If you’ve ever wanted to feature in Stories on another brand’s account, you’re going to LOVE the new Instagram ‘Add Yours’ Sticker, which is being rolled out to users globally in early November ’21. It follows a flurry of new Instagram options available for many accounts including the ability to post from desktop, and also the Stories Links sticker which provides accounts of all sizes with the option to link out to external sites.
The idea behind the ‘Add Yours’ sticker feature is not totally new. TikTok has its Duet feature, and just recently Pinterest rolled out its own collaborative option with Pinterest ‘Takes’.
The way it works is by creating a thread of Instagram Stories, starting with the new sticker being added to a Story alongside a text input field. Underneath this, the sticker prompts viewers of the stories to respond back with their own Instagram Story, which is then automatically added to your Story, and every Story account that participates in the thread!
It’s an exciting way to collect user-generated content, create challenges, drive a ton of engagement to your Instagram account, and get discovered by new accounts!
HOW TO USE THE INSTAGRAM STORIES ADD YOURS STICKER
- To get started, log into Instagram on your phone app.
- Create an Instagram Story using either images or video content.
- Open the Sticker Tray, and tap on the ‘ADD YOURS’ sticker to add to your media.
- Type in a Prompt – either by manually typing in, or click on the dice icon underneath to shuffle through random topics that might inspire you!
- Click ‘Done’ to add to your story, and reposition on your story by dragging and/or pinching the sticker into place.
- Add any other stickers and design elements to your Instagram Story, and then post!
When your Stories viewers click on the sticker, they’re prompted to create their own Instagram story, which includes your original prompt, posted to their audience. Any replies added from each audience add to the thread of stories, and rapidly extend the possibility of new account discovery and engagement.
It’s important to note that at this stage, there is no way to remove a response story link, so you can’t control what type of content is shown in your replies.
6 WAYS TO USE THE INSTAGRAM ‘ADD YOURS’ STICKER FOR YOUR OWN BRAND!
Community and engagement are key with this new Story sticker. The prompt that you include in your Story is the consistent element that links the thread together, so ensure you select something relevant and appealing to your target audience so that they will participate. Following are a few ideas that are easy to start off with:
1. START A CHALLENGE OR ‘SHOW US YOUR…’ THREAD
Creating a prompt to post an Outfit-of-the-day, Show us your Instagram Grid, Workout-of-the-day, or Deskie (show us your Workspace/Deskie), is a low effort way to get responses to your story. Lead the way by creating your story in the format you’d prefer to see the thread to head – whether that be a Boomerang style video with music, or a static graphic, or even a simple text-based creation. With this type of generic style post, it has the potential to grow quickly in respondees.
Tip: You can click on and activate the ‘Add Yours’ sticker by viewing your own Story too, so you can continue to add additional segments to your own thread!
2. CREATE A SMALL BUSINESS GIFT OR SERVICES GUIDE
With the Festive season coming up, every Facebook Group is full of personal (and Corporate) shopping requests. Why not take advantage of the visual aspect of Stories by prompting local businesses to add visuals of products or quick demonstration videos? This not only helps get the word out about current promotions but could also result in further types of collaborations by bringing businesses together.
Tip: You could also use this same method for Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials, by creating a tap-through of some of the hottest flash sales, all submitted by your followers and audience!
3. LOVE BOMB A BUSINESS OR CLIENT
Do you know a business, client, or even a team member that is deserving of some public appreciation?
Start a story on your Brand account acknowledging what you love about them along with a prompt for your audience to add their input in either video or static post format. Then tag them in either the first post you create, or consider adding a secondary story once you’ve gathered some stories from others and then alerting them to the love-bombing they’ve received!
Tip: Don’t forget to make the subject super-clear, as when the Story thread grows through posting on other accounts, you want to ensure you keep the stories to the topic at hand!
4. ASK A SERIES OF QUESTIONS
Use a fill-in-the-blanks, ‘Would you Rather’, or This-or-That template to get to know your audience better. This method has been extremely popular in the past over many accounts, but with the addition of the thread-style post you can really dial in and get some market insight if you ask the right questions.
Tip: Post your blank questions template in a story segment following the ‘Add Yours’ sticker placement so that they can take a clear screenshot, add their edits and then repost in response.
5. REQUEST PUBLIC FEEDBACK
Only for the brave, due to the nature of the feature and not being able to filter out or delete replies… If your brand promotes transparency and taking on community feedback, then why not ask your community about their thoughts on a recently launched product or service? With this method of feedback coming from a profile that you can peruse and communicate with, it’s potentially a valuable experiment.
Ensure that the brand name and topic are included in the prompt so that they carry through the various stories and don’t encourage random or off-topic Stories.
6. SET UP A HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG THREAD
Setting up a Happy Birthday thread is the Instagram equivalent of posting videos on a Facebook wall. But much, much better! This option is a fun way to bring together people across the globe, putting together videos and digital birthday cards into a single thread. At TeamEasil, we prefer the Mexican version and vibe of their Happy Birthday song and will be considering this for our next team member’s birthday greeting that we can also share with our community!
Tip: Keeping in mind that stories disappear after 24 hours, putting together a screen recording of tapping through each of the stories is recommended for a memorable keepsake for the recipient.
OVER TO YOU
Have you got the new Instagram Stories interactive sticker on your accounts as yet? We’d love to hear (and see) what you come up with, so please tag us in your Stories or send us a DM!
