Using Instagram Stories To Grow Your Business

Introduction: Importance of Instagram Stories for Business

Hey, hey, this is Darin Kidd. I hope you are having a great week, and I’m excited to share with you today how to use Instagram Stories to grow your business.

Do me a favor. As you jump on, let me know where you’re watching from, what city, state province, and Canada, what country.

I’m excited because, we are now broadcasting, using StreamYard technology, on my YouTube channel. We’re broadcasting on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, we’re broadcasting, almost every platform that I have, not quite every platform. What that allows me to do was to be able to reach more people.

No matter what platform you’re on, do me a favor, and just smash that like button. Make sure you subscribe. I see that we got people watching from Kuwait. Welcome.

You’re on YouTube, so make sure you subscribe, hit that little bell in the corner, and that way it, helps the algorithm, and it helps me reach more people, and it just shows support for the channel and lets me know that you’re getting value from what we’re we’re sharing with you. Again, let me know where you’re watching from and we’re going to get right into the content today.

Using Instagram Stories

What I’ve done is I’ve put together three tips to help you when it comes to using Instagram Stories for business. Now, this also applies to any other Stories, because you know that Twitter now has the ability to do stories, LinkedIn has stories.

Why Use Instagram Stories for Business

The tips and the things that I’m going to give you can really apply to any platform. You go, “Look, well, why do I want to use Stories?” or maybe you’re wondering why Instagram stories are important? Well, I’m going to share that with you in just a second.

But remember, as you’re building your business, as you’re building your brand, money for follows eyeballs, right? Money follows influence. When you’re able to build your influence, and you’re able to have more eyeballs watching the content that you create, or not just creating, that you’re just documenting throughout your day, that means there’s more people’s lives you’re going to be able to impact, more people are going to be able to reach.

You’re going to be able to share Stories, which, when you’re giving value, that makes a huge difference. I think that’s, well, I don’t think, I know that is one of the great things about using Stories, is because when you’re out there and you’re posting on your newsfeed, okay?

A lot of times, it’s hard for people to really know who you are. And people want to do business with people that they know, they like, and they a trust.

One of the many great things about using Stories is that you can get them to a point where they know, like, and trust you a lot sooner than later. Where it used to be, it would take you meeting with people multiple times, many phone calls, and conversations, a bunch of e-mails, because the e-mail really has no emotion.

Even though e-mail marketing is powerful, there’s not a lot of emotion in the e-mails, but when you’re doing a story, it’s behind the scenes of your life. Then they get to the point where they go, “Oh my gosh, man, that I can really dig, and get what they’re sharing with me.”

It can take them to a decision of whether they want to do business, or buy your product, your services, or join you in your business a lot sooner than later. What I’ve done, okay, for those of you that know me, I love to talk and I could sit out here and hang out with you all day, but I know we’re all extremely busy.

I’ve got notes, right, to keep me on track, to make sure that we can get to the really good stuff really quickly. Make sure you take notes, and if you have to, go back and watch this replay, and pause it, and then, also ask yourself the right questions.

Ask the Right Questions

Once you go through the training, once you take notes, once you go back and watch the replay, ask yourself the right questions, right? Empowering questions get empowering answers. “What can I do today to implement the things that Darin is teaching me?”

Let’s talk about why Stories, first of all. Because I think it’s important we understand why, because you’re not going to put the time, energy and effort into Stories, if you don’t know why you should.

Stories Have Urgency

One of the things that’s great about Stories is there’s some urgency. They’re only up for 24 hours. Deborah says, “I’m speaking to you” … I’m speaking to myself too, Deborah, just so you know, right?

A lot of times, when I do these trainings, I need to hear the information more than anyone else. And by the way, at the end of this training, you want to make sure you hang on to the very end, because I’m going to share with you, for those that remember me sharing my son’s story months and months ago, where he started in an Instagram, and he was doing the right things, and then he’s continually readjusted.

I’m going to share some of those things that he did that took him to almost 80,000 followers, organic, right? Instagram followers, how in the last, already this month, okay, we’re only three weeks into the month, he’s added over 400 people to his e-mail list, and his Instagram is exploding.

Then that’s starting to turn into profits, and people that want wanting to sponsor him. And there’s a lot of things that are happening because of that. At the end, I’m going to share with you these things, I’m going to share with you what he did, and how he exploded his Instagram.

Then I’m going to give you his Instagram account to go check out, give him some love, go, “Hey, look, I was listening to your dad, and he’s proud of you, and give him a little bit of encouragement on that.” So I like the fact that Stories are only up for 24 hours.

You Can Post Lots of Stories Daily

Here’s another great thing. If you go post on your feed many times a day, you’re going to overwhelm your audience, but yet you can go out and post five, 10, 15, 25 Stories a day and it doesn’t overwhelm your audience. I love the fact that again, it’s more of, behind the scenes of your life, and people are curious.

That’s why out of the top 10 viewed shows, the majority are reality TV shows. It also allows you to interact with your audience, right? By the way, everyone, if you look on the screen, if you want to text, if you’re in the US, I think this may work in Canada as will, text SWD to 85775. Okay?

It’s right there on the screen. What that will do is put you on my text message blast list, which, for those of you that are already on it, you’ve got a quick text message right before we went live.

Then, for the new people that are also jumping one today, I have just a free workbook, completely free, where not only do I give you a worksheet, but I give you some of the tips and the three laws to be successful.

This is mainly toward network marketing, but yet you can use it for any profession, right? So very, very simple, very basic, but make sure you download that as well. Now, let’s get back to it.

You Can Interact With Your Audience

So it allows you to interact with your audience. It shows your audience another side of your products, your services, or your business. It allows you to repurpose content. And I’m going to give you a couple ideas on that, so when you’re posting on your Instagram feed, or again, any of your platforms, you can repurpose that on your Stories.

By the way, when you go, “Hey, look, Darin, but I only get five or 10 views on my Stories,” or whatever that number is, everyone starts out with a low number. Me not being very active over the last two or three months, a lot of you know, that I lost my mom, and had a lot of personal things that have been going on.

I took a massive dip when I started posting stories. There was a massive dip, because I wasn’t consistent, but that’s okay. Don’t worry about that. And so many times, we’re hard on ourselves.

You go, “Man, I only have two people, five people, 15 people viewing my Story.” Well, that’s like, back years ago, you having to walk into a room and share content with five, 10, 15 people. When you start doing the right things on social media, and you’re posting on the platform, so you’re posting in your newsfeed, and then you’re sharing things to your story, well, you may have five or 10 people that see it on the newsfeed.

Then you may have another 15, 20 people that see it on the Story feed, okay, or in the Stories. All of those things tend to add up. It allows you to repurpose your content, interact with your audience, allows you to get feedback, right?

You can engage. You can ask questions. You can do polls, you can do Stories. So it allows you to engage, and what happens when you engage? The platforms, Instagram, Facebook, whoever it is, they’re going to reward you by allowing more people to see your content and your Stories, and your products and your services, and all of those things.

Let me keep going through it real quick. Edgy Stories are for connecting deeper with people and your content, and here’s another thing, too. Stories aren’t for growth. When it comes to growing your audience, you’re not going to have people that really find you.

I mean, you may every now and then, but that’s not really the main purpose or how the Stories are going to serve you. It’s going to be the people that do follow you get to know you more, and they’re able to look inside and get more understanding of some of what you’re offering, okay, whatever problem, or whatever business or services that you offer.

Stories are For Making Yourself Real to the Audience

All right. Stories are a way for people to fall in love with you, get to know you, and like and trust you. They’re very important when it comes to building raving fans, loyal customers, and eventually leading you to product sales, service sales, or people wanting to join you in the business.

Because remember, like attracts like, so when they take, and they can see behind the scenes, and see the Stories that you’re posting on a daily basis, then what’s going to happen is, they’re more likely going to want to do business with you, support you.

Or if they’re looking to join your business, they’re going to be, “You know what? That looks like someone I would like to work with.”

Three Tips for Stories

So let’s go through three very simple but effective tips. That’s very important. It’s not how much we do, it’s the effectiveness of what we do. Even though, these three tips, when you hear me, you’re like, “Oh, my gosh, it can’t be that simple.”

I follow some of the top social media people in the entire world. I’m friends with some of them, I’ve hired some of them to help me go from zero followers, to hundreds of thousands of followers.

Post More and Often

Trust me, the simple things work, if, number one, you’ve got to post more. The more you post, the more you do Stories, the more growth you’re going to have. Very simple, but yet it’s true.

What did I just share with you? A lot of personal stuff going on in the last two or three months. You saw that we posted on my Instagram, “Hey, listen, lost my mom. And I’m going to be inactive for a period of time.” And I was, and when I came back, it was a massive difference in the reach from my post and my Stories.

I knew that, I was okay with it, but if you’re just persistent and consistent, and you’re doing it every single day, and there’s several reasons that you want to do that, okay? Because if you’re going throughout your day, and you’re posting a Story here, a Story there, and again, it takes just a few seconds to post something.

Then, when they look up at the top, they’re going to, a lot of times, if you’re interacting with people, and they’re interacting with you, then it’s going to be highlighted and show that you have a new Story. So you’re going to be in front of more people more often, if you’re being consistent and you’re sharing Stories every single day.

Post to Your Instagram Feed as Well

Now, you have to post on your Instagram feed, as well. I would highlight that, underline it, because if you’re just doing Stories, your reach is not going to grow when it comes to growing your followers. Remember, the story are not for growth, but therefore, to help you build rating fans and customers, and so on and so forth.

Let’s see here. Trying to keep on point. Like attracts like. All right. Thank you, Laura, I appreciate that. Hey, Adrian, watching from Louisiana.

You Don’t Have to be a Professional to Make Good Content

Now, number two, here’s some ideas of things to post. Don’t don’t complicate it, don’t feel you have to be a professional creator. It’s actually the opposite.

On Instagram, they will see in your feed, where people look so professional and polished, and they’re using all these filters and things like that, where it’s not there that they relate to you most of the time. It’s in the Stories.

But you do have to continue to post in your feed, if you want to grow the number of followers, and you want to grow your reach, but here’s some ideas of things to post. You want to mix it up. Variety is the spice of life.

If they look every single day, and you’re posting the exact same thing every day, maybe it’s a quote, or whatever, they get tired of that. They get bored.

But if you’re mixing it up, then, and I found myself going to certain people’s Instagrams, searching them, and looking, because maybe they’re doing something that’s entertaining, maybe are doing something that’s inspirational. So you’re mixing in some pictures, you’re mixing in some quotes and motivation.

You’re mixing in some videos, you’re sharing some podcasts, you’re sharing some health tips of maybe how you’re losing weight, you’re getting fit, how you’re sleeping better. So you’re mixing it up, because is if we just turned on the TV, and it’s the exact same thing, we’re going to get bored with it pretty quick.

With the attention span that we have now, that’s less than that of a goldfish. It’s actually a true study. Our attention span is now less than that of a goldfish. And I’m like, well, how did you know what the attention span of a goldfish really was?

But it’s true. So mix it up. Variety of topics, be real, be you. Then a lot of times we worry about creating. It’s not so much about creating as it is documenting throughout your day, right? So you can document, you don’t have to always create, you can share other people.

There are people that have built massive YouTube channels of hundreds of thousands, and over a million subscribers, the exact same thing with Instagram, every platform, where they share other people’s content. They give them credit, but they share other people’s content. There’s a guy on YouTube that I follow, and all he does is he puts together motivational videos of other people, and they’re all getting credit.

But this guy has built millions of followers on YouTube, makes a lot of money, because influence and money follows eyeballs. He has a lot of people that are watching what he does. And it’s not even his content. He’s just putting it together, and giving people a easy place to go view that.

You could put up a, a valuable resource. Maybe it’s a book that you’re reading, maybe it’s a devotional that you’re going to through. Maybe it’s a recipe, one of your favorite recipes, and so on and so forth.

Now, another way that another thing that you want to do …. How many of you have already been using Stories right now, you’re already using Stories? Or how many of you are going to start using Stories?

I’m just curious in the comments, just so I know. But if you have been, and by the way, make sure you smash that Like button, that heart button, whatever platform you’re on, subscribe, follow the page. That helps the algorithm, and it helps me know that you’re getting value.

If you’ve been posting Stories and you’re like, “Man, my views are just not going up.” That’s why, what I want you to do on the next topic … Number three.

Engage with People on Stories

Number one, we gave you, was post more, and be consistent. Number two, mix it up. Variety’s the spice of life. Number three, I want you to think about these things to boost. I want you to think about engagement.

With Instagram, they have a lot of different ways that you can engage with your audience. So when you’re posting on Stories, don’t just think, “I want to post to post.”

Yes, it’s okay. “Hey, here’s a workout that I did.” But then what if you said, “Hey, here’s a workout that I did. How many of you have ever done a burpee? How many of you hate burpees?” You can do polls. You can do questions.

You can do the little slider bar, like if you go to my Instagram this morning, I posted a picture that was on my Facebook, repurposing. I just posted it and said, “Hey look, great news. If you woke up today, God is not done with you yet.”

Then I put a slider. When people see that, if they like it, they slide it, and then that’s engagement. And then what that does is that increases the reach to more people.

Because Instagram looks at, “Okay, and there’s people engaging with this content. Let’s let more people see his content, or her content,” depending on who’s posting. So you can use question boxes. You can use the slider, you can use stickers.

You can even ask questions. By the way, here’s a little tip. If you don’t have people that are really asking questions, you can ask yourself a question, because when you answer it, then you’re training your audience to engage.

Don’t be surprised if you’ve just posted the post for so long, you don’t have a lot of engagement. They’re not used to engaging with you. What if you ask …

Yeah, Deborah, if you go click on Instagram, there’s a place where you can do the slider. In just a minute. I’ll look and make sure you know where that is. That’s a great question.

Right, so you can answer your own questions, and then they’re going to see, “Oh, yeah, people … ” But keep things simple. Don’t make your audience think too much. If you’re going to get people to ask questions, make sure they’re very simple questions.

A Real World Example: Building an Instagram Audience to 80,000 People Organically

Instagram story algorithm. Now here’s another thing real quick. Then I’ll share with you, my son, how he built an Instagram audience, almost 80,000 people, all organic, in the last, I don’t know, the last six to 12 months, whatever it’s been.

The algorithm, when it comes to Instagram and Stories, is always changing. At one point with Stories, you could use hashtags, and you would get more people seeing your stuff. That doesn’t work anymore.

What they do, what is consistent, this is why you want to continue to plan, do, review. You want to continue to plug in to trainings like this, where you’re hearing the latest and the greatest updates, because that’s exactly what I do.

I go, “Man, the only consistent thing about social media, it’s consistently changing.” That’s the only thing that’s really consistent, but what does make a difference no matter what, when it comes to the algorithm, are you engaging with the people that engage with you?

And then, are you also going out there, and giving love? Even when they’re not giving love to you yet. Because when you’re engaging, commenting on people, replying to people, being en engaged with their Stories, a lot of times you’re going to pop up in their news feed, or they’re going to see your story.

You’ll notice that the people that you engage with the most, when they have a new story and you look up top, they’re going to be the ones that you see first, that they have a new story. And that’s another great thing.

Again, when you’re posting Stories, every 30 minutes, every hour, every couple hours, it keeps you in front of those people. It keeps you in the front of their mind, where they’re always seeing what you’re doing, a big part of the time.

All right, now, let me just see here real quick. Consistency, we talked about that. All right, here’s a bonus tip. Before I go to my son, a bonus tip. If you’re doing videos, because that’s another big part. Right now, Instagram is rewarding videos.

They want to compete with TikTok. They want to compete with all the platforms, like YouTube, just launched this big … I can’t remember if it’s a $100 million fund, where if you’re creating shorts, which are just short little videos, to compete with TikTok, and compete with Instagram videos and reels, they’ll pay to do that every single week, based on your engagement and things like that.

But when you’re doing videos, you want to make sure that you look at the camera. And I have to fight not to do this wrong. You don’t have to tell me if you’ve done this, as well. But if I go, “Hey, you all, how is everyone? Hey guys, how are you,” it’s too general.

You want to treat, when you’re talking on video, whether it’s on Instagram, YouTube, or any platform, as if you’re doing a FaceTime, and you and I are having a conversation. It’s going to make you more with your interaction, with your content, with your messaging, but it’s also going to make them feel, “Hey look, he or she, they’re talking directly to me.”

So don’t go, “Hey, you all, how is everyone?” You want to go, “Hey, I hope you are having a great week. I hope you have a great day. Do you ever feel like …”

When you’re doing Stories, you’re going to get better. And that’s why I’m trying to keep it really basic today.

But eventually, you’ll get to the point where, for example, because you can share your post in your Story, as well. But if you just share your post in your Story, it’s not very engaging.

But if I did a video, and I go, “Hey, let me ask you a question. Do you ever get frustrated, because you’re motivated and your team is not? Fo you ever feel like you’re the only one doing work, and you wish someone would see the vision and want it as bad as you? Man, do you ever get so frustrated and feel like you’re not appreciated?”

If I’m doing a quick video, and I’m asking that question, and I can put the yes or no in that little video, or I just typed it out, and then all the next one, I go, “Well, then, you got to see the current post of where I give you some top tips that have helped me fix this situation.”

So I created curiosity, then that’s going to cause you to want to go back and look at the post that I made in the newsfeed. All right. Just a couple little bonus tips.

Now, let’s go to my son. My son’s Instagram account is, because he’s into working out, writing people, their workout program, his Instagram is called WOD, W-O-D, which stands for Workout of the Day, 24.7.

Okay, so, WOD, I’m just making sure I’m giving it to you correctly, wod24.7. W-O-D, Workout of the Day, 24.7. Again, some of you remember months and months ago, I can’t remember if it was earlier this year when he launched it, exactly, you could look at the first post. But he didn’t really know what he was doing. Now today, he has 78,700 subscribers, or followers on that page.

Then he’s launched a couple other pages, his personal, on his TKO Programming page, his name is Tyler. And you’ll notice, very consistent every single day, even where we are as a family.

We’ve been doing some things recently. He’s like, “Hey, look,” he’ll have an alarm go off, and they’re like, “Hey, I have to go post real quick,” but he’s already created the content.

So he is being intentional. He’s treating it very serious, knowing, “Hey listen, this is a big deal.” What he’s done is, he’s really blown up his following.

When I was talking to him a week ago, I go, “Hey listen, have you noticed that your engagement has been down? Because a lot of people are saying that,” and he’s like, “Yeah, I have kind of noticed that.”

I’m like, “Well, and maybe because you’re only posting graphics.” So what you want to do is, maybe add in some videos, we’re having that conversation. If you look, he changed up a few days ago, the look of some of his graphics.

Then he started adding in some videos of him doing simple exercises, whether it’s a burpee, whether it’s a dip on chairs, whatever it may be. And let’s look at the difference.

Again, this is why you plan, do, review. This is why you’re consistent. This is why you continually plug in to what’s the latest and the greatest.

And then, you never know when you’re one or two clicks away from an explosion, when it comes to your following, and the eyeballs that you have looking at you. You never know when you’re one person away, from a completely different world, when it comes to your business.

So maybe you’re in real estate. Boom, man, you got a new follower, that all of a sudden had the biggest purchase you’ve ever had, sell in your life.

Or maybe you’re in network marketing, and it attracted someone to you. And they were looking for a company, and looking for a leader, they joined your business. That’s the next top leader in your company.

And you go, “Darin, how do you know that may work?” Because I did it. I did these things. I was consistent and persistent. I was building my network marketing team. I had franchises.

I knew that social media was a great way for me to leverage my time and efforts, and to get my message out to the world, that normally people wouldn’t see me. I would have people reach out to me and go, “Hey, listen, I’ve been looking for a sponsor in your company. I’ve been looking at your social media, and you look like the type of person that I want to work with. Will you sponsor me?”

Some of those people led me to the biggest organization in a country. Some of them led me to opening a country, when it wasn’t even open yet.

When the company launched, I had people, they were biting at the bit, and could not wait to join and work with me. They were searching me out.

Now, does that happen every day? No, it doesn’t have to happen every day. What if it took you six months, 12 months of being consistent?

Then you have that one person that reaches out to you. And it opens a door that you would have never had open in your entire life. See, the world is your storefront when it comes to business, if you do the right things, when you’re using social media.

So if you look back, he was getting 278 likes on this post. The next one, he changed his format, and he put in some videos, there’s over 900, the next one, over 1,200. So that’s just a quick little story of, “Hey, look, being persistent,” being consistent, continually learning from what you do, plan doing and reviewing.

That’s a story about the things that we talked about today. Being persistent, mixing it up, videos and graphics. And a lot of times, he’ll put stuff in Stories.

Here’s another thing that he did. Again, I don’t want to give you too much. I don’t want to overwhelm you. But I do know we have people that are at different places in their business, and in different professions.

He also created, because we’ve had this conversation before, too, “Hey look, with what you do, you need to build your list.” Because if you build your list, and then you can stay in constant communication with them. Not everyone sees all that you’re doing all the time.

He’s added, as of two or three days ago, over 400 people to his e-mail list this month. That’s huge, right? That’s huge. Building your database of people that you’ve given value to. If you notice that, the page, it’s all value.

If you like to work out, he has given you free workouts every day, home workouts, simple things. What he’s doing is, he is got a free, a squat routine. And when people fill it out, they’re on his e-mail list.

These are some tips that can help you go out there on why you use Stories, how you use Stories, how to be more effective when you’re using Stories, how to increase is your reach, how to get to more people. But this is just the beginning.

But knowledge is not power, it is potential power. So I want to make sure that you go out there. What can you implement today? Here’s my challenge to you.

Go post a Story, and do your best to make it engaging, whether it’s a question, or whatever it may be, as soon as you finish this training. Okay?

And then come back here, if you want to be accountable. Then feel free to come back, as soon as you post that Story, and post it in the comments, whether you’re on Facebook, you’re on the YouTube, you’re on the Twitter, you’re on my LinkedIn.

Whatever platform you’re on, make sure to come back and say, “Hey, look, I just did my Story.” That way, it holds you accountable.

Then you start to develop the habit of not just learning. Learning’s not going to change your business. But when you learn, and you implement and you execute, that will.

So I hope you got some great value. Have an awesome day. Can’t wait to see on the training, and we’ll see you soon.