If you haven't jumped on the Instagram stories train, no worries. Our best advice is to just start! You will get better as you go, but like we always say...consistency is KEY! 

Instagram stories are one of the BEST ways for businesses and brands to become more personable and relatable to their followers. Stories also keep you top of mind even if you aren't doing daily posts on your actual Instagram feed. 

Here are some great ways to dive in: 

1. Behind the Scenes 
Social media followers love to see the behind the scenes of a business. They love to know who is running the show and what the day-to-day looks like in your business. You may think this is boring, but it's not! People really love and connect to this type of content. This is a great way to talk about your work, team, products and events without being salesy! 

2. Q+A Sessions
Set aside a time at least once a week where you let your followers know you are open to answering any questions! This will give you so much insight into what your customer is thinking. Listen up, because this is valuable information for you and your brand! 

3. Promote an Event in Real Time
If you are holding an event or a grand opening where you want as many people as possible to show up, start getting on Instagram stories every day during the week of your event, and then as much as possible on the day of! This keeps you top of mind and shows people what they are missing out on if they don't stop by! 

4. Try an Instagram Takeover
If you love Instagram and know your customers are on this platform, but you don't have as much time as you'd like to hop on Instagram Stories, try letting a blogger or influencer takeover your Instagram stories for a day! Just make sure it's someone that has a similar audience and it makes since for your brand to collaborate with them! It's all about adding value to your followers. 

5. Offer Special Deals or Flash Sales
Instagram stories are a great place to host special promos or sales that are up for a limited time. Stories expire after 24 hours, so it's a great option if you don't want all of your promos living on your Instagram feed. 
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Let us know if you give any of these a try! Don't forget to add in hashtags and location details on your stories so that they become even more discoverable! 

Here are our top tips + tricks for creating your own flat lay and how that helps your brand communicate with it's audience. 

Tell a Story
Flat lays are a great way to add variety to your social media content. They are more than just a pretty set up...flat lays can and should tell a story to give your followers a glimpse into your day-to-day lifestyle and behind the scenes.

Get Creative + Keep it Relevant 
There are hundreds of flat lay categories, from clothes to office supplies to food to travel... Be sure when putting together your flat lay, it stays relevant to the brand. It wouldn't make sense for a travel company to do a flat lay of clothes, UNLESS they are talking travel-wear tips! It wouldn't make sense for a grocery store to do an office supply flat lay UNLESS they are talking about their work environment or maybe they're hiring for an office position.

Build a Personal Connection
The biggest struggle with promoting a brand over a person is building relationships with it's followers. As we mentioned earlier, flat lays give your audience a glimpse into the day-to-day. This helps brands build a PERSONAL connection to it's tribe and fosters a connection with it's customers. 

Now, since we all know you need to match great content with an equally amazing image, here are some photo tips we've picked up on through our own experiences + working with different photographers. 

〰️ A E S T H E T I C  〰️ T I P S 〰️
Color Scheme
It will make your editing process quick and a whole lot smoother if you choose colors that already have the same warmth or coolness to them.

Mix Textures
Create a level of depth with your photo by mixing together different types of textures for your shot. Do you have a rough coaster or a prickly succulent? Throw them in!

Layer
Another great way to create depth in your shot is to layer. Layer books, magazines, papers on your laptop. Flat lays should look clean but also “lived-in.”

Lighting + Background
Always shoot in natural light or in an atmosphere that won’t create heavy shadows. Also, pick a background that is simple, clean and not distracting from your flat lay objects.

Cropping
I know you don’t want to do this after you’ve spent so much time laying everything out perfectly, but trust us on this. Cropping out parts of different objects make your shot look natural. It also gives you variety when shooting, you can take several different shots from one flat lay and use them as new content each time.

​A social content calendar allows you to guarantee that you don’t run the risk of spamming one social channel whilst overlooking another. Content calendars give your team an outline of what content needs to be published at a certain date and time.
 
After your content calendar for the week is complete, set aside a couple of hours --preferably in the week prior to plan and schedule your content across all of your social platforms. The more you can schedule out posts in advance to go live automatically at the chosen time, the better, because you will have less to deal with during the week. There’s nothing worse than realizing that it’s prime time on Instagram and you don’t have anything to post!