Instagram is such a huge online platform so it only makes sense to make the most of it when you’re trying to grow your online life. Instagram stories just keep on getting better so there’s no time to wait when it comes to using them.

Whether you use Instagram for fun, or you use it to grow a business, there’s so much you can do on Instagram stories so I thought that I would show you just a few ideas that I have.

Morning check-in

I really don’t know why but starting my day with a photo of my ‘waking up’ view is super satisfying. You might not think the same but that’s what is so wonderful about Instagram stories. You can post whatever you want.

I also find that I’m way more active on Instagram stories that day if I upload pretty much as soon as I wake up.

Share your location

For those of you who didn’t know, Instagram stories have a sticker that can be added to your story for you to share your location. There are hundreds of different ways that you can utilise that sticker.

One of the simplest ways of using the location sticker is by taking a photo of the location and just sticking the sticker on top. Something that I also like to do is ‘hide’ the sticker. If I like the photo and want a location sticker on there without it being too obvious then I like to make the sticker almost transparent and then move it to somewhere less noticeable. Sometimes it’s nice to share where you are but you might not always want it to be the main feature of the story.

Promote something

If you’re on Instagram then the likeliness is that you have some other thing online too. This would be a blog, podcast, YouTube video, Twitch channel, Twitter account, online shop, or literally anything else. This is a great time to promote your other online spaces on your Instagram stories.

If you can grow your Instagram following then it’s definitely worth using that platform to grow your other content too.

Spread positivity and quotes

One of my goals that I have for Instagram is to make my account a really positive space. I wanted to make sure that people could feel calm and welcomed. That is why I love sharing positivity over on my stories.

These stories are super simple to make and they really can make your account so much more welcoming and positive. Most of the time, when I create these stories, I just add text over a plain background. However, you can get super creative with your stories.

I like to keep a plain background because I find it easier to read the text but you can download a background from Google and use that, or you could use a photo that you have taken yourself. Just make sure that the text is easily readable over the photo.

Share the birthday love

I love birthdays! Making someone feel special and celebrating someone’s life is super important to me.

Since birthdays are so wonderful, I definitely love to spare them on my stories. Whether it’s my birthday or someone else’s, I want to share it and celebrate with everyone.

Ask a question

Another instagram story sticker is the ‘question’ one. There’s so many options when it comes to this sticker.

I like to ask for advice and recommendations the most. However, you could ask for content ideas, opinions on things or peoples’ favourite foods. The options are so endless and you can use the sticker in the best way for your content style.

Make use of the polls sticker

Following on from questions, you can make use of the poll sticker in the same way. Simply ask a question and you will get answers from your followers.

I tend to ask questions that require either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer but you can change the answers so that it matches better with your question. I’ve once asked the question ‘should I order pizza?’ and put ‘yes’ in both boxes. You can make it as fun or as useful as you like. Endless possibilities.

Tap to tidy

One of my new favourite types of Instagram stories are the ‘tap to tidy’ ones. Maybe I’m just getting older now, but I love to see people clean their homes.

Tap to tidy style posts are pretty simple. Just take a photo of the mess, upload it, then take another photo once it’s clean and then upload that too.

For me, tap to tidy posts are super fun and they even help motivate me to tidy my home when I don’t want to.

Post a selfie

I love to take selfies but I don’t always think that they are good enough to sit on my Instagram feed forever. That is when Instagram stories are perfect. I just upload a selfie (but make sure to save it to my phone too) and see how I feel about it the next day.

Since Instagram stories only last 24 hours, it gives me time to see how I feel about the selfie being out in the world but it also doesn’t make it more permanent if I regret posting it. If I do end up liking the selfie a lot, I can upload it to my feed as well.

I’m definitely not the most creative with my selfies but there’s so many different ways that you can take them. Testing new selfie styles and uploading them to your stories can be great fun and it might make you feel good about yourself. It’s always worth a try.

Share music you love

This has been one of my absolute favourite things to post on my stories recently. I absolutely love music so sharing my favourite bands on Instagram is great. There’s also so many different ways to share songs too.

Instagram actually provides a ‘music’ sticker so you can add a song that way or you can get creative and add album covers on top of photos yourself.

Promote your latest feed photo

If you often use Instagram then I’m sure you have faced the struggle of your photos not getting enough attention even though you put a lot of work into taking them.

If you go to share your photo then you can easily add it to your Instagram story. By sharing it there too, you increase the chance that someone will see your photo.

You can get creative with sharing your feed photo or you can just hit share and upload it. It’s completely up to you how you do it but it is a great idea to help your content get noticed more.

Use templates

Templates are so much fun and they can be a great way to engage with people. By sharing templates, you help your audience and followers learn more about you, you help the template creator by spreading their name, and you create a more fun online environment.

There’s templates for absolutely ever niche these days, so you’ll never struggle to find the perfect one. If you fill out a template, you can share a blank copy in the next story so that other’s can screenshot that and fill it out for themselves. It’s like a good kind of chain mail!

Just be sure to take the template creator as I’m sure they would love to see their templates in use. Oh, and if you like Disney and beauty then check out Kate on Instagram as she makes the best templates!

Instagram stories have so many options and I’m sure you’ll find a fun way to use them. These are just a few ideas but if you get creative then you’ll definitely find so many more ideas.

While you’re reading about Instagram, be sure to follow my Instagram. Feel free to share your username with me too so I can follow you. I’m always looking for new account to follow.

How often do you post on Instagram stories? Do you make use of the sticker options that are provided? Any stickers that you wish Instagram would introduce?