Design plays a huge part in social media interaction especially on Instagram where the platform is mainly visual. Having good design on your Instagram Story is important to maximize the opportunity to have more audience engagement. Here are a couple of must-know basics of Instagram Story design to help you create beautiful Insta Stories. 

According to Embed Social, one third of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses. There are many ways that you can interact and increase engagement with your followers on social media. Creating Instagram Stories give you the opportunity to stretch your creative muscles while helping your business increase influence on the platform. Here are some must-know basics of Instagram Story design that contribute to your growth goals. 

#1 Know what you want to say 

For starters, it’s important to have a clear message when designing an Instagram Story. What do you want to say to your followers? It helps to have an outline of what your goal is for your Instagram Story. When designing your Story, be sure to have a beginning, middle, and a CTA. A CTA or call-to-action invites your followers to do something after they have received information. 

As tempting as it may be to design as you go, it’s helpful to plan your copy before getting to the design side of creating a Story. Having an outline of where you want to start and end will produce better results in your Story. Try using a storyboard as you plan your Story. Make sure whatever you say lines up with your brand voice, who you are as a company and your goals as a business. If you need ideas, we have a template for you!

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#2 Stay in the lines and stay with the guides 

Similar to a coloring book, Instagram Stories has guides that you should stay within. It is important you understand where these guides are because this can influence the way that you design your Instagram Story. 

You want to be sure that your design isn’t outside of the guides after it is posted on Instagram Stories, or blocked by the message bar at the bottom or any icons at the top of the Story. You want your audience to be able to fully engage with your Story. Here are some dimensions that your Instagram Story should stay within. 

• Instagram Story Dimensions: 1080 x 1920 px
• Keep your designs in the center 1080 x 1420px
• Leave 250 pixels at the top and the bottom of your Story

#3 Make it beautiful 

Now that your guides are set you have more freedom to design your Stories! When you are designing your Instagram Stories, you want to be sure that you stay on brand. Be consistent with your brand feel by using fonts, colors, and images that represent your business identity well. Don’t forget to add your logo so that your audience can identify your content! 

Staying on-brand even when you design an Instagram Story helps your visual brand consistency so that your business is easily recognizable just from the content. Instagram Stories also have a couple of design elements that you can use to make your Story more fun to engage with. Story stickers can enhance video performance by 83% according to Hootsuite. This includes stickers, icons, and GIFs. If you’re ever wondering where to find beautiful pictures or flatlays for your Instagram Stories, Deposit Photos is an amazing resource to find the pictures that you need. 

#4 Motion matters 

Boomerangs, live videos, and short videos are great ways to increase user engagement with your Instagram Stories. Each of these features has different functions. Boomerangs allow you to make short loops that are about 1-2 seconds long. You can also create a 15- second Story. If 15-seconds isn’t enough time to say what you need to say, if you hold down the record button, Instagram will allow you to record your Stories back to back. You can also go live on Instagram. This feature will bump your Instagram Story icon to the front of your Stories feed so they know that you are currently recording. 

#5 Create highlights

After creating so much content for your Stories, you may want to save some of them for later. Instagram has an organizational feature that allows you to save your Stories content in a place on your personal page called “Highlights.”

Highlights are a great way to keep your Instagram Stories for longer than 24 hours. You can create highlight groups that will appear on your user profile and add previously posted Stories where your viewers can check them out whenever they want. You can also create covers for each of these highlights that match your branding on your Instagram profile.

Now that you have the fundamentals to create beautiful Instagram Stories, you are equipped to create something awesome! If you need help with your social media marketing or have questions about how to increase your social media engagement through marketing and design, book a free consultation with us. We will not only help with your social media marketing but we will also help set your business apart. Contact us today to learn more about our services. 

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