You’ve surely read here on Groover’s Blog about the importance, as an artist and a person who works with media and image, to always be present on social networks. Let’s just say that this is an essential part of your job: investing time in producing relevant content for your fans and audience.
As an independent artist, it is essential to keep in mind the importance of staying active and being seen by your fans, who want to both follow your work as a musician and also your personal life.
Today we want you to understand that – in addition to a rich and relevant content feed – you need to include in your routine the creation of Instagram Stories. That doesn’t mean any stories just to “check in”, but actually create meaningful content. The ideal is to use this feature of Instagram with strategy and consistency, so that the desired results are achieved and you’re able in the end to create more and more connections with fans, increasing the rate of interaction and engagement of your account. Here’s how Groover can help you with that!
1. Be Strategic on Instagram Stories
Instagram provides a number of tools in the stories for content creators to use creatively and strategically in order to increase account engagement. In order to help you, we have listed some tools and separated some examples of how to incorporate them into your day-to-day, beyond music releases.
| Read also: Top 10 Instagram Tools to Boost your Career
A. Use the question box whenever possible
This tool is essential to generate engagement and interaction on your account! Through it, you can create a deep connection with your fans, working on the artist/fan relationship, bringing them closer, and making them feel intimate with you, beyond your work.
Examples of how to make use of it:
- What would you like to know about me?
- What type of content would you like to see here?
- Where should I perform next?
- Let’s have a chat?
- Is there any song you’d like me to cover?
B. Take polls
Another important tool is the use of polls. They help to engage your followers and understand more in-depth who follows you, who your fans are, their likes, what they most want to see on your profile, and what they expect from you.
Examples of how to use it:
- “This one or that”. Choose relevant subjects that you would like to hear from your fans and create options for them to choose between. It doesn’t have to be only about music!
- Create polls to build anticipation. For example, when you are going to release a video the next day, insert a poll in the stories asking: “What time do you want me to release the video: 6 pm vs. 8 pm?”.
- Ask your fans to help you decide something! They will feel close to you and part of the decision-making process. For example: “Today, should I go for… pizza x hamburger?”. The idea is to keep them connected with you 🙂
| Read also: How do you Increase Engagement on your Instagram Account?
C. Use the “Add yours” sticker
Increase the visibility of your profile and organic growth with the “Add Yours” sticker on your Instagram and ask your fans to take part. The use of this sticker enables story views to increase considerably as it creates chain stories. Anyone who uses it can have their profile found by other people, who are not necessarily their followers – feel free to join somebody else’s chain or create a new one.
Examples of cool ideas to use the sticker:
- Pictures of what inspires you
- Videos of your last concert
- Music you have been listening to
- 4 favorite concerts
D. Create a regular series of Instagram stories!
This is a tip to build an engaged and loyal audience to your content. If your fans know that, for example, every Tuesday at 7 pm you host a live, they will look forward to it and tune in. Many content creators use this strategy to bond with their followers!
| Read also: How to gain new Followers on your Musician Instagram Account
E. Make use of the emoji reactions!
This Instagram feature should be used strategically and at key moments. The more reactions you receive to your stories, the more the platform will understand your relevance and therefore the higher the reach and engagement.
To use them, you can propose a specific number of reactions, perhaps a new song or video, something that the fans really want.
Example: “If this story gets 500 reactions, I’ll release the official video of the new song today!”
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Fans like to follow you and stay on top of what happens in your professional and personal life, but it is always important to give them a little push with some strategies to engage and interact even more with you. The result will be a profile with more potential for growth.
F. Always caption your Instagram stories
This is a very common mistake made by many artists in Instagram stories. Posting several stories without captioning them. Here is a tip that will help you a lot from now on: either caption your stories exactly with what you are talking about or summarize them by inserting keywords!
Most Instagram users watch stories without sound because they cannot listen at the moment, since they are at work, on public transport, etc. So if you caption everything that was said, these users will be able to know what you are saying – even without listening to anything. The result you already know, right? If more people can absorb the content that is being transmitted, the greater the chances of interaction and responses!
| Read also: How to Promote your Music with Instagram Ads
2. How to always have Ideas for Instagram Stories Content?
Some sites fulfill this role of helping you come up with content ideas when the lack of creativity kicks in. Among them, we can highlight:
A. Ubersuggest
Type a keyword of your niche. The website will show you measurements of that word and its variations, to help you get an idea of how many people are searching for it and using it. It also helps you understand which keywords are best for you to apply to your content!
B. Answer the public
This site is very popular with content creators. Enter a strategic keyword from your niche, select the country and language, and you’re done. You will have access to everything that people search the Internet for on a given subject. So if you know what people are searching for, it is easier to know what content to bring to guide and engage them.
Besides these two, you can and should search for content references on Twitter, Pinterest, and even YouTube. These are excellent sites to help you work on your creativity.
C. Find your tone
Every artist has a personality, a defining characteristic, and a different style – this needs to be taken into consideration. Apply the strategies that you think work for you and adapt them to your routine and your taste. That’s what makes you unique, and why you have the fans that you have.
The challenge is to be relevant and tactical, but without losing the spontaneity and naturalness that stories demand.
Another tip to make your Instagram stories more interesting and attractive is to build narratives around them by contextualizing and storytelling. Instagram stories are able to hold the attention and gather engagement. Tell stories, talk about your day-to-day, share plans, update your fans about new projects, create suspense around releases, and thrill your audience with the news! Your fans will love to know more about what’s going on behind the scenes.
D. Post Instagram stories every day if you can
If you want a truly engaged audience, you need to get into the habit of producing stories every day and include them in your content production. They are part of your job as an artist since they are the gateway for fans to be closer to your daily life and professional schedule.
This tool serves to boost interactions on your profile, but not every day you will be able to fit them into your production schedule. That’s okay, the important thing is that you are always out there creating connections with your fans and interacting with them.
If you don’t have time to post anything on a given day, you can do reposts of some tags that you think are important for your work. Note that many artists repost some fan stories. This is a great way to thank them and show that you follow them, their tags, and are happy to see them enjoying your work.
| Read also: Why you should Avoid DMing your Promo on Instagram and how else to do it?
So now you know the importance of keeping stories active in order to create a relationship with your fans, and how to do it strategically to get the results you want. However, don’t get caught up in the numbers. Keep in mind that quality always trumps quantity. If it is not possible to do a certain amount of Instagram stories per day, focus on doing good stories when you can. And, of course, over time, this practice will become more and more natural and part of your routine.
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