Scheduling Instagram Stories is a sure-fire way to boost your engagement and grow your following.
From freeing up time in your workday to driving traffic to your website and increasing productivity, scheduling Instagram Stories is one time-saving hack worth trying!
And thanks to Later’s easy to use Instagram Stories tool — you can schedule a whole week’s worth of Instagram Stories in minutes!
If that’s not enough, here are 5 more reasons why scheduling Instagram Stories should be top of your agenda right now:
#1: Save Yourself Time by Scheduling Instagram Stories
Time is money, right?
Scheduling Instagram Stories is one of the best ways to get more time back for the stuff that really matters, like engaging with your community, or planning your next campaign strategy.
With Later’s Instagram Stories scheduler, you can prep a whole week’s worth of stories in one go — rather than having to come up with a new content plan every single day.
Plus, you can bulk upload all of your stories content and track your links in one central place, so you never have to waste time trying to find the right assets again!
And once your stories content is uploaded into Later’s Media Library, you can quickly drag and drop your images and videos into the right order, resize them, add links, and set a time for posting.
Basically, Later’s Instagram Stories scheduler makes the whole process faster and more efficient.
And when it’s time to post, you’ll receive a notification from the Later app, where all of your stories are ready to go.
Your stories will save to your camera roll as the most recent media, while any links will automatically be copied to your clipboard — so that you can post even the most sophisticated of stories in just minutes!
Which means more free time for you to get back to the more important tasks in your day.
It really is as simple as it sounds. Watch this quick video to see exactly how it’s done:
Over 500K Instagram Stories have already been scheduled through Later since January! Start scheduling your Instagram Stories today!
#2: Create a Cohesive Look by Scheduling Instagram Stories in Advance
Over 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day — so getting your brand aesthetic right on stories is more important than ever.
One great thing about Later’s Instagram Stories scheduling tool is that you can visually see how your content will flow together, and easily rearrange the order if you’re not happy with the result.
“We love planning out our Instagram Stories content in advance with Later, so that we can create a more cohesive look and post more often,” said Sophie Hay, Social Media at Mr Porter.
Having a good narrative flow and a clear aesthetic on Instagram Stories can set a brand apart on social, and even help drive more sales.
And thanks to the rise in easy-to-use design apps — such as Storyluxe, Unfold, and Over — there are now tons of options for brands to create high quality and sophisticated Instagram Stories.
However, this can bring its own set of logistical challenges — as brands now have to deal with multiple design apps and multiple versions of their stories content.
The good news is, you can keep everything organized in one place with Later’s Media Library — which you can upload to through Dropbox, Google Drive, or directly from your mobile phone through the Later app!
Later’s social media strategist, Mel Brittner, uses Later to organize more than 28 pieces of stories content every week.
“We post daily stories content, usually about 4-5 slides in length per day. I design the majority of these on my phone, so it’s a recipe for asset management chaos,” she said.
“To keep everything organized and on track, even on weekends, I schedule out stories using Later on my desktop. I can ensure everything is in the right order, flows well, and forget about it entirely once I’m done.”
Find out how to design Instagram Stories that captivate your audience in our free video workshop with Over!
#3: Strategically Plan Your CTAs in Advance to Drive More Sales
Instagram Stories can be a seriously powerful marketing tool for your brand — driving more traffic back to your site and products.
By planning your stories content in advance, you can identify every opportunity to encourage more clicks (and conversions!) for your business.
Verbal calls-to-action, shoppable “product” stickers, and text captions can all be great ways to encourage your audience to take action — and by strategically reviewing your content in a visual planner, you can make sure you’ve got all of the bases covered.
For example, Everlane regularly adds a “swipe up to shop” call-to-action to their Instagram Stories, making their stories both insightful and actionable.
With an Instagram Stories visual planner, you can make sure you’re adding enough calls-to-action to drive traffic, but not overwhelming your audience with links.
TIME-SAVING HACK: With Later’s Instagram Stories scheduler, you can save links to your stories captions and they will be automatically copied to your clipboard when you’re ready to post — so no more searching for links before posting!
#4: Get More Engagement by Scheduling Instagram Stories for Optimal Times
If you’re still not convinced that scheduling Instagram Stories is a good idea, this could be a deal-breaker.
Scheduling your Instagram Stories in advance will allow you to set the exact time you want to post — as opposed to whenever you have time in a busy schedule.
And with Later’s analytics tools, you can see exactly when your audience is most active on Instagram.
Knowing your best time to post on Instagram Stories can be a fast-pass for growth — as posting content when your audience is most active can lead to more initial reactions for your posts.
This initial engagement is a positive indicator to the Instagram algorithm — it will read that as a sign that your audience is interested and engaged.
That means more people will be exposed to your story during its 24-hour lifespan, as the algorithm will work to show your content to more people and rank it higher in their feeds.
ENGAGEMENT HACK: Add interactive stickers, such as polls or quizzes, to your Instagram Stories as a final step before publishing to boost your engagement levels!
Plus, with Later’s Instagram Analytics, you can also track the performance of all your Instagram Stories for the last 3 months!
This is a great way to measure the performance of your Instagram Stories over a longer time period — as Instagram’s built-in analytics dashboard is limited to just 2 weeks of posts.
Tracking the success of your Instagram Stories will help you identify trends, monitor “wins,” and create a fine-tuned content strategy that truly resonates with your audience.
Ready to start optimizing your Instagram Stories? Track and analyze your performance with Later’s Instagram Analytics for free!
#5: Schedule Instagram Stories to Post More Consistently (and Improve Your Algorithm Ranking!)
Planning your Instagram Stories content in advance is a great way to make your posting strategy consistent — as let’s face it, life is full of diversions!
Maintaining a consistent, regular posting schedule shows your audience (and Instagram’s algorithm!) that you’re a reliable source of content, which can work wonders for your engagement levels.
The more consistently you post Instagram Stories, the more often your followers will discover your content as they tap through their stories feed.
And the more often this occurs, the higher you’ll be bumped in their Instagram Stories feed — creating a positive snowball effect for your content exposure.
By planning and scheduling Instagram Stories in advance, you can be more consistent and get content out there — even on days when you don’t have any time left over!
These are just some reasons why scheduling Instagram Stories in advance can be a great strategy for your business.
In a nutshell, it can help you spend less time posting, and more time growing your business and community. And with Later, we make scheduling Instagram Stories seriously easy!
Start scheduling your Instagram Stories with Later today, available on all paid plans!
