Tell me your (Instagram) story
Tomorrow is one of my best friends 22nd birthdays. Ordinarily I’d be celebrating with her, but given the current state of the world that is very unlikely- scrap that, it's impossible. So, instead of the usual balloons, cake and party poppers, I’m having to settle with an Instagram story to mark the big occasion. Is it sad that I have already planned which images and videos to put up? Probably. But whilst I'll be using this feature to commemorate her birthday with a few of my favourite photos of us, Instagram stories are in fact a great tool to promote your work and communicate with an audience.
It’s no secret that an ‘influencer’ has become one of the most desired job roles amongst Gen Z. What’s not to love? You get sent items from designer brands, explore jaw-droppingly beautiful countries, get invited to extraordinary events, all whilst sharing with your fan base. But how has this new title been made possible? I couldn’t just promote something on my social media and receive thousands of likes and a clothing deal (unfortunately). Influencers use various social media outlets to build up a substantial following, promote items and then use the different features of the app to further expand their audience.
With over 1 billion users, Instagram has become one of the most influential social media apps of all time. Whether you’re attempting to promote your business or simply using the app on a more personal level (sharing photos with your family and friends etc.) Instagram has features for all purposes, with one of these being storytelling.
“Digital storytelling is made possible by digital technology combining different kinds of sign systems such as gesture, speech, images (still and moving), writing, music and sound.” (Nilsson, 2010)
Thanks to the app’s story feature, which over 500 million people use every day, users are able to instantly share information with their followers for up to 24 hours. Unlike a regular grid post, Instagram stories have the ability to be more interactive, with features such as polls, moving images and music becoming increasingly popular.
“Multimodal digital storytelling is an expanding activity by which ordinary people all over the world relate their personal experiences in the form of a multimodal story and upload them onto the Internet.” (Alonso, Molina, Porto 2013).
Digital storytelling is a new and evolving process which is becoming utilised by businesses and influencers, as well as the everyday Instagram user. As Alonso, Molina and Porto explain, these stories are multimodal, meaning they include different modes of communication, for example writing, video, images and music.
Reflection:
Becoming a blogging newbie meant that naturally my audience wasn’t very wide. Sure, my friends and family followed me (possibly because I asked them to) but I wanted my following to include people that were genuinely interested in what I had to say. The solution you ask? Utilise the many features of Instagram, particularly stories.
Upon reflection, my experience with multimodal storytelling was insightful. There are a number of features, including Nilsson’s suggestions, that make Instagram stories both an effective and creative way to communicate with your audience. Here’s how I used them:
- Polls: This aspect of Instagram allowed me to directly engage with my followers through asking various questions. I was then able to use the answers given to support information in my blog posts. Due to the no character limit of polls, I could essentially ask any question I desired and instantly see the results as they came in. Rather than solely show the figures, Instagram allows you to see exactly which of your followers answered, which was a useful tool when it came to identifying any patterns for example ‘were responses mainly from my female followers’ or ‘did older followers agree with my statement’. Polls are also a great way to increase engagement and get to know your followers, who can also see the final results. I was surprised at just how many followers took part in my polls, possibly out of boredom during a pandemic, or more hopefully, they were genuinely interested in finding out the results for themselves.
- Music: This is one of my personal favourites. Adding music to stories makes them more engaging, and depending on the context, more entertaining. Inserting Billie Eilish’s track ‘Therefore I Am’ on my story regarding the artists reaction to body-shaming is a prime example of utilising this feature. It helps that I’m also a h-u-g-e Billie Eilish fan, so any chance to include her music into my stories was taken.
- Gifs: Gifs are a great feature to help liven up Instagram stories. I used them to promote my latest blog posts for example moving arrows pointing to the blog title or a gif stating ‘check this out’. I found that they helped add emphasis to what I was saying and hopefully encouraged viewers to take a look at my latest work.
- Highlights: This refers to the small circle-shaped links underneath an Instagram bio. These highlights allow your published stories to live permanently on your profile so that followers can re-view them whenever they wish. Having never used this feature before, I found it to be incredibly useful as it meant I could re-view any stories and separate them into categories, so that followers and myself could easily distinguish between various topics. This was particularly helpful when it came to retrieving poll results as it meant I had access to the information after the story’s 24 hour time limit.
- Layout: I wanted each of my stories to look contemporary and attractive. Therefore I used the graphic design platform Canva to create the majority of my posts and stories, which led to a number of design-related compliments from followers. I enjoyed creating them as I felt as though the designs gave my page a sense of creative identity, an important aspect of multimodality within storytelling.
There are a number of elements that are particularly useful when it comes to promoting work via Instagram stories, including the ‘swipe up’ feature.This allows you to insert a link into your story which followers can then swipe up to access. It’s great for businesses wanting followers to view their website, influencers linking their latest discount codes and so on. However, you must have a minimum of 10,000 followers to use this feature so unfortunately I couldn’t make use of it, which would have made it a little easier for my followers to view my latest blog posts.
Multimodal storytelling is a vital aspect of digital journalism, and overall, I found that incorporating multimodality into my own work allowed me to make the most of Instagram and engage with my audience in a more interactive and creative way. Although not all of the tools were available to me due to my low follower count, I found using various modes, particularly music, polls and gifs to be an effective way of interacting and communicating with my followers. I had followers ‘react’ to my stories on a regular basis (usually clapping emojis or general words of encouragement), a sign that they enjoyed what I was doing.
✨Thank you for reading! Please take a look at my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram account for regular updates- @ursulawjourno! ✨
U x
