Instagram Stories has plenty of hidden secrets that can help propel your content to new levels. The only problem is uncovering them! Conveniently, we have just the hacks to help elevate each Instagram Story to new heights.
All the colours of the rainbow
One of the funkiest features of an Instagram Story is the ability to do gradient coloured text. Simply write your message and tap the text, making sure to ‘Select All’. Then, press and hold the colour wheel to bring up a slider for any colour you wish. By holding one finger on the colour slider and the other to drag the highlighted area of text, you can transform copy into a beautiful rainbow right before your eyes! You’re guaranteed to be the envy of everyone else while making your brand stand out!
An animated Instagram Story
Did you know you can make still images into an animated Instagram Story? This could be useful for adding some pizazz to your before and after or product pics, particularly as you can make the background move! To do this, access Instagram Stories and press the image in the bottom left corner (or swipe up in the app), where you can select a video from your gallery. Then, open the sticker menu at the top and select the sticker of the two mountains and sun. You can then select a pic from your gallery (or take a new one with the camera sticker). This will be layered on top of your video, at whatever size you need!
What about turning your three second live photos into Story Boomerangs? Yes, it can be done! This is simply a case of opening Instagram Stories, pressing the bottom left image, selecting your live photo and seeing the Boomerang option appear at the top of the pic (providing you’re on newer generations of tech). You can then turn your live photo into a Boomerang, adding extra movement to your Stories.
Custom captions and fonts
Not everyone’s going to have audio on, so what do you do with an Instagram Story featuring voices? Well, the ‘Captions’ sticker makes sure everyone can be heard by transcribing anyone talking. Anything said will then appear in your Story as text at the appropriate moments. You’ll then have options to change any words, colour and the font!
Branding and customising font to your business has never been easier thanks to apps like Fonts, Animoto or Phonto. For a one-time fee, Fonts for iOS and Android lets you use a whole new keyboard and fonts when creating an Instagram Story. Animoto is a free alternative that makes use of plenty more font styles and even present animations. Phonto is another free alternative for custom font on images, where you copy your custom font to the app, save the images and then upload them to Insta when you’re ready!
IGTV and Story links
Have you tried linking clients to your services, retail or content by swiping up on Instagram Stories? If you have 10,000 followers, this can be done by pressing the camera icon on your business profile, taking or selecting a photo, clicking the link icon and then pasting in the external URL. Without 10,000 followers, you can work around this by making an IGTV video with the link in the caption, then linking to the video in a Story. Viewers can then swipe up, see your video and click the link!
Hidden Instagram Story filters
Instagram Stories come with a range of hidden filters ready to take your stories and videos to the next level! To find them, press the ‘+’ to start creating a Story post. Next, scroll all the way to the right of the filter options until you land on ‘Browse Effects’. Press this to unlock a whole range of new filters from the effect gallery, from colours and backgrounds to green screens. This is an amazing way to make your stories stand out with new and lesser seen snazzy effects.
Regular Instagram Stories are a sure-fire way of attracting people to your profile, increasing followers, interaction, and traffic to your profile. Stuck for content ideas? We have plenty of ideas that your salon or spa can make use of for Insta Stories. We also have plenty more Insta hacks soon to come, so watch this space! In the meantime, make sure you’re up-to-date on the most recent changes to Instagram, as well as some suggestions on how to tackle these.
