How to Use Instagram Stories to Promote Your Team

When it comes to social media, Instagram is definitely a platform you shouldn’t ignore. Out of 800 million monthly active users and growing, 165 million users are sports fans. Another interesting statistic shows that sports fans on Instagram follow eight sports accounts on average.

With that in mind, it’s obvious that creating or revisiting your Instagram strategy would be beneficial for your team. We’ve covered Instagram on our blog before, but in this post, we’ll talk about the Instagram Stories feature, discuss its benefits and show you ways to add it to your existing social media strategy.

What Are Instagram Stories?

Instagram Stories are photos and videos that disappear from your feed after 24 hours. If you don’t want a particular story to disappear, you can save it to your profile as a highlight.

When they first came out, many users likened them to Snapchat, but even though the concept is rather similar, Instagram stories have a few features that make them more powerful than Snapchat Stories such as polls, more drawing tools, the ability to turn those stories into regular posts, and the ability to add links to your stories.

As such, they are a great way to share more of the “in the moment” photos and videos that don’t have to be perfectly styled to maintain the cohesiveness of your regular Instagram feed, encourage fans to interact with your Instagram account, and include calls to action that lead them to your team’s website.

Five Benefits of Using Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories have multiple benefits for many brands, sports teams included. Here’s why you should consider using them as a part of your social media strategy.

Stay Top Of Mind

Instagram Stories are perfect for posting content more frequently without worrying about annoying your followers. They don’t clutter up the main feed as the user has to click on your profile photo at the top of their Instagram app or visit your profile to see your stories.

Once you start posting to your stories, fans will come to expect it so they will visit and engage with your profile more which makes it easy to stay top of mind.

Engage Your Fans With Diverse Content

Photos of your players and other team members and game matches are great for getting to know your entire team and staying in the loop when it comes to your team’s performance. However, stories add more diverse content to your entire account.

You can share spontaneous shots, broadcast longer live videos, post short video clips, and even add stickers, drawings, and handwritten text.

Make Use of Real-Time Marketing

Another benefit of Instagram Stories is the fact that you can post live during a match and reach your fans at the right moment. Use this as an opportunity to show your fans the atmosphere during your game matches and encourage them to attend the next one.

You can also use Instagram Stories to post during any event that you’re participating in, during your trip to a match or during training sessions.

Save and Repurpose Content

As we’ve mentioned before, Instagram Stories allow you to save your stories as highlights that are added to your profile. However, you can also save photos and videos directly to your camera roll.

Doing so allows you to save content you’ve already posted as a part of your Instagram Story and reuse it either on Instagram or on another social media platform which ultimately saves time when it comes to content creation for social media.

Connect With Your Fans

Lastly, because photos and videos for Instagram Stories are more likely to happen in real-time, your fans will be able to connect and relate to you more. When you publish raw and unfiltered content, it adds a touch of personality and shows your human side which is the key aspect of establishing a relationship with your fans.

Six Ways to Incorporate Instagram Stories Into Your Social Media Strategy

Now that you know the benefits of Instagram Stories, here are five ways to start using them.

Post “Behind-The-Scenes” Content

The most obvious way to use Instagram Stories it to post behind-the-scenes content. This can include anything from clips as players get ready for the game, videos from training sessions, and naturally game clips.

But, it can also include moments from planning the next game strategy, players interacting with fans, and “day-in-the-life” photos of your players. You can even use the polls feature of Instagram Stories to engage your fans and see what they think.

Tease an Upcoming Game

If you want to create hype about an upcoming game, Instagram Stories is the perfect way to do it. Start by posting your schedule or photos that announce the game with the time and date as well as the venue.

Then, as the big day comes closer, re-post that photo and add more to your story by posting training photos, videos, inviting fans to attend, using a poll to ask them if they’re coming, and more.

Share Game Highlights As They Happen

Keep your fans engaged and hyped up by posting game highlights and moments as they happen. This makes the fans feel like they aren’t missing out even if they couldn’t make it to the game and it creates more content for you to re-share during the off-season to stay top of mind.

Welcome New Team Members

Announce new players joining your team by giving them a welcome using Instagram Stories. You can share their player information, show off the jersey being made for them, and share photos as they sign a contract or join your training for the first time.

Host a Q&A Session

You can also use Instagram Stories to host a Q&A session with various team members. This works even better if you pair with an Instagram takeover and allow your team players to be in charge of your account for 24 hours.

Share Free Goodies With Your Fans

Lastly, you can use Instagram Stories to share free goodies with your fans. Consider digital items like wallpapers, phone backgrounds, or calendars but don’t be afraid to experiment with physical items too. You can start a contest and offer a free pair of tickets or free swag items for fans that engage with your content the most.

Engage Your Fans With Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are a great way to add more diversity to your social media content, keep you top of mind, and enable you to connect with your fans. Use the tips in this article to incorporate Instagram Stories into your marketing and engage your fans. Don’t forget to download our cheat sheet of Instagram Story ideas and examples from this article to spark ideas for your Instagram profile.