15 Ideas for Instagram and Facebook Stories

This blog post is a transcription of episode 198 of the Purpose & Pixie Dust Podcast: 15 Ideas for Instagram and Facebook Stories! It is done with AI, and you can listen at the bottom, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Hey girl, welcome to the Purpose and Pixie dust podcast. The podcast where we dive deep into our passions, our purpose and really unlock our potential with some pixie dust thrown in. What is pixie dust? You might ask, it's the fun and joy that gets unlocked when you're creating and owning your magic. I'm Lindsay Dollinger dog, mama, Disney lover and high school Spanish teacher who has used my magic to grow businesses while also working full time. I'm on a mission to help other women create and own your magic by building not only the business of your dreams, but also the life of your dreams while still juggling life, your full time job and all the things. So if you want more than this provincial life, let's use our glass slippers to break those glass ceilings and Sprinkle lots of pixie dust into our lives and businesses. Let's do this.

Hey friend, what is up. Welcome back to another podcast episode, Lindsay Dollinger here and I wanted to do something a little bit different. I've been talking a lot with the women in my membership and my clients about using Facebook and Instagram stories and kind of how they're a little bit different. The content that we can post and there's a little bit different and this is constantly changing. So I am recording this at the beginning of August of 2022 is the year. Um but I actually just read on a blog post that Instagram is going to be changing slowly rolling out and changing the way that you can view instagram stories. So you may or may not have seen that already happening on yours, but what's supposed to happen is viewers are only going to see three instagram stories when they click on your stories tab. And then after that, like the bottom of the, at the top of the third story, it'll be like a little button that says "see more stories.: So it's going to be really important to prioritize and kind of plan out a little bit better your stories on instagram when that happens.

But in the meantime, I wanted to give you some tactical ideas on ways you can show up in your stories because as I'm scrolling through and those of you who follow me and if I follow you back, if I don't send me a message and be like, hey, Lindsay follow me back because I love to follow everyone who is in my sphere and I really love the community that we build. Um, so if I'm not following you, let me know. But as I'm scrolling through, there are definitely p people when I see their stories, I'm like man story game on point and then there are people that I'm scrolling through and it's the same story every day or they're not being really consistent in showing up or I can tell, they don't really have a strategy in place. And so that's what I want to help you with today is really up leveling your social media stories now, pretty much all the platforms now have stories I saw Tiktok has stories now. Um, you know, instagram facebook Pinterest and Youtube has youtube shorts kind of the same deal, except I feel like they're more like reels. Um, so this is going to go and I think linkedin does as well, if I'm not mistaken, I haven't been on linkedin for a while, to be perfectly honest. But this is going to go like kind of basically across the board. I'm going to go in no particular order, but I'm just gonna share some kind of like themes that I use, some ideas that I use and ways that I really like to show up and I get some engagement back now, your engagement is going to vary on your stories and I don't want you to look too far into it.

So if you're putting up polls and people aren't answering them, don't worry about it. You know, it's just like everything else that we do in social media showing up consistently one day someone is going to vote on your poll, I promise or they're going to answer your question, your question box. Um, but really it's that being visible sharing what we can share and showing up, showing up how you want people to see you because it's that know like and trust factor that we talk about so so much. So let me pull up my list here.

Okay, so one of the things that I have really liked to do and I've started doing a lot this summer is first of all, before I say this, I think it's super important to show your face and talk in your stories every day. Um, I see some people who are just doing like a picture of themselves with their product, which is great and it's like, that's kind of like the behind the scenes that I'm going to talk about in a second. But I think you need to talk, I think that people, when they hear your voice, they can hear your expression. They can see the smile on your face. That's how they're really going to make a deeper connection with you. Yes. Your face is like a step in the right direction and you definitely want to be doing that and showing your face as many places as you can on social so that you become recognizable. You become like the go to girl for your thing. Um, however your voice is just kind of going to solidify that deal for you. So let me go back.

One of the things that I really have liked to do this is why I got off on that tangent was um, I will just do a talk and I'll do, um, so I can do 4 15 2nd clips. So about a minute and I will do it on my walk with my dog outside and I will just give like an update on anything. So sometimes I'll do an update on my marathon training. Sometimes I'll talk about my dog Bella because she's had some health issues, so I'll give people updates about that. Um and then I usually try to always throw in something about my business, whether it's an invite, like tonight I'm doing a membership training, I'm super excited about it, you know, just some sort of thing to remind people and keep front of mind that I do have a business.

Hey there, I'm popping in to interact this episode super quickly to let you know that the doors to the castle ceo collective are now open. I'm so freaking excited about this. It is a labor of love that I have been putting together honestly for the past three or four years and I have just been taking bits and pieces of my own journey what I share with you guys all the time, but what I've also learned in different masterminds that I've been a part of and I packaged them all together in a super unique way to bring you a super apply level mastermind where you're going to work with me and the other women in our mastermind to really create own and scale and take to the next level your dream business. So you are welcome to join the mastermind, whether you are pivoting whether you are in network marketing, whether you are starting something of your own, whether you already have something of your own wherever you're at on your journey where we meet you, where you are at and then just keep growing with you. So it's like the ultimate Blow up transformation in your business. We talk about exactly what you need to do to build your business efficiently and effectively in social media in person, online, email marketing, tips, content creation, converting customers that are customers for life. You name it, I can't wait to dive in. And the best part about this collective in my opinion is our awesome Disney retreat that we wrap it up all together in spring of 2023. So we will spend a long weekend at Disney World will do a day of masterminding and then a day at the Disney parks. Everything is included. So definitely be sure to check out the link that is in the show notes or you can go to https://www.lindsaydollinger.com/castleceocollective. You can find all the information there. It is limited to 10 women because this is going to be super individual realized one on one support weekly. Cause all the accountability, like if you show up and do the work, there is no way that you will not have your dream business by the time we're done with this, it is eight months again we start September 1st but there's some awesome bonuses earlier you join us. So set up a connection call with me right now. Link is in the bio for that on the sales page, send me any questions and let's let's get you in the castle Ceo collective. Um, so that our combines two of my story ideas behind the scenes and day in the life. Like I said, I like to do it talking if I can with my face, like I'm having a conversation with someone, I try to um say like how are you? And I address people in a singular way when I can remember two instead of a plural way, because you really want people to feel like you're actually having a connection with them. So my goal is to do that every day. Does it always happen? No, especially when I've been sick the past couple of weeks, it has not happened, but my goal is to do that every day. So, story ideas with that, like I said, is behind the scenes into your life or a day in the life. Other things I like to do with that is I will simply do like a boomerang and show my computer screen with me doing some sort of business work. You have to show people what it's like and give them a glimpse of what it's like into your business or what it's like to work with you or people are never going to cross that bridge of connection into like, oh, I really could see myself doing that or I really do want what it is that she's talking about or I'm really curious about what it is that she's talking about. So if you have a business, you have a business opportunity, you know, you're in direct sales, especially direct sales, show the behind the scenes, do a boomerang, do a video of you packaging up things, do, um, you know, every time that you were on a zoom call, chatting with your girlfriends, whatever, you know, document that and share that when you can, especially in your stories that cannot like, you could do that in your stories every single day and it's not going to be spammy or weird. Um, but you also want to be peppering in things that are not just about your business opportunity, not just about your clients. Like I said, because you want that real life person, you know that, that brand of yours to really shine through and that's not always 100% business, you know, so let people get to know your kids, let people get to know your spouse, your dog. Um, you know, your favorite color lipstick that you love to wear and you feel really great when you do it, your coffee order and then when you're doing those things, make sure to use the features that instagram or facebook has on, you know, the stories tap. So I'm gonna actually pull mine up really quick just to give you, so I don't miss any. Um, I was like me talking, wait, recording, talking, talking, talking. All right, well there we go. Okay, so when you click like it's like a little looks like a sticker with a smiley face on it. There's all sorts of things you can add to your stories. There's location, location is great. Um I try to do a location tag, you know, a couple of times a week because people, those are searchable. So especially if you are in a fun location or you're near a big city or you're trying to find new people in a certain location, tag a location any time that you were talking to someone, you are giving a shout out to someone you're saying how awesome it was to work with someone use your at mention and tag them captions when you can use captions. This is a feature on instagram. I always caption the videos that I'm talking because I don't remember the statistic, but it's a huge statistic of people that watch stories without sound on. So you want people to be able to read what it is that you're saying or people are just going to skip through and not watch your stories questions. You can ask people questions. I wouldn't overuse the questions but you know, ask them genuinely, you know, ask people what their biggest skincare struggle is. Ask people what you um they would like to hear from you whether they would like a bundle of worksheets about this topic or this topic or this topic. Uh same thing with quizzes, polls. So using those things, throwing a Jiff in um the slide e bar. I like the sliding bar where you know, you can slide it and it has like the, the emoji with like the heart eyes, I don't know if you know this, but you can actually change the emoji so you can make them a fire emoji and all different kinds of emojis on there. Um let's see what else you can do a link hashtag um you can do the temperature. I mean, I don't know if the temperature is anything anything special. Um, but then the other last thing that I would encourage you to use that is a tool is a countdown. So if you have a live event, if you have something that you're going live, maybe you're just going live something that you know, you're going on vacation or there's a new product launch. Use those countdown features to get people hyped up and then you can repost that countdown leading up to whatever it is, your big launch, something exciting, hype things up. Use your stories to hype things up and get people excited and once you start using your stories this way and start directing people there, so maybe on your static wall. So we're not in stories now, but on the wall on the feed, you can write a post about an upcoming launch or whatever or a post about your fitness journey, post, about your clean diet journey, whatever and then direct people like, hey, I'm going behind the scenes and my stories, make sure to check out my stories today and then start directing people there. Same thing. You can do the same thing with recipes. You know, if you're sharing a recipe, hey, see how this turned out in my stories and so you're directing people from one part of the platform to another while staying on the same platform and that's just going to up your views all the way around. Ok, other things you can promote in your stories. You can do like a mini training. So some sort of value. Like I'm going to show you I'm going to give you my three tips right now on how I drink more water in a day with your mini training. If you do have some sort of a freebie or a lead magnet magnet can talk lead magnet. Um you can promote it there, you know, drop a drop a, your email in the link below or in the question box below. If you want me to send you my freebie, you could do a poll. Do you want me to send you my freebie? Yes or no. Um you can share these or other ideas. You can share an unpopular opinion that you have love doing that. Those always sparked great conversations share your favorite things. So anything, this can literally be anything I have been sharing my favorite electrolyte drink in my stories lately. I'm actually doing a giveaway. They gave me something to give away because I talk about them so much. Um, I'm not an affiliate for them. I am an affiliate though for some other gut health products. So I share them because they're my favorite stuff. You know, I share my nontoxic deodorant. Does that have anything to do with my brand? No, but I feel like it does have to do in the sense of like I'm all about up leveling and living like your best, most fulfilling life. And for me that involves taking care of yourself. Um, maybe it's your favorite makeup, you know, share things that are your favorite. And again, this is a great way for you to talk in the camera, share a juicy story. So something weird happened, something like freaky scary happened, share it really quickly in your facebook stories and again, you can direct people on your wall like, hey, I just shared about this ghost I saw in my house and my stories Go check it out. I don't know, maybe that's maybe that's alive instead of in your stories or both share today's to do list. I really love doing this during the school year. I've gotten out of the habit during the summer I'm getting back into the habit of doing it. I posted one today actually, but I like to take a picture, I had a template made up, but it's actually of my old branding, so I need to make a new one. I made a template super quickly in Canada and it was like my top three things are my top five things to do today and it was blank and I saved it and my phone and I favorited it and then I would just pull it up on my stories and type in like my to do list for that day, every morning one that was really great for me to stay on task. But to, it was really cool to give people behind the scenes of like, okay, what's lindsey doing today in addition to teaching? Oh, she's recording a podcast, she is doing a five mile run tonight, she is taking her dog to the vet, you know, whatever and again, that's another way for people to connect with you. I got a lot of people throughout the year sending me messages about my to do list, which was really fun. Okay, another thing I love to do in stories is shout out a client or shout out to friends, They don't even have to be paying you money, but you know, another girl boss, someone that you see really showing up, someone that you're like, man, their business is really awesome, People need to check it out. Um you know, shout them out in your stories, take a picture of them from their social media, tag them again, you can do a talking video like, hey I just want to shout out my client Erica. She's really been showing up this week by doing X. Y. Z. You should check her out and then just like tag her. I guarantee Erica is probably gonna share that or else you have just created a raving fan of Erica and she's going to you know, really promote your stuff and back you up because that's good Karma, what goes around comes around friends? Right. Another thing that I love to do is share podcasts I'm listening to so I will screenshot them and I will put them up in my stories. I will tag the show or tag the person who um records them that's again just putting good energy out there. And I also you know people like to know like I love seeing when people do that because I love to know what people are listening to and I love finding new shows that way new things to listen to, new things to learn. I do the same with personal development books when I'm reading them. Um I will like take a screenshot either of an excerpt or of the cover and I'll share about it and share why people need to read it. Another fun thing that you can do is like this or that stories and these, you can do kind of like a series of stories. So this is really great if you're a product based business. Um Or you can do this literally just for fun like this or that Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Um You can make cute little graphics, you can find some of these pre made already in Canada if you want. Um or you can if you have like say you're out, I don't know some place that has a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts and you have a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, you take a picture of you two with them together and then put this or that and let people vote like it's just like a no brainer, you know sort of thing to vote. You can also do this with your products. So for example if you sell lipstick and you have I don't know your top two shades and you're trying to decide which one to wear today. Say that, I'm trying to decide which one to wear today with this outfit, have a picture of your outfit, put the two pictures up this or that. That's something you can also do in V. I. P. Groups but it's great for a quick story idea. Another thing you can do is ask for people's opinion about something. People love to give their opinion. Um I'm gonna skip through a couple of these um share quotes. I see a lot of people sharing quotes especially business or empowerment quotes. Love it. If you have testimonials, testimonials can go in your stories, you can share a testimony all day. Like don't I wouldn't share more than one or two a day. I think those kind of get old, especially if that's all you're sharing. Um and anything with these stories guys, it's a really good idea, just kind of mix them all up um but especially if you have to do one thing I would share about you know, the day in your life and promoting yourself in some sort of way promoting your product and service and do that while you are speaking into the camera so people can see your face. Okay, I have a lot more stories ideas but I'm going to save them because I'm actually having a free three day branding workshop that is going to be happening august 23rd, 24th 25th. The link is going to be in the show notes for you to sign up, make sure you get in there because we are going to be talking with this branding workshop night one is going to be all diving into what your brand is, what that actually means, figuring yours out. And then night two, we are going to be using our brands to create a lead magnet a K A. Freebie, which is huge because my guess is a lot of you probably don't have this or use it the way you could and then the third night we're using our brand to create content which is what I just walked through with some of these stories ideas with you. Um we're going to do that with all of your content, like overall online for the branding workshop, So make sure you get in that it's completely free. Make sure you sign up and share that with your friends and don't forget the doors to the Castle Ceo Collective are open for you to join. I hope I see you in there, we're gonna we dive into this and like, gosh, so much more to really take your business to that true next level where I know that you can make it so make it great. I hope this was helpful share this in your stories. See, sharing your stories, Tag me, I'll be sure to share your story out as well, so that more people can find you and I hope you have a fabulous day. Bye bye. And that's a wrap on today's episode. I hope you're leaving today inspired princess to create own and spread your magic to the world. If you found by you in this episode or no, a girlfriend who needs to hear it, would you screenshot it and send it to her and if you're feeling really generous, pop it up on your I. G. Stories and tag me at Lindsay Dollinger so I can see you loved it and tell you thank you. I appreciate you. Now let's go do some amazing things bye bye!