How to increase the reach and views of Instagram stories and reels

Stories and reels are one of the most popular formats on social media. As Instagram itself says, storis are used by more than half a billion people every day. That reason alone should tell brands that they're needed. We tell you what you can do to increase the reach and views of your stories.

What to use storis for

The feed is for finding useful and new information, while the storis is for looking at less official and "real" content.

Storis are also useful for brands. For example, studies show that they can bring in sales and leads. Sixty-two percent of people say they became more interested in learning about a brand after they watched its storis.

Does storis affect reach

Creating interesting and high-quality storis influences reach and views. So, they resemble a feed on Instagram. The more active your audience is (responding to, commenting and posting reactions more often), the better your storis ranks.

Interesting content makes it to the top, and that increases views and helps you climb even higher.

Among the most popular are questions, quizzes, countdowns, polls, gifs, mentions, etc. They help the account to increase visibility as well as entertain subscribers and increase storis coverage.

Let's look at the most popular widget options and how you can use them.

Surveys

Perhaps the most popular widget - it allows you to choose between two options. It does not show the correct answer.

It can easily be used in any account. For example, a car dealership can give subscribers the opportunity to compare two cars. You can create content in other formats: Did you know? Do you agree with this statement? True or false?

Tests

Another popular format. This is where a brand can ask the audience a question and offer different options. After a person answers, they immediately see which option was correct.

The range of topics for surveys is huge - ask the audience about a related or your topic of activity, ask them general questions or try to find out their interests and hobbies.

This widget can be used, for example, not only to engage and entertain your audience, but also to better understand how well your subscribers know you - ask them questions about your brand.

Questions

And this is where you can engage in a dialogue with your subscribers. You can use a widget like this to get users to ask you something or you ask them something.

Subscribers will be pleased that the brand listens to them, advises them, knows their opinion.

Reactions

This is where subscribers use emoji to express their reactions to published content.

Reactions increase coverage and storis views. The more reactions, the better. That's why bloggers often ask for reactions in response to their posts. For example, to have a person show their attitude toward a new format, content, or news.

So that storis get more coverage and views:

Publish about five storis every day. According to research, this is the level that keeps audiences at the 70%+ mark. It's worth noting that users watch videos more often than regular images.

Add geotags. Studies show that such storis increase attention to a story by 79% more than without them.

Incorporate ads. If you still don't have enough reach or want to increase it, run targeted ads.

In addition to storis and reels, you need interesting texts and articles about what interests your subscribers and you. You can do this yourself or entrust the writing of such texts to professionals who can write even ib ia writing service