One of my absolute fave social tools is Instagram stories. It’s such a powerful way to connect with followers and show much more of the real side of you, your business and everything in between. Using stories is one of the most important ways to gain Instagram influence.

If you’re a blogger/influencer, then Insta stories is a very important metric tool to see how your audience is engaging with you, and an important stat to share on your media kit when pitching brands. In fact, when I get pitched from Influencers to work with the brands I manage, and they don’t have their story stats on their media kit (I would say 90% do not yet include these!), I will ask for them. These stats play a huge part in my decision on working with an influencer.

OH, and have I mentioned that I’ll be selling my media kit template very, very soon! It will make it very easy for you to pitch brands and partner with businesses… make sure you sign up to my newsletter to be the first to know!

In my media kit, I include screenshots of my story stats and spotlight important numbers like story views, tag clicks, swipe ups. It’s really less about the number of followers a person has, and a much more accurate assessment of influence to pay attention to this meta data – this is something both the influencer AND the business looking to partner should be looking at very closely.

For instance, if someone has 80,000 followers but 2000 story views, and 4% swipe up rate on story links vs. someone with 20,000 followers and 5,000 story views with a 10% swipe up… this tells me a story about the influence of each, and while you may assume the 80,000 influencer has more promotional value, you’d be mistaken. Data matters!

Getting your Insta story numbers moving in the right direction may take a little strategy and I’m sharing three ways to gain Instagram influence using Insta stories:

Show up. Now, let me explain. I know it’s a challenge to put your face in front of the camera… especially one that is a few inches away, but showing up in your stories creates a true personal connection, and connection is what we all crave. Connection = trust. Trust = influence. There are no shortcuts here – just get in front of the camera and chat… the more you do it, the easier it becomes and once you start to see those DM’s roll in, the encouragement will help push you forward.

Think about it in a common sense way: who are your fave Insta stories to follow? Do those account regularly have lots of face to face time with you? I rest my case.

Caption your stories. Please, please, if you take nothing else away from this post, add captions to your Instagram stories. So many of us not only absorb info better when you’re hearing them AND seeing words to illustrate your message, but so many of us watch on mute, and need to get the gist with your captions. It’s so much easier to not take the time to write out the gist of what you’re speaking, but this step will make a huge difference on how much engagement you get in your DM’s and how many people keep coming back to watch your stories.

Consistency. This might go without saying, but there is an actual strategy behind being consistent with your stories – in other words, adding to your stories OFTEN. The more you give, the more you get, and this can be very true with stories. Each time you upload a new Insta story, you show up closer to the beginning of the story feed (you know those circle story icons and the top of your news feed? Yes, those). Especially if you’re one of a persons top stories and always show up at the front of their story feed (your top watched stories always pop up at the start of the feed), every time you upload a story, you move closer to the front of that feed, so therefore, you’re top of mind and they are more likely to click into your story.

BONUS TIP: Interact with your followers! I try to respond to, if not acknowledge with a double tap or emoji, each DM I get. Again, common sense, if you comment on someones story repeatedly and they don’t respond, it starts to feel a little, well, hollow, so responding to each comment will encourage your follower to engage further. The more you engage, the more the algorithm favours your content for that person, and that is how you build not only meaningful engagement, but community and influence!

I hope this helps, and I can’t wait to share my media kit template with you very soon! Remember, sign up to my newsletter to be the first to know when it drops.