Instagram Questions Stickers: Is Your Brand Using Them?
Users love Instagram, in large part because it’s a platform that is very conversational and provides a ton of ways to get connected with other accounts and companies. For instance, you can comment on their posts, message them privately, or share their Stories. As of July 2018, there is another very entertaining and enjoyable way to interact with other users, through the new Questions sticker, which users can add to their Stories, so that followers can submit questions about the Story.
Each one of those questions can then be received and answered publicly via a follow-up Story. This new Questions sticker is very easy to use, and adds a great deal more value to Instagram Stories, because of the increased engagement and creativity involved. This discussion will illustrate how to use the new Questions feature, and provide some tips on how you can use it, just like the experts do.
Using the Questions sticker
After finding the Questions sticker, add it to your story, so that you can interact with other users. The default label for the sticker is “Ask me a Question”, but you can change this to any other text you like, as long as it’s less than 50 characters. Once you’ve posted this, any of your followers can respond to it for as long as you keep your Story active, and don’t delete it. You’ll be able to see any responses which have been submitted by swiping up on your Story, in the same manner that you would to check out the list of all Story viewers. Responses to your story will appear horizontally, above the list of views, so that you’ll have the opportunity of swiping through them.
Alternatively, you can find them by checking your Notifications tab, where they will appear alongside the complete list of comments and likes on your posts. You can respond to viewers questions by opening a new Story, and you’ll be able to see who has submitted responses although they only display anonymously when being shared. Your followers will only see the text of the question and nothing else. Once you’ve responded to a question it will show as “Replied”, so that you’ll be able to keep track of those which you have responded to, and those which you haven’t.
Tips for using the Questions sticker
It’s pretty easy to add Questions to your Story, but if you plan things out very well, you can also make it very useful for your brand reputation and for improving your content strategy. One important thing to remember is not to overdo it, i.e. use Questions sparingly and with specific intention, so that you end up using it well, rather than simply overusing it. In the same vein, you should take a similar approach with your Questions sticker as you do with your content strategy, and all your posts and Stories – make sure they all fit with your company style and your brand voice, and that they are in alignment with what your business goals are.
You should have an idea of what you’re hoping to achieve by answering questions, rather than aimlessly responding. For instance, the whole point might be for gathering product feedback, contributing additional momentum to a specific campaign, increasing confidence with your customers, or simply gaining increased recognition for your brand. If you don’t respond to questions with a specific intent, you’ll be wasting your followers responses, and you’ll be wasting your own time as well.
Probably the most important thing to remember when using the Questions sticker is that you should respond when your followers submit questions to you. They wouldn’t be submitting Questions if they didn’t expect an answer, and if you let them down, you will be harming your business following rather than enhancing it. You should dedicate some time to monitoring and responding to all questions which are submitted to you, and also to checking out Instagram Analytics, so that you’ll know approximately how many responses to expect.
Also, be prepared for some negative questions or negative responses, especially if you’re recovering from any kind of recent social media blunder. But do keep in mind that using the Questions sticker is a great way to restore confidence and rebuild trust in your business.
Best ways to use the Questions sticker
You can get really creative in how you use the Questions sticker, but there are already some proven methods which will probably get pretty good results for your company. One great use of the Questions sticker is to have your audience ask you questions about your products, because that will give you the opportunity to respond to them, and let them know why your products are unique compared your competitors.
Another great usage for the Questions sticker is to simply build connections in your community, since not all posts have to be about sales or brand recognition. Questions themselves are automatically conversational, and this can promote an effective communication with your followers, and it’s something you should take advantage of.
This may not be the most creative use of the Questions sticker, but it can still be very effective – a straightforward question and answer session. Users who are interested in the behind the scenes operation of your business might be very interested in this kind of approach, and if you can offer them an interesting and informative point of view, you’re bound to acquire a number of faithful followers.
You don’t have to use the Questions sticker just to get your followers to ask questions of you, but you can also use it to pose a question to them and gather their responses. Unlike a poll, which typically only allows one of two or three options, the questions you pose to users can be open-ended in nature, so that you gather very meaningful and useful responses.
When you’re running in Instagram campaign, you usually have to divert most of the content toward a single objective, and the challenge to that is maintaining variety and interest in that content, so that your followers don’t get bored with it. A perfect way to change things up is to add questions to the content, which will help to keep things fresh, but will still stay on track with delivering the appropriate message. For instance, as part of your overall campaign, you could use Questions to include additional detail about product features, and encourage your followers to sign up for more information about those products.
Heather Hart
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