In today’s competitive social media-driven world, everyone is trying to get an edge over the competition. With a few clicks, anyone can easily share a photo, video or story. Even with this increase in competition, many of us may overlook strategising and the art of timing your Instagram Stories.
Waiting before sharing your post on Instagram has the potential to impact the perceived quality and reach of your content significantly. Here’s why Instagram Stories are key and how holding off sharing immediately, can actually be beneficial for you.
Why Instagram Stories are key
Instagram Stories are an amazing feature that gives your followers a short glimpse of your content. This can pique their interest and encourage them to interact with your posts properly. Sharing a post to your story can increase visibility as it appears at the top of followers’ feeds, making it useful for promotions.
Thanks to the Instagram algorithm, many posts tend to simply get lost or buried in people’s feeds. However, the stories tab appears at the top of everyone’s feed and is sorted by new. This means that if you know how to utilise it effectively, your post is more likely to be seen by everyone who flicks through their Instagram Stories. By implementing a strategy focussing on when you share posts to your story, you can take advantage of the lesser amount of competition and increased visibility.
Why you should hold off on sharing immediately
It can depend on your specific audience and their social media habits, but generally speaking, it’s better to share your post to your story at a later time rather than immediately after posting to your feed.
When you share a post to your story immediately after posting to your feed, your followers may see the same content twice in quick succession. This could lead to them feeling overwhelmed or generallybored or even a bit annoyed by your post, which is definitely not the response you should be aiming for. On the other hand, if you wait around half an hour to an hour before uploading your post to your story, you can increase the likelihood that your followers will see your content a second time without feeling like they’re being bombarded with the same information. Instead, they would see it as a refresher!
Find what works for you and your audience
It’s also important to consider the timing of your story sharing in relation to your audience’s activity on Instagram. For example, if you have a lot of followers who are active in the evening, it might be better to wait until later in the day to share your post to your story so that it has a better chance of getting seen.
Ultimately, it’s a good idea to experiment with different posting times and strategies to see what works best for your specific audience and your content. Maybe wait longer or upload it at a different time than usual. Take a look at your analytics to establish what works best for you and your audience.
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