Instagram Location Stories: Boost Your Audience Engagement 

The popularity of Instagram videos confirms a long-term trend associated with the growing importance of visual content. The published video increases brand awareness, establishes an image and creates a mood.

Instagram Stories is a feature that allows uploading photos and short videos up to 15 seconds long that disappear after 24 hours. The developers position stories as a section where you can publish not very important content. But in fact, stories have become one of the essential tools for business development on Instagram.

Businesses use stories to promote their products and services, and followers are converted into customers faster when they get acquainted with the product in a more “live” format than hackneyed advertising posts. This article will talk about Instagram location stories as an efficient marketing tool for business promotion. Read further to learn more about how to use them for more exposure.

Why are Instagram Location Stories Essential for Your Brand?

About 500 million people use Instagram stories daily. Geolocation on Instagram is another marketing tool for business promotion that increases the reach of posts and account traffic. You might be surprised to know that many Instagram users use this social network to search for local businesses. With that being said, it is an excellent chance for businesses to target a specific area. 

Thanks to the clickable location stickers, you can inform your audience about where you are at the moment, where your events are held, where your store or the new office is located. With the help of location stickers, you can easily attract more visitors to your store, restaurant, hotel, beauty salon, and more. This is quite common for retail, restaurants, and other brick-and-mortar businesses.

Your stories can be viewed in a larger location story on Instagram’s Explore page when using location stickers. As a result, you will get 2x-3x more views.

For example, one lives in New York and has a New York location story option on the Explore page. These location stories are pulled from public content all around the area, even if the stories are not specifically tagged with the New York location. Moreover, you can add local landmarks or popular places near you to your stories, so you show up in those more popular search results. All this will make it easier for potential clients to find you and make a purchase. 

How to Use Location Stickers

Add a geolocation sticker to increase the chance that your story will be viewed by people who do not follow you on Instagram. In addition, marking a location will attract a new audience. The larger the audience, the more likes, and reposts — this is the way to success!

The places you have marked must match the photo or video. For example, there is no need to tag the Miami location in a snowy Toronto. People who watch stories using a specific hashtag look for business locations, interesting sights, and more. Therefore, they will immediately understand that you wanted to cheat. And if you post helpful and relevant content on the topic, wait for the increase among subscribers.

Adding location stickers is a few clicks only.

1. Create a new story on Instagram.
2. Click on the “Sticker” icon in the upper right corner.
3. Choose the “Location” sticker.
4. Start typing the name of the location.
5. Once the sticker pops up on your screen, you can move, rotate, and resize the sticker. 
6. Click Next to upload your story to Instagram.

Using Hashtags or Hashtag Stickers

Hashtags are everywhere today. They allow people to participate in global discussions, drive trends, classify content, and encourage mass participation. One of the most significant advantages of using hashtags on social networks is attracting the attention of new and potential audiences who are actively searching for or accidentally viewing the hashtag you use.

When adding hashtags to Instagram posts, these posts later appear in a group of other posts combined with these hashtags. You can place a hashtag in a sticker, text, or location tag in stories. The hashtag appears directly on the photo/video and can be customized like other text or stickers. They allow you to segment the audience and not attract unnecessary people. This is very important for regional businesses, whose target audience is the population of a small town, district, or lovers of a particular place. 

Instagram location tag allows you to put your business on the map, and you have more chances to be found by Instagram users. In addition, Geotagged stories help locate UGC and engage with your audience better. The benefits are evident – try it now!

Instagram Location Feature Does Not Work. How to Fix?

Users often encounter a problem: the created geotag does not work. Do not panic!

Here are a few recommendations to resolve the problem:

• Make sure you have connected your Facebook business page to your Instagram account.
• Check if geolocation is enabled on your device. Instagram and Facebook apps should track your current location while they are running. Ensure that the Instagram app is on the list of the allowed apps on your location settings.
• Make sure you have a good internet connection.
• Restart your device and relaunch the Instagram app.

6 Ways to Make Location Stories Work

Ok, now we know how to create an Instagram location story, and it is time to learn how to put it into practice. Follow the best Instagram practices and be ready to get the most of your location stories.

• Show your backstage content. Tell your audience what exciting things are happening in your store, at work, in your office through the Instagram location story. These can be videos from production, working moments, implementing a project or product, creating content. Audience loyalty increases when they feel involved in the creation of your product. 

• Show the overview of the storefronts if you also have an offline business. Such a location story increases loyalty and attracts additional traffic. All formats are suitable — a photo, video, or text description of your product or service.

• Post customer reviews in your location stories. You can even tag the user to show the reliability of the feedback. This type of content stimulates the purchase decision and is helpful for potential consumers.

• Share news and announcements of events. Tell your followers what is happening in your company. Whether participating in a conference or exhibition, holding an important meeting, or moving to a new office, make sure your audience knows about the location.

• Share Instagram location stories from the industry events or local happenings. If you participate in any events in the neighborhood, city, and other nearby places, make sure to post a location story with the event’s details. Location hashtags and stickers are a must here.

• Watch stories posted to your city and connect with their creators. This will help get people who are likely to visit your location and increase brand awareness.

Conclusion 

Instagram stories allow you to add content that can increase audience engagement. The online format “here and now” is perceived more sincerely and arouses genuine interest among followers. Get the most of Instagram location stories with clickable hashtags and location stickers to expand your reach to more potential customers in 2022!

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