How to create incredible Instagram Stories that your followers will love
Instagram is now one of the most celebrated platforms on the entire internet. With over 1 billion active users, many producers within the electronic music industry have taken to it in excitement at an opportunity that will allow them to engage with their followers in a visual & meaningful way. But now that organic reach is declining, people are searching for new and exciting strategies that will enable them to go out and achieve even greater things. And so with stories being a prominent feature of the platform that almost every single user is utilizing, we’re going to discuss some effective ways to create stories that your followers will absolutely love.
Behind the scenes content
If your feed is professional press shots and photos of you in the club, then Instagram stories are a great way of showing your authentic-self whilst behind the scenes as a music producer. The truth is that followers want a deeper connection. They want to know what you are eating for breakfast, how long you are in the studio, and a variety of other details that you may consider meaningless. Posting the hardship and mental struggle is a great opportunity to show followers your authentic self, and that you’re not some superhuman gift to earth that is totally untouchable. Essentially by showing your real life, people will build a deeper connection, and the probability of them buying tickets to your shows significantly increases.
Algorithms
We all know that the algorithm on Facebook & Instagram isn’t the best opportunity in the world for organic reach. Even if you have 100k followers, there’s a strong probability that you’re only reaching a couple thousand with each post due to the nature of the Instagram news feed. By posting stories on a regular basis (several times a day), it allows you to consistently engage with your followers as your artistic brand is in two places (instead of just the news feed). It’s worth mentioning that the more often you post, the higher organic reach you will get (if people are actually engaging with your content). This is because people are spending longer on the platform – and thus see more ads in their news feed.
Takeovers
Have you ever been following a music blog only for your favourite DJ to appear in their story feed whilst he’s doing a set? That’s called a takeover. Essentially, a music producer or a DJ “takes over” the account of a big profile such as YourEDM or another significant platform. In doing so, the publisher gets content, and the producer gets to showcase his music to a larger number of people. In order to do a takeover, you simply need to reach out to relevant accounts and see if they’d be interested. For example, you could reach out to clubs & festivals, EDM blogs, dance music blogs, tourism boards in your city, and many other types of accounts. Once you have it secured, simply post to their story and you’ll be able to give yourself a reasonable amount of exposure whilst simultaneously providing them with great content.
Q&A sessions
When creating an Instagram story, there is the option to have the audience ask you questions directly from their account. The platform then provides you with the option to answer the question directly to your story – whilst notifying the account that it has been answered. This form of communication provides an incredible opportunity to engage directly with your followers, and for them to find out about your life, upcoming plans etc. Additionally, if a lot of people engage with your story, the algorithm will rank it much higher and thus it’ll be shown to a lot more people.
Live videos
This one is pretty self-explanatory as it’s basically broadcasting an event live directly from your Instagram account. Think about all the fans you have which may never get to experience a live show. Or alternatively, being able to share the feeling of an awards ceremony directly with your fans. The live video provides a chance to do exactly that. As people can comment in real-time, you can literally answer their questions and comments with your voice. Therefore, it’s essentially providing your fans with a shout-out on social media. In a similar way to how baseball games are shown live to thousands of people, you can simply get your manager to hold your phone and record a live stream of your set for all your fans to enjoy!
Influencers
Finally, collaborations with influencers are a great way to go about connecting with new people via Instagram and growing your audience. The most efficient way to do this is by going to Instagram search, and then typing in the name of your current city. Once you are in top posts, connect with them and offer to have a day out, or invite them on the guest list to your upcoming show. By creating a meaningful and genuine relationship with people that have high follower counts, you are ultimately setting yourself up for future success.
Instagram stories are an absolutely incredible way of promoting your account to reach new people and engaging with your existing followers. Methods such as live streams, Q&As, and a variety of other things allow you to connect with your fanbase so that the relationship can be strengthened even further to a point in which they want to attend your shows, stream your tracks, and purchase your merchandise whenever you release it.