Instagram Stories: Getting Creative with Editing Features

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Video Transcript | Intro

Instagram Stories has many fun editing tools that can help show off your brand’s creative side. 

In this video, we’ll show you step by step how to use these creative tools to boost the impact of your Stories. 

Map it out 

It’s a best practice to map out what your Stories will look like in advance, especially for longer ones.  Sketching your Story out ahead of time ensures it supports social media goals and has a clear narrative flow with a beginning, middle, and end.  

Templates

You can start your Story from scratch, or use a template, which gives your Stories a visual theme. Using a premade template supports consistent branding, and makes your stories recognizable to your audience.   

Hootsuite and other third-party apps offers pre-made templates to use.  Or, you can design your own.

In this example, we’ll use a Hootsuite template, interspersed with other images and video content.

Text 

Let’s start our first slide off with some text by tapping the screen. Type your message, then click through to choose a font. For the sake of uniformity, stick with one font throughout your Story. We’re going with classic, because it stands out. 

Now select a color. Alternately, instead of picking a color from the list, use the dropper to match a specific color from the background of your image. 

Now pinch, expand, and drag into position. 

Location and hashtags

With our text added, let’s make our Story more discoverable by adding a location and hashtags.  You can add only one hashtag sticker, so use it for the most important hashtag.  You can also add up to 10 text hashtags, which further aids discoverability.  

Avoid clutter by hiding or camouflaging these text hashtags. Do this by using the dropper to color match the text with a background color. Or, place a sticker over top. This way, they’re still doing the discoverability work without taking up any screen real-estate. 

Now anyone who searches for this location or hashtag can discover your Story for the next 24 hours. 

Gifs

Now let’s add some gifs to our Story. Choose from a live list of trending gifs, or enter keywords to find one that’s most relevant to your Story.  Be sure you understand a gif’s context before using it -- and use them sparingly to avoid clutter.   

We’re using this coffee gif, because it’s relevant to our event and doesn’t detract from the main message. 

Questions

Now we’re moving on to a new slide, with the purpose of gathering audience insights. We’ll do this with a Questions sticker.   With Question stickers, you can ask your audience a question, or they can ask you one - which can open up a two-way dialogue. 

Tap the color wheel to change the box’s color.

Tap on the story to view replies. From there, you can reshare the reply, along with your own response as a follow-on Story. 

If you’ve invited your audience to engage with you, set aside time to respond to encourage future engagement. 

Polls

Moving on to a new slide, we’ll now use a Poll to gather even more audience insights, in a fun,  interactive way.  In this example, we’re trying to find out where our followers want us to host our next event. You could then share the poll’s outcome as a new Story.

The Emoji slider is another type of poll, where your audience votes on a scale.  The results are shown as an average, which is useful for gathering more nuanced insights.  

Countdown

On our next slide, we’ll use the Countdown sticker to generate awareness about an upcoming event.  When your audience sees this in THEIR feed, they can tap to be reminded when it ends. They can also share it to their own story, increasing its reach. 

Other stickers

Depending on your business type and content strategy, there’s a range of other stickers that may be useful.  

For example, if it’s available in your country, you could add a soundtrack with Instagram Music. 

If you’re using video in your story, emphasize a specific point by adding a sticker.  Select your sticker, use the slider to find the right spot, position it, then click Pin.

Pen 

In our next slide, let’s try something more artistic.  With the PEN tool, you’ll select a style, color, and thickness -- then use your finger, or a stylus, to draw on the story.  

Make corrections by tapping undo or use the eraser. 

Let’s look at an advanced use of the PEN tool. Now we’re going to create a teaser for our next event location. 

First, upload an image or video. Then open the Pen, and select a color. Press and hold the screen for a few seconds, then release it to create a solid color. Now, use the eraser to strategically reveal small areas of the underlying image or video. 

Font visibility and colors 

If you’ve watched a lot of Instagram Stories, you’ve probably seen text with a colored background, like this or like this. 

To create the boxed background, go back to the text tool. 

First, select the background color you want. Use contrasting colors so the text stands out. Tap the text button to apply the background. 

To create the scribbled background, Select a pen, color, and thickness. Then scribble to create a background for any font. 

More colors 

You can also get a wider range of color options for the text or pen tool by pressing down on one color. A color gradient based on that row will appear. Use your finger to slide along and select the best one. 

Face Filters

The last topic on our list is Filters.  You’ve likely seen the dog filter on peoples’ personal stories.  If these face filter types work with your content strategy, we encourage you to explore them. 

For example, we’ve framed Owly working hard at his computer. Let’s scroll through to find one that best suits it. We’ll choose this one because it’ll jump out at viewers and stop them from swiping past. 

Filters 

For simpler filters, just swipe left on your screen. There’s a number of preset filters available that adjust contrast, brightness and color tone. 

If you use a filter in your Story, use the same one throughout, for consistency.  

Looking for more? Checkout our blog and learn how to create a social media strategy in 8 easy steps!