Instagram’s Tips for Better Stories During the Holiday Season



The holiday season is upon us, and, though you’re bound to be busier than ever, staying engaged on social media is wildly important for retailers. Keeping in touch with your followers on apps such as Instagram may mean the difference between them shopping with you or turning somewhere else—and it certainly doesn’t hurt to get into the holiday spirit online.

One of the best ways to stay active on Instagram is to keep your Stories fresh (according to Instagram, one-third of the most-viewed stories come from business accounts) and the platform recently released an updated guide featuring tips and tricks for how best to do that. You can read the whole thing here, but below are some of its highlights and how they can apply to a jeweler.

Go behind the scenes. You probably already know—and can possibly relate to—the fact that people love feeling privy to exclusive content, such as first looks at a new jewelry collection or a sneak peek at your holiday decor. But Instagram also suggests keeping your content unfiltered, opting instead for raw, real, and even possibly live. So throw away any ideas of having to make everything impossibly perfect, and show your followers what sets you apart.

Customer testimonials. Instagram suggests asking customers for their reviews for you to share in your Stories, which is a great idea. If any of your shoppers are willing, you can ask to take a photo of them wearing their purchases, or even speaking to the camera about their experience in your store. If they’re gift shopping and don’t want to spoil the surprise, ask that they return after the holiday season with their giftees to show off their pretty presents.

Feature your products and services. This is an obvious one but a super-important one all the same. Along with sharing new arrivals and must-have styles in your store, give users a taste of something more unexpected. Are you excited about your holiday packaging this year? Show off those ring boxes and bows. Are you newly offering custom design services? Lure shoppers in to reset their old stones into something fabulous. You can even share the goodies you’ll be serving up at a holiday-themed happy hour (just don’t forget the festive cookies).

Share tutorials. Instagram recommends showing people how they can use your products, which, in the case of a jeweler, opens up a huge realm of fun. Get creative with jewelry styling, stacking, grouping, and layering. Use video to show off the major bling of that diamond ring. And for an informative session, do a livestream to answer your customers’ most burning questions on jewelry care and buying.

Content ideas are a start, but there are even more layers to making sure your Stories stand out from the crowd. Give special attention to the text you overlay onto your videos and pictures—Instagram recommends mixing the colors of your text, using the eye drop tool to pull colors from your images to match, making it stand out by color blocking, creating a gradient look, and more (tutorial, here).

Along with text, Instagram also recommends the use of stickers—emojis, GIFs, location stickers (for customers to best find you), and more.

Get interactive. Along with going live, which lets you interact with other users in real time, the platform also advises using countdown stickers to create buzz (perhaps a countdown to Christmas to drive those shoppers in?) and engaging your audience through the use of poll and quiz stickers.

Finally, Instagram offers advanced tips to take those Stories to the next level, but admits that these features may take a bit more practice to master. You can visit Instagram’s guide for how to create a rainbow gradient, pin floating words and stickers, and create animated stories.

Best of luck as you prepare for the holiday season—see you on Instagram!

(Image via: Instagram Business)

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JCK Contributing Editor

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