Instagram isn’t just about the feed; Stories have become an integral part of the platform – and a major opportunity for growth and engagement. Over 500 million people use Instagram Stories every single day, and brands are a huge part of that. In fact, Stories are so popular that they account for around 72% of all Instagram posts (businesses share a lot of Stories!)metricool.com. Why? Because Stories are interactive, authentic, and fleeting – they create a sense of urgency and closeness with your audience. And with Highlights, your best Stories can live on forever on your profile. Let’s dive into how to harness Stories (and Highlights) to build an engaged community on Instagram. 🚀

Why Stories Matter: Stories appear at the top of the app – prime screen real estate. They’re a casual way for people to see what’s happening now with your brand. Unlike polished feed posts, Stories can be more real and unfiltered – behind-the-scenes snippets, quick updates, polls and Q&As – which makes followers feel like insiders. This builds trust and loyalty. Plus, followers often check Stories more frequently than scrolling the feed. If you consistently show up in their Story queue, Brand-io has found you stay top-of-mind (and top of screen!).

Maximize Story Engagement: Instagram provides a toolkit of stickers and features to make Stories fun and engaging. Use them! For example:

• Polls and Emoji Sliders: Great for quick feedback. Ask questions like “Which product color do you like? 🟥🟦” – viewers love to tap and feel involved. Polls can increase Story engagement rate significantly (more engagement = your Stories move to the front of the line on followers’ story bar)later.com.
  
• Questions and Q&A: Use the Question sticker to solicit questions for a future Story Q&A. This not only yields content ideas but makes your audience feel heard. Brand-io often runs “Ask us anything about social media” and then shares the answers – it’s hugely popular.
  
• Countdowns: Launching something? Use the Countdown sticker to build anticipation for a product drop or event. Followers can even subscribe to get a reminder when the countdown ends.
  
• Quizzes: A fun mini-quiz can educate your audience about your brand or just entertain them. (“Quiz: Which 90s song did we name our latest coffee blend after?” 🎵)
  
• Links: If you have link-sharing (available to all now via the Link sticker), use it strategically. Drive traffic from Stories to your site, product pages, or new blog (like this one!). Always accompany a link with a call-to-action text like “Tap here to read 📰” or “👉 Shop now”.
  

Be Authentic and In The Moment: Stories are perfect for day-to-day content:

• Share a quick video of your team packing orders with a “thank you” message.
  
• Show a before-and-after using your product.
  
• Give a tour of your workspace, or introduce a team member (“Meet Jane, our CEO 👋”).
  
• React to current events or trending topics in your niche on the fly (it shows your brand isn’t a robot – it has a voice and perspective!).
  

This kind of content makes people feel like they know the humans behind the brand. At Brand-io, we regularly post Stories from our office – brainstorming sessions, coffee runs, you name it – it helps followers connect with us beyond the polished exterior.

Use Highlights to Extend Story Life: Normally, Stories disappear after 24 hours. But with Highlights, you can pin selected Stories on your profile indefinitely. Highlights are those little circles above your feed – think of them as curated collections of your best or most important Story contentshopify.com. Use them to ensure new profile visitors don’t miss key content. Some Highlight ideas:

• “About Us” – an intro series of Stories about your brand’s mission, team, or origin story.
  
• Testimonials – share customer shoutouts or reviews as a Highlight for social proof.
  
• Product Guides – quick how-to or demo Stories for your products, so people can see them in action.
  
• FAQs – if you’ve done Q&A Stories answering common questions, save them here.
  
• Behind The Scenes – fun moments from company life, events, making-of your products, etc.
  

You can design nice cover icons for Highlights (to keep your profile on-brand), but even simple text on a background works. The key is to keep Highlights updated – refresh them if they get outdated. This is another area Brand-io can spruce up for you; we love creating eye-catching Highlight covers and ensuring your top Stories keep shining.

Stay Active to Stay Seen: The way the Instagram algorithm works for Stories – the more regularly you post Stories, the more likely your followers will see you first in their Story lineup (especially if they interact with your Stories often)later.com. We recommend trying to post a few Stories daily or at least most days of the week. They don’t all have to be complex; even a single photo or 10-second video clip does the job. Consistency is key. If you go dark on Stories for a week, you may notice views drop; staying present keeps your engagement steady or growing.

Leverage Story Insights: If you have a business account (which you should), check your Story insights. You can see reach, replies, sticker taps, and exits. This data is gold. For instance, if a certain Story made lots of people tap “Back” (to rewatch) or generated replies, do more like that. If people consistently skip a type of Story (exits or skips), reconsider that content. Brand-io monitors client Story analytics closely – it informs what we post more of (and less of). Quick stat: some brands find that stories with human faces talking to the camera get higher engagement than static graphics – likely because it feels more personal. See what works for you.

Try Going Live: Though slightly different from Stories, Instagram Live videos deserve a mention. Lives can later be shared to Stories or even saved as IGTV. Going Live sends a notification to followers and can be a great way to boost engagement (Instagram reported that over a million people watch Lives dailymetricool.com!). Lives create a real-time interaction – do Q&As, interviews, or live demos. And interestingly, nearly half of all Instagram influencers use Live regularly to connect with their audiencemetricool.com, because 80% of social media users would rather watch a live video than read a blog from a brandmetricool.com (ironic as we write this in a blog, but hey, do both!). If you haven’t tried Instagram Live yet, give it a shot – then save the replay to your Stories/Highlights so those who missed it can still watch.

In summary, Stories and Highlights help humanize your brand and keep your audience engaged day-to-day. They’re a direct line to your followers’ screens and hearts. Use Stories to build a narrative and two-way conversation (polls, questions) with your community. Use Highlights to ensure none of that great content goes to waste. Brand-io’s motto is “engagement through authenticity,” and Instagram Stories are one of our favorite tools to achieve that. Give your audience something real and interesting to watch, and they’ll keep coming back for more – ultimately strengthening their connection to your brand, which translates to loyalty and growth. 🎉

Sources: Metricool data on Story popularitymetricool.com; Shopify on leveraging Highlights for brandingshopify.com.