How to Use Instagram Stories

ALISHA WILKINS: Go ahead and record.

Then we are going to share my screen.

Let's see.

Perfect.

Okay.

Just give me thumbs up.

You see using Instagram stories, right?

That's
what's on everybody's screen? Awesome.

Thank you. Okay.

So, before we kind of get started,

just a few, housekeeping things.

I'm back,
and I'm super excited to be back.

I am,

I've missed working.

I, I love my daughter.

She's so great.

But it's really, really nice to,

be able to interact with people
and to have some social life again.

But anyway, I just want to say
to never hesitate to reach out

if you have any questions on social media,
if you have weird page glitches.

If you just need some strategy ideas,
that's

what I'm here for
is to help educate and teach.

I understand that
this isn't what you guys do full-time.

A lot of you are staff assistants
or other program coordinators, and so

you don't have the,

time on your plate to learn everything.

And so that's kind of where I can come in
and to just help teach a little bit.

I'm not going to manage your Facebook page

and I'm not going to do it for you,
but I'm happy to help.

You know, teach a man to fish, rather than
giving you a fish kind of a situation.

So, let's just start about
"What are Instagram Stories?"

So they were introduced in August of 2016,

and it was based on Snapchat stories.

So, Snapchat way back when,

was the first social media
to introduce this like expiring content

where people could post on their stories
and it would only be there for 24 hours

and then it would disappear.

So it led to this kind of frenzy
of like, exclusivity,

and you wanted to pay attention
to people's stories,

you wanted to be notified
when they posted,

because if you missed it, it was gone.

And that led to a lot of businesses using
stories for things like exclusive offers,

kind of behind the scenes stuff.

And then Instagram,
then picked up the feature in 2016.

So there's lots of different features
that you can use on stories,

and we'll go into that.

But what I mainly want you to get out of
this is how you can implement

a story strategy
in your own marketing plan,

as well as how to make
it feel more personal.

How to show day-to-day
life as an extension office,

whatever that role is for you.

So, I just want to show
this was my first Instagram story in

December of 2016, which is kind of ironic
because it's actually on campus.

I was a student at USU,
when I took my first Instagram story,

and it's at this parking lot
and I thought it was beautiful.

But I don't really love snow now,
so, I don't know what -

I don't know, I've grown up, I guess.

And then the
the most recent story I posted

is just my daughter with her cousin, so,

just the difference,

stories have come a long way

in their features,
in what they're used for.

So stories have been really,
really fun way

to show off more personal
and more connected materials.

We're going to go over
each of these different structures.

So if you're on Instagram,

this is mostly

I should say, this is a training mostly
about Instagram stories.

But you can set it up
so it'll post to your Facebook stories.

But most of the time I just like
to focus on my Instagram story strategy.

So this is what it looks like
if you were to open stories right now,

and you can see over here there's this,

these letters are about adding text.

This is a sticker option
which will go over different stickers.

These are filters.

And then there's more things
you can do there.

So we're going to go over
each of these different kind of stickers

that you can put
on your Instagram stories,

and then how you can
maybe use them in your office.

The "Questions"
box is one of my favorites to use,

because it really allows you
to get into what your audience needs.

So, you can use this question to,
or use this box to ask a question,

things like,
"What are your concerns about inflation?"

"What questions
you have about food storage?"

"What's the hardest part
of parenting in 2022?"

And get feedback that way.

So you kind of know what audience
or what content your audience needs.

You can also get them to ask you
questions.

So, it'll be like,
"Hey, follow us along on a day at the fair."

or, "We're going out to the field
to view some research plots,"

"What questions do you have
about what we're going to be showing you?"

So that's one way you can use that option.

The next one is polls.

Polls is a great way to gauge interest

in a topic,
or to see opinions of your audience.

So this one can be kind of fun.

It can be things like, "Do you prefer pie
crust with fat or lard?"

"Are you planting tulips soon?"

"Have you signed up for our X,
Y, and Z events?"

Just something to get them engaging with,

Like, yes or no options.

There is now the ability
to add more than one,

choice in polls,
which makes it really nice

if you have, you know, 3
or 4 different choices.

Like,
"What kind of green bean do you prefer?"

or, "What time do you like
to get up in the morning?"

If you're talking about mental
health and routines and stuff.

So that's polls. A pop quiz,

this is just what it sounds like.

It's just quiz your followers
to see how much they know about a topic,

which again,

can then lead you to know, okay, well,
they obviously don't know much about

storing onions.
They don't know much about,

like,

your county.

So you could use it to say, like, "Which
of our county agents grew up in Provo?"

and see how well they know your office.

That might be kind of fun,
or "When is the proper way - "

"When is the proper time to plant
an apple tree?" or things like that.

So you can use this to gauge
future content as well as just

people love to interact with quizzes

because they're like,
"How much do I know?"

The links -

This is a really great way
to just share quick links, events or news.

I especially think
like, 4-H coordinators,

if you've got all these events happening
or county staff members, you've got,

events to sign up
or you just want to send them

quickly to a page
about county information, put it there.

And I didn't make my link preview
very well here, but

I would always make your link preview
some sort of call to action.

So "Read more,"
"Sign up."

"Listen,"
"Get in contact with us."

That kind of thing.

So then the next sticker is a slider,
which is just kind of showing a level

of how you like something.

So, how much do you love the snow?
Mine would be at the end because I hate it.

But you could say things like,

"On a scale of 1 to 5,
how excited are you for teen winter retreat?"

"How much do you know
about our rangeland classes?"

So that kind of gauges.

So it's not really like an answer.

It's more just a level.

And then the last thing
is obviously a countdown to popular date.

So you can share to your county fair
to the next, training.

Maybe talk about the next,

Like when a new guide is launching,
maybe you're

part of the finance team and it's like,
"Hey, we've got this new calendar launching."

"Get out there."

So right now, these options you can use

on Facebook and Instagram, but I,
I usually just make my stuff on Instagram

and then I share it
because there's an option on, on Instagram

stories, just to answer your question,
but you can share to both.

So, that's what I would do.

The next part I wanted to just briefly
touch on is "Highlights".

So, your highlights are those little, kind
of business icons at the top.

And use these highlights
as a business card.

So when people come to your page,

they know exactly what your brand is,
what content they can expect from you.

Especially for like extension
where we don't have like a super niche,

down topic, you know, we cover home
and garden and health and so that way

people can immediately know what could
expect when they come to your page.

So things like staff or office.

So maybe you do bios on your Instagram
highlights

so, they can say, "Oh look, here's
that agent, here's what they're good at "

"Here's what I can contact them for - "

"If I have questions about backyard
chickens or, financial wellness."

You can do upcoming events, helpful
links, behind the scenes are huge.

People love to interact
and see what goes on in a,

in an extension office, at an event,
prepping for a class, you know?

maybe you're at the grocery store

buying ingredients for something and so,
you can be like, "Shopping for this - "

"Pressure canner class."

FAQs

If you know it's canning season,

if you know it's gardening season,
and you're getting questions about,

"When do I spray for codling moth,"
"What's the right pressure for peaches?"

Or, "When does the county fair
registration open?"

You know, things like that. FAQs.

And then an event recap.

So if you have a yearly event
or you had a big, you know,

countywide thing, you could always
just keep them in your story

so people can know what to expect
for the next event.

I try to update stories,
like my highlights,

anytime I post, but,

obviously not
everything can fit under those categories,

so just kind of use it as,
like I said, a business card, to,

show off your county.

So you can make these little icons
in Canva.

There's a few ways you can do it.

You can make it with text where it just
says, like, "Here's our services."

You know, photos,
patterns, story photos, icons, colors.

There's so many different ways
to make those cover highlights.

You can also just take a photo
from your story,

and make it as the cover highlight.

It's all just,
what you want to portray to the world

and to, new followers.

I like to use the icons for ours
because it's icons that we use

across like websites and stuff,
so it keeps that branding consistent.

But obviously you can use
whatever you want.

You can choose to mix em,
just don't make it,

don't put so many highlights
that people have to scroll

and they get lost,
you know, then they get analysis paralysis

and they can't make a decision
on where they want to go.

So make it very concise as to what,

your highlights are going to be.

So, before I introduce a challenge,

I just wanted to go over
the pillars of social media again.

So these are kind of,

when I think of a brand or when
I think of a strategy, I think of what

what does this piece of content do that
I'm putting out?

I want to make sure I have a purpose
behind it, and I'm not just throwing up

something to keep myself up there.

So anything and everything we share
should accomplish one of these goals.

If we can't fit it in, then we shouldn't
share it.

So is it to inform
like about an upcoming event?

Or, you know,
when canning lids were kind of

scarce, posts about like,
"Hey, there's these are getting scarce,"

"Here's some options."
Inspire.

Maybe you had a really cool
4-H story.

Maybe you had a person in your program

that really went above and beyond,
or a volunteer, you can use it to promote,

so courses, classes,

books, products coming out, engage
with your followers, have a community

where you share things like, What's your,"

"Favorite, way to use potatoes?"

You know, something so that it's not just
you, you know, sharing content with them,

but you're actually asking
and it's a conversation.

Show off your personality.

We have to have personalities on Facebook.

Brands can have a personality and then
entertain, and those kind of go together.

But, entertaining doesn't have to be like,
we've talked about with TikToks and reels,

it doesn't have to be always
dancing and lip syncing.

It can just be, a funny meme or a funny,
like, relatable joke, like gardening,

humor tends to go really,
really well on social media, so

keep these pillars in mind
every time you post any piece of content.

Where does it fit into this? So.

With that said, I have an Instagram Story
Challenge that I've come up for you guys,

and this is going to go through
about 30 days worth of Instagram

story things for you to do,
and I will send this out

to all social media managers.

Don't worry about trying to take
a screenshot or anything, but this is just

to get you started.

Because sometimes when you're like,
"I want to start on Instagram Stories,"

"I want to start this strategy,"
and you have no idea what to do.

It helps to have kind of a calendar
of things you can do.

So, this will just be something fun,

and then we can see how it goes
next week or next month.

I'm going to do my best to do it
on extension's main as much as I can.

And, I might have to tweak it
a little bit, but

this is just a skeleton
for you to know where to start.

Okay, with that said,
are there any questions about what

we just went over?

I'm going to stop the -

OFFSCREEN PARTICIPANT:
I have a question.

So it seems like

people are spending more and more time

looking at stories versus like your,
your Instagram feed.

So what would like, what's your strategy
for how much time you spend on stories

versus like a feed post or reels like
how do you kind of divide your time

between
these different facets of your pages?

ALISHA WILKINS:
Okay, that's a good question.

So I can tell you right now

I have a few pieces of content
that I know I need to get out.

And when I want to understand
or when I want to just like,

share something informational.

If I think it's just

like,

it can expire like it doesn't

need to live evergreen on my feed,
I put it in stories.

Oftentimes on stories I will share
more like in-the-moment things.

So for instance, it's snowing right now.

So I would go out if I was in an office
and I could just say like,

"It's snowing at our office," you know?

So stories are more like in real time.

What are you doing with them?

And feed, feed
posts are things that I want to be shared,

that I want people to spread information
because it's easier to,

It's way easier to share,

a feed post than an Instagram Story.

And so if I know, for instance,

we have some really good content
from the finance group

about how to budget for a variable income.

And that's really good information
that I want people to share.

So I'm going to make that into a post.
Versus maybe something about, low cost

travel ideas.
That could go on a story.

Because it,

it's not something that

it's not as like, needs to be evergreen,
I guess.

So I kind of

you have to kind of think through, what
do you want your audience to do with this?

Another thing
you can do with like a timely post -

so it is snowing.

So what you could do or like, let's say
it's May and it's frost season,

you could post,
"Hey, it's like, freezing outside,"

"Here's all these resources for you."

And list links in your stories.

So it's, it's kind of based on what
you want your audience

to do with the content that you share,
does that make sense?

OFFSCREEN PARTICIPANT:
Yeah. No, absolutely. Thank you.

ALISHA WILKINS: Yeah

Is there anything else?

You guys are pros.

Okay. I will go ahead and send the,

I'm going to stop sharing real quick.

MIKE WHITESIDES: I had a question, Alisha.

Can you explain kind of the difference
between stories and reels,

and like,
when you would use one over the other?

ALISHA WILKINS: Yeah.
So same kind of thing.

If it's something I want people to share
and I want to get, like evergreen reach

and people can keep coming back to it,
I would put it on my feed, but that's

reels are also really good

for like trending things. So,

I, for instance, made a reel yesterday
about

the, "Ask an expert on baking supplies,"

because that's something
that's trending right now.

And reels
tend to pick up on the trends like

reels' algorithm wants you
to do the trending things.

Highlights don't necessarily have as strict
of an algorithm, if that makes sense. So

the other thing is, you can

save Instagram
Stories and Highlights as a reel later.

So let's say you're at an event
and you're filming your story

and you're showing off what's happening.

Then later you could create that into
a reel to to kind of show off the event.

Does that make sense?

I think

I think with any social media,
you have to just be willing

to try and see what works
for your audience.

There's obviously best practices and best,

there's like good ideas for no matter

or there's ways you can do it.

That's why I have like,
this challenge is to

just get you started if you're unfamiliar
with how to use stories. So

Yeah.

Well, awesome.

I will send this challenge,

for those who are new, I try to keep these
trainings fairly short so you can,

learn quick tidbits. Next week -

I'm going to -

Or next month, we're going to be going
over all the new changes that,

Instagram has put out in the last like
two weeks and just kind of update on that.

So unless you guys had other things
that you really wanted to cover,

but that was kind of my plan.

How are we feeling about stories
now that we're done?

Like, let's put it in the chat like one,
I'm still super confused or like five.

Like I'm ready to be pro now.

I want to know where we're at.

Maybe not ready to be pro.

Oh, Braden's at a six.

Sweet.

[Alisha laughing]

Awesome. Well, that's good.
I accomplished my goal.

I wanted you guys to go from being like,
go from being like, "Whaaa..." [laughing]

Mike says, "Learn by doing."

Which is exactly what social media is.

There's only one way to figure it out,
and it's by getting out there and trying.

So. Okay, awesome.

Well, I will see you guys next month.

And as always, if you have any questions
like, go ahead and reach out to me and

I'll send this challenge,

And I'm excited to see what
you guys come up with. See ya.