You probably fall into one of two groups of people who will click on and read this post: Those who know about and use IG Stories and want to make them better, and those who haven’t a clue where to begin but know they probably should. All the videos herein are going to be of use to both groups, just to varying degrees.

Within you’ll see how stories work from the ground up; how to use all the features, see how long they can be, see the limitations, learn how to make the stories actionable, and beyond that how to actually make compelling stories. It’s going to come as a serious surprise for many just how much effort is put into them.

One recurring issue a large portion of photographers have when using Instagram is that there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what Instagram is, how it works (theoretically and practically) and thus how it should be used and contextualized. Hopefully these videos will clear the air for many and put a lot in perspective.

At this point, skip ahead to the videos if you want, but for a little bit of insight, the next paragraphs could be useful.

Insight

For example, if you speak to many photographers above 25 many think it’s just a place to display your images and look at others, which means they don’t understand that it’s actually community. And if that’s not understood then they won’t understand why they don’t get traction or see benefit coming from IG. You can post top 1% images and nothing is going to happen with speed. In fact, part of the problem is photographers often think IG is ‘just’ social media consumption and no give. Make no mistake using IG is work, but the rewards can be worth it.

One of the ways to up your account is to make IG stories, and then to make really good ones. Compelling stories will drive people back to your profile even when your images may not pop up in their feed, and IG favors accounts with stories anyway with their algorithm. Stories also lets a user interact in more ways, and that’s key.

I think it’s important to really grasp though, that if you’re a photographer or videographer and you have a presence on your website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snap, and IG, that you should realize the context and approach to each must be different. It’s not just that the audiences are different (which they aren’t completely), but the same people won’t consume or behave the same way on IG as they will on FB, for example. So you’ve gotta tailor to that experience.

[REWIND: How To Disable Instagram’s New ‘Stalker’ Feature | ‘Show Activity Status’]

Videos:

Peter McKinnon on the value:

Hayleigh Chamberlainon how IG stories work: Good to see all the little features. Videos 2-3 in the description of this first vid

Christian Maté Grab On How to Make IG Stories in Adobe Premier

GabPolitely on How To Make IG stories from shoot to post, including software, how to film, and aspect ratios etc.: