In today’s fast-paced digital world, visual content reigns supreme, and Instagram Stories are a powerhouse for engagement. As a WordPress blogger or website owner, leveraging the ephemeral nature of Stories to promote your latest content is a smart strategy. This guide will walk you through, step-by-step, how to effectively share your WordPress posts on Instagram Stories, driving traffic back to your site and boosting visibility. We’ll cover everything from the basic methods to more advanced techniques, ensuring you can maximize the impact of your cross-platform content strategy.
Why Share WordPress Posts on Instagram Stories?
Before we dive into the ‘how,’ let’s quickly touch upon the ‘why.’ Sharing your WordPress posts on Instagram Stories offers numerous benefits:
- Increased Visibility: Instagram Stories are viewed by millions daily. Tapping into this audience can significantly boost the visibility of your blog posts, reaching potential readers who might not otherwise discover your content.
- Enhanced Engagement: Stories are interactive! You can use polls, quizzes, question stickers, and more to engage your audience and spark curiosity about your post.
- Direct Traffic: With the ‘Swipe Up’ link (available for accounts with over 10,000 followers) or the ‘Link’ sticker (available to all), you can directly drive traffic from Instagram to your website.
- Content Repurposing: Sharing posts on Stories is a simple way to repurpose your existing content, getting more mileage from your hard work.
- Timely Promotion: Stories are ideal for promoting new blog posts and time-sensitive content, as they are displayed prominently and disappear after 24 hours.
Basic Method: Manual Sharing
The most straightforward method involves manually creating Story content based on your blog post. This approach gives you the most creative control but requires a bit more effort.
Step 1: Gather Your Assets
Before you start creating your Story, gather the necessary elements:
- A Captivating Image or Video: Choose a visually appealing image or short video from your blog post. This could be the featured image, a relevant graphic, or a snippet of embedded video. If you don’t have a suitable one, create one using tools like Canva or Adobe Express. Aim for an image or video that is sized for Instagram Stories: 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels tall.
- Key Text Snippets: Identify key phrases, headlines, or quotes from your blog post that will entice users to learn more. Keep it concise, as Instagram Story text has limited space and should be easily readable on mobile.
- Your Blog Post Link: This is crucial! Copy the direct URL of your blog post. You’ll need this to add the ‘Swipe Up’ link or the ‘Link’ sticker.
- Optional: Branding Elements: You can include your logo, color palette, or fonts to reinforce your brand identity.
Step 2: Create Your Story in Instagram
- Open the Instagram app: Launch the Instagram app on your smartphone.
- Go to your Story creation: Swipe right from your Instagram feed or tap your profile picture at the top left corner.
- Upload your image or video: Tap the square icon at the bottom left to access your camera roll or create a new one using the camera option. Select the image or video you prepped in Step 1.
- Add text overlays: Use the text tool (the ‘Aa’ icon at the top right) to add key text snippets, headlines, or quotes. Tap on the screen to add text and then use the various options to adjust the color, font and size. Experiment with different text styles and positions. Keep it brief, and make sure it’s readable over your background.
- Add interactive elements (optional): Use the stickers tool to add interactive elements like polls, quizzes, questions, or countdown timers to boost engagement. For example, you can ask, “Did you know this?” and use a poll, or ask a question related to your post.
- Include your post link:
- If you have over 10,000 followers or a verified account: Tap the link icon (it looks like a chain link) at the top center of the screen. Paste your blog post URL into the URL field and tap ‘Done’. This creates the ‘Swipe Up’ function.
- If you have under 10,000 followers: Tap the sticker icon (square smiley face). Then scroll down and select the “Link” sticker. Paste the blog post URL into the URL field and tap ‘Done’. Position the sticker to where you want it on your story.
- Add more slides (optional): If you need more room to explain or present more content from your blog post, you can create more slides by pressing the plus button at the top right. You can create a story with multiple images or video slides that transition to each other.
- Review and Post: Preview your Story. If you are happy with how it looks, tap ‘Your Story’ or ‘Share’ to post it to your Story.
Step 3: Monitor and Engage
After posting, keep an eye on your Story views and engagement. Respond to any questions or comments. This will help you optimize your approach in the future.
Advanced Method: Using Third-Party Apps and Tools
If you want to streamline your process or create more sophisticated Stories, you can explore third-party apps and tools. These tools offer enhanced features, templates, and automation capabilities.
1. Canva
Canva is a versatile graphic design tool that provides templates specifically for Instagram Stories. Here’s how you can use it:
- Create your graphic: Choose a free or paid template or start with a blank canvas. Add your background image or video, text overlays, brand elements and more. Size your canvas to 1080 x 1920.
- Customize and download: Tailor the template to your brand and blog post. Download the final graphic or video.
- Upload to Instagram: Transfer the downloaded image or video to your phone and use the Instagram app to share it in a story, adding your link using the method described above.
2. Adobe Express
Adobe Express is another powerful graphic design tool, similar to Canva, that offers even more advanced editing features.
- Create your graphics or short videos: Use pre-built templates or start from a blank canvas. Add graphics, videos, text animations, and more. Size your canvas to 1080 x 1920.
- Customize and download: Fine tune your story content and download it to your device.
- Share to Instagram: Upload the downloaded file to Instagram and share it to your story along with your link.
3. WordPress Plugins (For Specific Use Cases)
Some WordPress plugins might offer specific functionalities to help you share blog posts to social media, although direct integration with Instagram Stories is rare. However, plugins that automatically generate social media graphics that you can then use in stories can be a huge help. Here are a couple of popular choices:
- Social Snap: Social Snap is a social sharing plugin that helps users create beautiful shareable content. It includes the ability to generate optimized images for each social platform including stories (using the size requirements).
- Blog2Social: This plugin helps you to automatically share your WordPress content on social media. It is not made specifically for stories but it does give options for image sizes when sharing to the major platforms.
4. IFTTT or Zapier (For Automation)
While you can’t directly post to stories through IFTTT or Zapier, you can automate parts of the process by creating integrations that will help you when it comes time to make your story. For example, you can set it up so that once you publish a new post on your blog a trigger goes out that saves the featured image and title to an online note that you can easily refer to when creating your story.
Best Practices for Sharing WordPress Posts on Instagram Stories
Here are some best practices to optimize your Instagram Story strategy:
- Use High-Quality Visuals: Invest in high-resolution images and videos that are visually engaging. Blurry or pixelated content will deter viewers.
- Keep Text Concise and Readable: Use clear, large fonts and avoid overcrowding the screen with too much text.
- Incorporate Branding: Use your brand colors, fonts, and logo to reinforce brand identity.
- Use Interactive Elements: Use polls, quizzes, questions, and countdowns to boost engagement and make your Story more interactive.
- Add Clear Call-to-Actions: Encourage viewers to ‘Swipe Up’ or tap the link to read the full blog post. Make the call-to-action explicit and obvious.
- Use Multiple Story Slides: Use multiple slides to share more information and create a cohesive narrative.
- Time Your Posts Strategically: Post your Stories when your audience is most active on Instagram.
- Analyze Your Results: Use Instagram Insights to monitor your Story performance and identify what works best for your audience.
- Maintain Brand Voice: Keep your brand personality consistent with your website and other channels when sharing stories.
- Consider Story Templates: Use pre made story templates on Canva or Adobe Express to create attractive stories quickly and easily.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
- The ‘Swipe Up’ Link is Not Working: This could be because you have not met the follower threshold (10,000 followers) or you do not have a verified account. Use the ‘Link’ sticker instead. If you have the requirements then make sure the link is pasted correctly.
- My Text is Too Small or Unreadable: Adjust the text size, font, color, and positioning to ensure readability on different devices.
- The Image is Pixelated: Make sure you are using a high-resolution image that is sized correctly for Instagram Stories (1080 x 1920 pixels).
- I’m Not Getting Enough Engagement: Try experimenting with different types of content, interactive elements, and call-to-actions. Analyze your insights to see what performs best.
Conclusion
Sharing your WordPress posts on Instagram Stories is a powerful way to reach a wider audience, increase engagement, and drive traffic to your website. By following these steps and best practices, you can create visually appealing and effective Stories that help you achieve your blogging goals. Remember to experiment with different techniques and monitor your results to refine your approach over time. Start creating engaging content today, and watch your website traffic soar.