you don’t want to share audio with the video.

Create some stories and multiple image posts today.