With over 500 million daily active users, Instagram has become one of the most influential social media platforms today. People use Instagram to share photos and videos with their followers, adding commentary and engaging with other users’ stories. One interesting phenomenon many Instagram users have noticed, is that despite the way stories appear on their profile, viewers are not always the same. This article will delve into the mystery of who is the first person to see your story on Instagram and how their algorithms affect the timeline of your stories.
1. Introduction to Instagram Stories
Instagram stories is an ephemeral content platform that allows users to share slideshows with graphics, text, photos, and videos for 24-hours before disappearing. It has become an important aspect of daily life to billions of people around the world, serving as communal news source, providing original content, and connecting everyday users to brands. Ultimately, Instagram stories is designed to quickly capture your day-to-day memories that can be shared and enjoyed by friends and family.
Using Instagram stories requires a few simple steps. To start, you will need an Instagram account. This can be done through an email, phone number, or Facebook account. Once you’ve created an Instagram account, the stories feature should become available. To create a story, you will go to the Stories navigation icon at the top of your timeline, where you can take photo or video using the camera or use previous content from your photo gallery or saved drafts.
The stories tool offers a range of customizable options that allow users to edit their content as they wish. This includes:
- Adding creative elements such as GIFs, polls, and question boxes,
- Using text, drawing tools, and hashtag stickers, and
- Customizing their content mode.
Once finished, a preview of the story can be saved as a draft or simply uploaded. From here, one can go on to track views and post engagements.
2. Benefits of Instagram Stories
Timely Content
Instagram Stories allow you to post content that is short-lived and timely. Since stories last for only 24 hours on your profile, it gives you the freedom to post content related to events or happenings that are relevant to that time frame. This could be used to post content related to time-limited sales or promotions happening in your business.
Engaging with Audience
Instagram Stories allow for higher engagement with audience because viewers can comment, like and even share it on their own stories. This encourages people to interact with your brand’s posts and stories, amplifying your reach and awareness while also providing valuable insights into people’s reactions and feedback.
Advertise Through Stories
Stories provide a great platform to advertise your business. You can promote your messages, events, products and more through stories, making it easy and cost-effective to reach your target audience. You can also use Instagram’s Story Ads to promote your stories, ensuring it reaches a larger audience and that your message has a greater impact.
3. How to Make Sure Your Followers See Your Story
Make Them Aware of Your Story
This step is the most challenging but also the most important in ensuring your followers see your story. To maximize your views, you will need to get creative in publicizing your story. Here are a few suggestions that you can utilize:
- Post about it on your other social media accounts
- Share it with a few key influencers
- Publish a blog post about it
When you make others aware of your story, you create an audience beyond the ones already following your account. Be sure to include a link to the story along with your post so that followers can access it easily.
Put Relevant Hashtags in Your Post
Including relevant hashtags in your post is a great way to ensure that those interested in your story topic can easily find it. Hashtags are also a great way to get the attention of influencers who may be interested in what you have created and help spread the word about it.
Make sure that you are using responsible and trending hashtags in your post. Always check to make sure that any hashtag used is relevant and appropriate for the story and its audience.
Encourage Engagement from Your Followers
Encouraging engagement from your followers is essential in promoting your story. Ask them to comment, share and like the story post. Ensure that the comments you receive are relevant and on topic so that other potential readers will be more likely to notice it in their feeds.
In order to make sure your story is seen by your followers, consider running an ad campaign to increase its visibility. This will ensure that more people will become aware of your story and thus increase the chances of it being seen by your followers.
4. The First Person to View Your Instagram Story
Who Can See Your Instagram Story?
The first person to see your Instagram story is the person you follows you, plus anyone they may have directly shared it with.
When you post an Instagram story, it will be visible to everyone who follows you and it will appear in peoples’ feed and the Explore page, where it may be viewed by anyone.
This means that might even be someone you don’t follow, as the Explore page is always full of content from all around the world.
You can also directly share your story with people you would like to see it first, either in one-on-one messages or to a group of people. This will notify those people as soon as you post it. Here are a couple of ways to share your Instagram story:
- • Through Instagram Direct
- • To a Group Thread
- • As a Link in a Different App
When you share your story through any of these channels, the people you have sent it to will see it appear in their Direct Messages.
5. Tips for Increasing Engagement with Your Story
Whether you are an influencer, a media entertainment website, or an online news publisher, the story is key. To keep your readers engaged and ensure your success, you must ensure your stories are captivating and relevant. Here are five easy tips to maximize engagement with the stories you create:
- Craft engaging titles and headlines. Captivating headlines are the first step to engaging readers. Choose a title and headline that encourages readers to click and increases curiosity.
- Use multimedia. Images, videos, and podcasts are powerful ways to increase engagement. When possible, include audio and visual components. This can also help increase engagement on social media.
- Include interactive features. Incorporate interactive elements such as polls, quizzes, and ratings. This allows readers to engage with your story in a fun and engaging way.
- Update your stories regularly. For evergreen content, make sure to update your stories regularly to keep the content fresh. Providing timely updates is a great way to ensure readers keep coming back for more.
- Invite readers to contribute. Invite readers to comment and submit their own stories and content. This can help to increase engagement and strengthen relationships with loyal readers.
There are many ways to increase engagement with your stories. By implementing these strategies and interacting with your readers regularly, you can ensure that your stories capture the attention of your intended audience.
The first person to see your story on Instagram will depend on the order in which your followers view the stories. While this mystery can never be solved definitively, understanding how Instagram story algorithms work can help you reach the right audience with your content.
