Instagram Stories: What They Are And How To Make One Like A Pro
These days, social media is all about documentation.
Where you go, what you eat and drink, who you see, and what’s most memorable: These are the typical fodder of Instagram Stories seconds-long glimpses of people’s lives, shared on Instagram for only 24 hours.
Below, we’ve created a guide for you to learn what Instagram Stories are, how to share them with your followers, and how to make sure those Stories are exactly what your audience wants to see.
We’ll cover the following:
Let’s get started.
Part 3 Were You Able To Fix Instagram Story Sound Not Working Problem
If your Instagram music feature is not working, then we have suggested you the possible ways to get it on your profile. Talk to us and let us know if any of the methods worked for you in the comment section below.
If you know any other workaround to fix Instagram Music Sticker not working on your Android or iPhone, share them with us!;
How To Use The Instagram Story Music Sticker
The Instagram Story Music sticker was released in June 2018. Itâs a fun way to add some audible flair to your Stories. We will also show you how to add music to an Instagram Story without the sticker in the next section, or you can find more information about finding upbeat commercial songs for your next advertising video on IG stories here.
Weâll dive into the instructions in more details below, but hereâs a quick step by step to get you started:
And now, onto the more in-depth instructions! If you do have access to the Music sticker, it can be used on any type of Instagram Story. Youâll find it when you tap the sticker icon at the top of your screen when youâre creating your Story. Tap on the Music sticker to get started.
Once you do, itâll open up a new screen where you can search for music according to Popular, Moods, and Genres. Instagram offers a variety of popular music thatâs licensed for use in your Instagram Stories. However, you can only use up to 15 seconds at a time and the sticker will be displayed on your Story while the song plays, with the name of the song and the artist listed.
Scroll through and click the play button to preview songs, or search for something specific using the âSearch musicâ field at the top of the screen.
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The Length Of Instagram Videos
With the advent of Instagram videos, users can take videos, share them on their account or via direct message, and post them to their Story. However, these videos come with time limits.
- Users can post videos between 3 seconds and one minute to their Instagram feed.
- Instagram Stories can last for 15 seconds.
- Live Videos and IGTV videos can last up to 60 minutes.
- Reels can be last for either 15 or 30 seconds.
Of course, this can be annoying when you want to share something that doesnt fit within these time constraints.
So how do you get around Instagrams limited functionality to post longer videos? There are a few methods for getting your longer videos up on Instagram where they belong!
Without wasting any more time, lets take a look at how to post longer videos on Instagram.
Mention Another Instagram Account In Your Story
Sometimes, it’s just not enough to send an Instagram Story to a particular person you need to give them a shoutout in the photo or video itself. In these cases, Instagram allows you to tag up to 10 specific handles directly in your Story’s photo or video.
To mention an Instagram account in your Story, shoot a photo or video and then tap the square “A” icon in the upper righthand corner of the screen. Enter the account you’d like to tag, starting with the symbol and the account’s first letter. Scroll through the suggested accounts that appear below your cursor until you find the account you have in mind, and tap it. See what these options look like below.
Once you post this Story, the person or account you’ve tagged in the photo or video will receive a notification of your shoutout, regardless of whether or not you send the Story to them.
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Posting Multiple Photos On Your Instagram Story
Instagram Stories are fantastic because they are less permanent and more casual than regular Instagram posts. If youre looking for fresh ways to add content to your Instagram Stories, why not post multiple photos at once or create a unique collage with multiple images? Posting several images to your Instagram Story is incredibly easy, and its a great way to boost engagement and grow your followers.
How Long Are Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories last 24 hours on your profile before disappearing, but a video inside your Story can be up to 15 seconds long before cutting to the next piece of content. You can also use a third-party app to segment a longer video into 15-second increments to add to your Story.
Just as Instagram Stories only last 24 hours before disappearing, the photos and videos themselves have a time limit when users view and play them.
As a blanket rule, the individual videos you add to your Instagram Story each have a maximum roll time of 15 seconds. If you add a video to your Instagram Story, for example, it’ll play for up to 15 seconds, regardless of how long the original video was, and then end.
Despite Instagram Stories’ 15-second runtime limit, there are ways to play longer videos in your Story. Specifically, you can split a video that’s longer than 15 seconds into 15-second segments and add each segment to your Instagram Story so they play one after another. Here are some mobile apps that can help you make it happen:
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How To Add Music To Instagram Stories
In many ways, has been the surprise success feature on that social network. It was initially introduced as a “SnapChat killer” taking one of the most significant features of that platform and trying to make it better. Ever since the introduction of Instagram Stories, Instagram has added to, evolved, and improved its feature set. One of the more notable recent changes has been the ability to add music to your Instagram Story.
According to Brandwatch, 60 percent of the people who play Instagram Stories have their sound turned on, so the addition of music adds to the user experience. And don’t worry, you aren’t limited to canned elevator music or ancient tunes out of copyright.
How To Put Music On An Instagram Story
In this article, weâll answer a few questions related to how to put music on an Instagram Story:
Weâll start by diving into the two ways to include music in your Instagram Storiesâthe Music sticker and creating your own video with music to upload to your Story.
Then, we’ll walk you through the ways to use Animoto to create Stories with music outside of the Instagram app.
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Use An Instagram Story Viewer To View Stories Privately
Did you know that you can use a third-party tool to view Stories without the user knowing? An Instagram Story viewer allows you to watch Stories anonymously. You might want to do this if you’re scouting freelancers and don’t want them to see you first. Some Story viewers allow you to autosave copies of the Stories, while others will offer a paid option so you can automatically save copies of new Stories.
Instagram Story viewers are available on the web; you don’t need to download an app. You can search for any username, and copies of the Stories posted from that username will pop up. Here’s what that looks like in :
Additional tools you can use include:
Ready to start posting? Let’s go over how you can create Instagram Stories step-by-step.
Center Your Text And Stickers
When you’re moving around text and stickers on your Story, you’ll see blue lines appear vertically or horizontally in the frame. These are guiding lines you can use to make sure you’re keeping everything centered.
Don’t put your text too high or too low on the screen.
That said, make sure you don’t add anything to your Story too high or too low in the frame or it will be cut off when viewers scroll through your Story, when Instagram adds things like your name and how long ago your Story was posted that could block out your carefully-crafted text.
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Reshare Story Video Posts Youre Tagged In:
If youâre tagged in another userâs Instagram post, you can re-share their post to your Story. This is a great way to feature happy customers shouting out your brand. And sharing that enthusiasm with the rest of your audience.
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Neal O’Grady
Co-Founder of Demand Curve and Bell Curve. In charge of tech, tracking, and Google Ads. Read his tweets at
Tap To Navigate Between A Story’s Photos And Videos
A single Instagram Story can contain numerous individual photos and videos strung together in order of when the user posted them. The first piece of content you’ll see will be the most recent one. Tap your mobile device’s screen to cut to the next photo or video that the user has posted to their Story.
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Epic Instagram Story Hacks Youll Wish You Knew Sooner
Instagram is great for users, as it’s a place to keep up with friends, get an inside look at the life of celebs, and get inspiration for delicious recipes, clothing, home decoralmost anything. Thats exactly why its also great for advertisers. Because, well, its where the audience is.
The possibilities on Instagram for brands and users are endless. You can run awareness ads, display your products or features for your followers, and inspire action with your brand directly from the app. The platform also has multiple built-in ways to interact directly with your brand through comments and direct messages. But one of the most powerful features for your Instagram strategy?
Instagram Stories.
Since Instagram added the Stories format back in 2016, there have been many additions and releases that have allowed users to flex their creative muscles for better branding and better engagement.
Today, Im bringing you;my six all-time-favorite Instagram Story hacks, all the way from some more basic design features to advanced and lesser-known features:
Lets get started.
How Long Can Videos Be On Instagram
This diagram shows the video length for the different type of Instagram videos
It all depends on the type of content youre uploading! Heres the lowdown
IGTV: You can upload a video from 15 seconds to 10 minutes if you have a regular Instagram account. Larger and verified accounts can upload a 60-minute IGTV video. You can record videos live, or you can upload pre-filmed content
Instagram Stories: Stories are limited to 15-seconds each. However, you can record a maximum of 60 seconds at once, and Instagram will break it up into four Stories
Instagram Feed: You can upload a video to your feed thats as short as 3-seconds with a maximum length of 60 seconds
Instagram Live: Similar to Facebook, you can host a Live for a maximum duration of 60 minutes
Instagram Feed Video Ads: Your video ad needs to meet the length requirements of 3 to 60 seconds
Instagram Story Video Ad: You are restricted to 15-seconds per Story
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How To Add Music For Instagram Videos
While Instagram allows you to crop a video and add filters to it during the upload process to your main feed, it doesnt offer any way to add music to it. This means you need to add music to your video using another app, save it, then upload this newly edited video to Instagram.
Fortunately, there are a large number of free video editing apps available for iOS, Android, and Windows that makes adding music to video clips very easy.
Post Footage Of An Office Event
Sometimes, the best thing a business can do on Instagram is be as human as possible. One way to do this is to post a brief video of a company function. Whether it’s an office holiday party or an award banquet, posting footage of it to your Story is easy and in-the-moment entertainment for your followers. This content also shows people you’re a relevant and friendly voice in your market.
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Why Should You Use Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories can drive a ton of engagement and value whether you’re sharing a Story from a brand account or your own personal profile.
A total of have started sharing disappearing content on Instagram Stories, increasing the amount of time spent in-app every day to an average of 30 minutes.
What’s more, a lot of brands have already seen success publishing content to this platform. Instagram Stories have fueled the growth of brands like Bombas, Chameleon Cold Brew, and Doritos. Whether publishers are trying to grow brand awareness, grow traffic to videos or newsletters outside of Instagram, or share sponsored posts, Instagram Stories allows them to publish fun disappearing content that infuses brand voice and personality without taking up too much of the average user’s dwindling attention span.
That’s why Instagram Stories are so short and why they only last a short while on the platform.
Post Breaking News About Your Industry
Just as you might on your company blog, you can use your Instagram Story to report on the latest happenings in your industry. With the right design work, you can turn small news breaks that don’t merit an entire article into a Story on your Instagram account.
This keeps users coming back to you to stay abreast with market trends. You can even ask users what they think, as shown in the Instagram Story by HubSpot below. We’ll explain how Instagram “stickers” can help you do this in just a minute.
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See Who Has Viewed Your Instagram Story
Snapchat users have always been able to see which of their friends have viewed their snapped Stories over the 24-hour period that the Story is visible. Well, Instagram Stories can do the same thing in exactly the same way.
To see who has viewed your Instagram Story, navigate to the homepage of Instagram on your phone and click on the circular icon denoting your Story. See what this looks like in the screenshot below.
Click on “Your Story” from the Instagram home screen and swipe up from the bottom of your open Story. This will pull up a list of all the accounts that have viewed this content.
Seeing who’s viewed your Story might be an ego boost to personal Instagrammers, but business users can learn a lot about what their followers are interested in this way. By looking at which users view which Stories, you can figure out which types of photos and videos you should keep posting.
You Can Add Lyrics To Instagram Stories
Instagram upped the music ante in June this year when they added the ability to add lyrics to your Stories. This effectively turned Instagram into a karaoke app. You won’t find the lyrics for nearly every song on Instagram, but you should be able to find some for your favorite musical genre.
This means that you can organize one great singalong for all of your followers.;
We’re used to Instagram “stealing” features, often improving on them, from SnapChat. You have to wonder whether the Instagram development team have now turned their attention to TikTok. It’s clear that the availability of music and the associated lyrics on Instagram is particularly popular with younger Instagrammers.
Adding lyrics is simple. You create your Instagram Story, as usual, adding a Music Sticker, as described above. If a song has available lyrics, they will pop up on your screen automatically.
You can easily change the appearance of the lyrics in your Story so that they fit in with the mood of the visuals. Instagram offers a wide range of fonts, designs, and text effects so that you can personalize the lyrics as you desire. Your viewers can tap on the lyrics to find out more about the artist, or even listen to more of the song. You can also customize what the Music sticker look like on your Story.
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How To Post Several Photos To The Same Story
If you want your photos to appear on the same screen in one Instagram Story, you can use the sticker feature: