Instagram is an excellent platform for both users and advertisers. It allows users to connect with friends, follow celebrities, and find inspiration, while providing businesses with a space to reach their target audience. Instagram offers various features for brands, such as awareness ads, product displays, and direct interaction with followers. Among these features, Instagram Stories stands out as a powerful tool for enhancing your Instagram strategy.

Since its introduction in 2016, Instagram Stories has evolved with numerous additions and updates, empowering users to unleash their creativity for improved branding and audience engagement.

This article presents six exceptional Instagram Story hacks, ranging from fundamental design elements to sophisticated, lesser-known techniques:

1. Enhance Each Instagram Story Through Editing
2. Adhere to the Recommended Image Size
3. Personalize with Color
4. Explore Diverse Fonts
5. Utilize Instagram’s Engaging Accessories
6. Share Instagram Stories Again
7. Employ Templates

Let’s dive in!

1. Familiarize Yourself with the Editing Features

While it may not seem like a hack, the key is simple: when posting an Instagram Story, dedicate time to editing and making it captivating for your viewers. Enhance your visuals, text, and colors to make them pop! Let’s explore the available tools.

Explore the Instagram Story editor interface for optimal results!

Here’s a concise overview of the six editing icons within the interface:

1. Save: Preserve your current image or video, including any edits, GIFs, or music.
2. Filter: Apply various VR filters, even after capturing the image or video.
3. Linking: Include external links in your Story. However, accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers can only link to their own IGTV videos.
4. Accessories: Access additional engagement features and stickers for enhanced interaction.
5. Drawing: Add personalized handwritten text or drawings using a variety of brushes, erasers, and color options.
6. Text: Incorporate text into your Story, customizable with different fonts and styles.

Master these tools to craft visually appealing and interactive Stories.

RELATED: Discover 73 Instagram Story Ideas to Captivate Your Followers and Keep Them Engaged

2. Optimize Images to the Required Size – 1080 x 1920 Pixels

You can capture photos directly within the Stories editor or import them from your phone’s camera app. If you choose the former, you’ll be limited to Instagram’s presets and image editor, but the images will perfectly fit the required dimensions (1080px by 1920px). Opting for the latter provides more editing flexibility with external apps but may necessitate zooming in on the image, potentially affecting its quality.

Solution: Capture the photo using the Stories editor, save it to your camera roll, and then edit it using your preferred external app. This ensures the correct image size while granting you creative freedom. Some recommended photo editing apps include Tezza, Snapseed, VSCO, Lightroom, ColorStory, and Afterlight.

For in-platform editing, consider factors like lighting and focal points for optimal image quality. After taking the photo, explore Instagram’s 12 preset filters by swiping left or right.

Explore the variety of colors available in the color bottom bar.

If your desired image doesn’t match the recommended size, there are solutions available. Access your camera roll by swiping up within the Stories editor and choose the image. You can then adjust its size by pinching and stretching. Another method is to copy the image from your camera roll, return to Instagram, take a random photo (it won’t be used), tap the text icon, paste the copied image, and customize the background color as desired. This technique allows for collage creation by pasting multiple images within a single frame.

Pro Tip: Create a solid background color by taking a photo, tapping the draw icon, selecting your color, and then tapping and holding on the image. This will fill the entire screen with the chosen color.

3. Personalize with Color

Colors play a versatile role within Stories, enhancing text, brushes, backgrounds, accents, and more. Simply highlight the text and choose your desired color from the bottom of the text editor.

If the nine displayed colors aren’t sufficient, swipe left on the color previews for two additional pages of nine colors.

For even more options, utilize the dropper icon to select a color directly from the editor, ensuring color harmony between your additions and the image.

Pro Tip: For a wider selection, tap and hold a color and swipe up slightly to access the entire color spectrum.

Double Pro Tip: Create a captivating gradient text effect. Write your text using your preferred font, highlight the entire text, tap a pre-selected color icon, and slightly swipe up to your desired color. Simultaneously, drag one side of the highlighted text while moving your finger across the desired color towards your preferred gradient color. This will create the gradient effect on the screen. Experiment with different color combinations and speeds for unique results. Remember to keep the last letter of the selected text selected while dragging to maintain the gradient; otherwise, it will revert to a solid color.

4. Experiment with Different Fonts and Text Formats

Instagram offers various text editing options to achieve your desired look. Start with an image or video and tap anywhere to begin typing. You can add multiple text boxes by tapping outside of a text box and tapping again to start a new one. Instagram provides five distinct fonts: Classic, Modern, Neon, Typewriter, and Strong.

If your text isn’t prominent enough, tap the box containing the “A” to add a colored background. Customize the background color using the previously mentioned color selection tips. Note that this feature is only available for the Classic, Strong, and Typewriter fonts.

Explore the diverse range of Instagram fonts: Neon, Typewriter, Strong, Classic, and Modern.

When formatting text boxes, Classic and Typewriter allow for text alignment adjustments (left, right, or center). The remaining three fonts are generally centered but can be manually adjusted.

Pro Tip: After typing your text, subtly swipe over it to the left or right for custom justification.

Explore different text alignments for various fonts.

Additionally, you can customize the amount of text displayed on each line. Use the slider on the left side of the text box to zoom in or out, and pinch the text itself to resize.

To add glowing emojis, select the “Neon” font and type your desired emoji directly from the keyboard.

5. Utilize Instagram’s Fun Accessories

Beyond images, colors, and text, Instagram offers a plethora of features to enhance your Stories. Swipe up on the edit screen to reveal options such as location, mention, hashtag, gif, music, time, polls, questions, countdown, quizzes, chat, stickers, and more.

Discover the diverse range of stickers available for enhanced engagement. Swipe up to unlock even more!

While you can add mentions and hashtags using the dedicated options, you can also incorporate them directly within your text, formatting them accordingly.

Questions, polls, and quizzes are valuable tools for boosting engagement and interacting with your followers. Experiment with different formats and content to find what resonates best with your audience.

Thanks to Instagram’s integration with Spotify, you can seamlessly incorporate music into your Stories. Choose between a small player displaying the album cover, song and artist information, or lyrics. You can also select specific song segments to complement your content.

Pro Tip: Create a progressive Story by gradually adding elements. Start with your base and introduce your topic. After each step, tap the save icon at the top. For the next post, upload the saved image and continue building upon it. This results in a captivating, multi-part Story that encourages extended engagement.

6. Share Instagram Stories Again

Easily repost public Feed posts from accounts you follow. Tap the send icon (the third icon) below the desired photo and select “Add post to your story.” This transfers the post to the Stories editor, where you can edit, add text, graphics, drawings, hashtags, or locations. You can further customize its appearance by tapping the post within the editor to display the account name, icon, post content, and caption.

For a comprehensive guide on seven different ways to repost on Instagram, check out our full tutorial here.

Sharing Feed posts to your Story can also attract viewers who primarily engage with Stories to your main feed content. Consider running a giveaway that requires participants to visit your feed or partially obscuring the image with a sticker or GIF to pique curiosity and drive traffic. Remember, you can only share public Feed posts to your Story.

7. Employ Templates

Templates may seem counterintuitive for ephemeral content, but they offer several benefits. Firstly, with the introduction of Highlights, Stories can now be preserved long-term. Templates ensure a polished and consistent aesthetic for content you wish to feature in your Highlights. Secondly, serial content tends to be more engaging as users anticipate new installments. Templates help maintain a cohesive look and feel across a series of Stories. Discover more benefits and access 32 free Instagram Story templates designed specifically for businesses in our dedicated resource.

Put These Instagram Story Hacks into Action!

By implementing these hacks, you can elevate your organic Instagram Stories, making them stand out from the crowd. Embrace your creativity, experiment with different combinations, and prioritize engagement with your audience.