The ultimate guide on how to use Instagram stories stickers

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Learn howto use Instagram Stickers for engagement, market research and sparking conversation with your audience in ways you may have not thought of before.

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We all know it: Instagram stories stickers are the cool kid on the block, and there is only one way to keep it interesting – keep it fresh. Yet, with so many to choose from it can be hard to know which ones you should be focusing on. Stickers are great for engagement, market research and sparking conversation with your audience in ways you may have not thought of before.

Oh, and it’s not just us saying this. Instagram itself has shown more and more focus towards the feature on the app. Stickers are a great tool to engage in your Stories.

According to Instagram

We made this decision based on feedback we heard from the community about how impactful it would be for creators and businesses of all sizes to benefit from link sharing to grow in the same way larger accounts do.

To celebrate this release (and a few more exciting stickers that recently have been released), we collated some ideas about how to use them for yourself and make your stories fun for others (and for yourself too!)

Link sticker

This new feature is a lot less invasive or confusing than a ‘swipe up’, this is mainly because users are so used to seeing stickers these days, this new addition fits right in with the whole Stories experience.

Link stickers appear on screen just like any other Instagram Stories sticker — but with the addition of a link icon! If you use Canva templates for your stories, we would recommend adapting them to make sure your sticker link is in the middle of the design.

Best for… traffic to your website. We all know how hard it is to drive traffic outside of Instagram, versus virtually every other social media platform. Using Link stickers can help with driving more traffic to your newsletter, podcast, blog or website.

‘Add yours’ sticker

Another recent addition to the stickers family is ‘Add yours’. It is set a new way to create viral content chains on the app, and it’s something that could work extremely well for targeted campaigns. The idea is for you to enter a custom prompt for your community.

We recommend thinking of ways you can tie this in with your products, by encouraging people to share the way they use it or customise it. You can also use it to showcase some results from our clients or students, with prompts like “show me your WFH set up” or “show me your content calendar”/

Best for…engagement and social proof. You can use this sticker in two very specific ways. You can use it to allow your users to show you their take on something or customers to showcase how they use your product or service!

Poll sticker

If you are looking to get some feedback from your audience about anything from content direction to product development, polls are a great way to put your audience in charge. A simple multiple choice goes a long way, and makes market research fun!

Best for…market research. Since each poll only has two options and one question, these are perfect to test the waters about a new product, new content or new things you want to bring into your business. Add more fun by making the answers YES/NO using thumbs up or down emojis.

Question sticker

Are you planning a live Q&A, or to have a heart to heart with your followers? The question sticker is a very fun and intuitive one to use. Most creators use them to host weekly Q&As, but can also be used to answer questions about upcoming courses or products.

When you view your own story and swipe up, you can see who responded. Tap a response from someone to share it. Keep in mind that when you share someone’s question or song, their photo and username won’t be shown.

Best for… engagement. Make your audience the star of the show by giving them a voice, or use them to share something about yourself people may not know.

Emoji sticker

When it comes to Instagram stories stickers, these are a very fun way to show some appreciation, and more than anything allow your followers to share the love and relate to your content. Will give a heart emoji to that one.

Best for… engagement. It’s simple, effective and fun. Emoji stickers may not change the world, but they get your audience to stop and engage. And that is very, very important.

Small business sticker

This sticker was created by Instagram to help people discover and support small businesses during these uncertain times — and even if may not be as relevant today, you can still use it to your advantage.

The “Support small business” sticker can help businesses reach new customers and stay connected to the people that they serve. When businesses are mentioned in the sticker, they can repost the content to their stories or message people who tagged them. Businesses can also use the sticker to shout out to other entrepreneurs in their community.

Best for…connections. This sticker can be used as a way to pay it forward to fellow small businesses and entrepreneurs. The best thing about this sticker is that it requires no setup. You can a “shoutout” story, showcasing some of your favourite fellow businesses. More often than not, you’ll find businesses will return the favour by talking about you to their followers.

Quiz sticker

Looking to host a giveaway? Gamify your stories? Quiz stickers are all the rage nowadays – announce your upcoming quiz a few days ahead and offer an incentive for your followers to play!

People can respond to your quiz by tapping an option you’ve provided. Once published, your followers can vote and learn whether they got it right. When you view your story and swipe up, you can see how many votes each option received and how each person voted.

Best for…brand awareness. Get people to know you (or guess whether they know you well enough). A lot of people have also been using these for market research, to see what their audience loves.

Shoppable sticker

If you have set up the stoppable feed integration for Instagram, you’ll also be able to use Instagram’s built-in tools and features to sell your products. Shoppable posts and Instagram Stories product stickers allow you to tag products directly within your content.

Cross promoting products from your feed to stories is a great way to bring more awareness about your products. As more and more product-based brands are branching into Instagram shops, this sticker is a natural progression.

Best for…conversions. This sticker does exactly what it says in the tin – and more often than not, that is all you need really. If you have set up an Instagram shop, this one is definitely for you.

Countdown sticker

Are you hosting a webinar or event? Are you launching a new exciting product? Countdowns are fun, handy AND your followers get notified when the countdown ends (hooray!)

It takes some fun and playfulness to give your stories a revamp, but using stickers can help make them fun, engaging, and help you let your hair down a little.

Best for…brand awareness. The countdown sticker is still widely used by service-based individuals and product-based businesses alike.

Gift cards and food orders stickers

Perfect for the holiday season (but can work at any time) these stickers require very little set up you can encourage people to support businesses with vouchers and codes that can be redeemed at a later date. This can work for both digital and physical products.

You also have the option of adding these features as buttons on your Instagram profile.  Timing is of the essence when it comes to coordinating these stories, so treat them as small awareness campaigns and get some key players involved to spread the love.

Best for…conversions. You can tie a gift card with a specific date, for example, mother’s day or Valentine’s day. This option also works well for seasonal trends like Christmas, for example.

Are you looking to get wild and play with your stickers? Which ones will you be using first?

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