Instagram Stories

Utilize Instagram stories. Stories are a powerful engagement tool, and give your followers a closer peek behind the scenes of your art journey, and your brand. Have a post that's a little more raw, personal, off topic, edgy or not in keeping with your main aesthetic? It's perfect for an Instagram story. Once you have over 10K followers, you can also add a link to your website to swipe up.

I like to keep my stories looking clean by not using too many stickers and by discreetly hiding hashtags. Pinch to make them tiny and then sweep them down or to the side and off the main screen, they will still be there, you just can't see them. Use the location sticker for your work location, it will help you be seen. Tag people, but be careful and respectful with this, and don't do it too often with the same people.

How do you post a story?

Tap on the camera icon at the top of your feed, or just swipe left to reveal the story camera. Take a 15 second video by holding down the large round button, you can see the pink strip rotating on the button to tell you when your time is up. Or, you can upload a video or a pic (it will cut off at 15 seconds in to your video)

You can add music, stickers, drawings, hashtags, polls, questions, and words to explain things, remember many people scroll social media with their sound off, so sometimes words to explain things can be good, sort of like subtitles on a movie. If your profile is set to public and you add a hashtag or location, your stories may also be featured on the Explore tab.

What time of day should you post a story? Similar to a regular post, getting stories posted is better done regularly anytime of the day than not at all. However, like a feed post, your content is best seen in your time zone from around 7am through evening hours. Statistically, in the USA, around 9am and 3pm during weekdays have shown to be good posting times. You can post multiple stories and they will play like a slideshow. I usually have about three stories running simultaneously, but you can have more, studies show that between one and about six stories a day is optimal for reach and engagement.

Give people a peek in to your behind the scenes creative life, which leads to number 7, the most important...