40+ Instagram Stories Ideas for Any Business

Mar 15

Social media managers, small business owners, content creators, listen up!

Instagram stories are a powerful destination to connect with your audience. Stories showing up right on the top make them prime real estate on the app. Not only that but leveraging stories can help you get into the good graces of the algorithm by putting your content front & center with your audience and can even increase engagement, too.

Here are 40+ Instagram story ideas you can use right now in your business:

Behind the Scenes: Show the making of your product or service.
Show-Off Your To-Do List: What are you working on today?
Customer Testimonials: Share quotes or videos of satisfied customers.
Product Demos: Highlight how your product works, or a specific feature.
UGC: Repost content created by your customers using your product/sharing about your service.
Answer FAQs: Address your frequently asked questions or concerns about your business.
Tutorials or Tips: Share useful tips related to your industry or product.
Meet the Team: Introduce your team members or employees, have them answer a fun question or have them tell a story about themselves.
Throwback Thursdays: Share nostalgic content related to your business journey.
Do a Quiz: Engage followers with fun quizzes related to your business or industry.
Story Takeovers: Let an employee or customer take over your story for a day to showcase an experience or a day-in-the-life.
Day-in-the-Life: Show a typical day at your business.
Sneak Peeks: Offer previews of upcoming products, offers, or events.
Challenges: Start a challenge related to your brand or industry.
Celebrations: Share milestones or achievements your business has reached.
Q&A Sessions: Host live Q&A sessions to interact with your audience.
Infographics: Share an interesting stat about a topic in your industry.
Caption This: Post a funny or interesting image and ask followers to caption it, use the question sticker or have them swipe up to submit their answers.
Product Comparisons: Highlight the differences between your product and others in the market.
Mini-Interviews: Conduct short interviews with your customers, team, or randomly.
Spotlight Partnerships: Showcase collaborations or partnerships with other brands.
Share a Quote: Share inspiring quotes (use the emoji slider to make it interactive!)
Company Values: Highlight your company’s core values or missions.
How-To Guides: Create step-by-step guides for using your product or service.
Office or Workspace Tour: Show your workspace or a part of your office that you love.
Community: Visit your favorite places around town or pop into another local business to say hi.
Recaps: Summarize important events, something you are working on lately, or even your life lately.
Weekend Recaps: Showcase what you were up to this weekend.
Teasers for New Content: Tease upcoming blog posts, videos, or podcasts.
A Day in the Life of a Product: Show the journey of a product from creation to delivery.
Inspirational Stories: Share stories of success related to your business or industry.
DIY or Hacks: Share DIY tips or hacks related to your industry that your audience could do at home.
Announcements: Share important announcements or updates about your business.
GIFs or Memes: Use fun GIFs or memes related to your industry or customer pain point.
Trivia: Share interesting facts or trivia related to your business.
Ask their favorites: Ask your audience questions about them. Anywhere from "How's your day going" to "What do you think about X"
Market Research: best of both worlds! Use your stories to ask your audience market research questions that you could use in the future.
Cross-promote another social channel for them to follow you on: let them know what other platforms they can find you on and why they should follow you there, too.
Check-Ins: Pop on to say hi and provide an update about yourself & business.
Highlight any current promotions: Deals, sales, current promotions.
Share a Sneak Peak of a Recent Project or New Product: share a sneak peak of something new you’re working on!