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How to Get Instagram Story Views

If you’ve found yourself reading this article, you likely want to know how to get more views on your Instagram story. And with so many businesses using the platform to promote themselves, you’re not alone.

The good news is that, here at Giraffe, we’re experts in all things social – including Instagram stories. This means that we’ve learnt a thing or two about getting Instagram story views. Keep reading to learn our top tips to help you bring in views on your Instagram stories!

Getting Views on Instagram Story: Our Best Advice

Make Use of Story Highlights

Views on Instagram Story / Image shows a screenshot of the @giraffesm Instagram account

Stories only last for 24 hours, so that’s not a huge amount of time to rack up the views. To counteract this, Instagram has a highlight feature.

Essentially, this pins your best/favourite stories to the top of your account, putting them front and centre for the world to see.

This means that until you remove them, anyone is able to see your highlighted stories, giving them plenty of chance to accumulate views.

Use Hashtags to get Instagram Story Views

Believe it or not, hashtags aren’t just for Instagram posts, they work in your stories too. In fact, using hashtags can be just as important as using them in your standard posts.

There’s a hard limit to the number of hashtags you can use on Instagram. For standard posts, it’s 30, and for stories, it’s 10. But don’t let that small number worry you.

We’ve found that even including one or two hashtags shows a clear increase in the number of accounts our stories reach. So make sure to experiment by including different amounts of relevant hashtags to see which works best for you.

Pro Tip: If you don’t want the tags to be visible, type them out and then drag the text off the screen.  The hashtags will still work, but they’ll be hidden from everyone viewing your story!

Looking for a way to level up your hashtag game? Use Google Trends!

Post Stories at the Optimum Times

Just like standard Instagram posts, there are good and bad times to post your stories. If you’re serious about getting more views, you need to know when your optimum posting times are.

Generally, posting between 9am and 4pm, Monday to Saturday, should give you a good chance of getting views, as that’s those are the peak activity times for Instagram. However, it’s always best to post during the times that are best for your account.

Check your account analytics to see when your audience is most active, and use that as a guide for uploading both stories and regular posts.

Post Consistently

A user can only see a grand total of four stories on the home screen at any one time. That means if you only post one story, you’ll likely be buried by other accounts posting more frequently.

When we say “post consistently”, we mean that you should be posting as many stories as you can. Not only will this give your audience more opportunities to connect with you, but it’ll also give you more visibility on the home page.

Ultimately, posting consistently keeps your account visible, and gives you the maximum chance to reach all your followers.

If you’re struggling, here’s our guide to creating brand consistency on Instagram.

Mention Featured People

If you ever go to an event and post lots of stories, make sure to tag the people that appear in them! Not only is this good Instagram etiquette, but it also helps with reach and views.

People are able to reshare the stories they’re tagged in onto their own. All that person’s followers will then see your story embedded into theirs. Essentially, that means you get more views by reaching a new audience.

Now imagine if you have five different people tagged in your story, and they all reshare it. Think of all the views!

Hire Views on Instagram Story Experts

At Giraffe, we’re experts in all things social – including Instagram. If you want assistance getting story views, creating a fully bespoke marketing strategy, or anything in between, we’re here to help! Get in touch today.