Welcome to My Blog

These days, social media is all about documentation.

Where you go, what you eat and drink, who you see, and what’s most memorable: These are the typical fodder of Instagram Stories — seconds-long glimpses of people’s lives, shared on Instagram for only 24 hours.

You might know the basics of sharing Instagram Stories, but there are hidden tools within the app that can make the photos and videos you share more creative and more engaging. So we’ve created this guide to how to share Instagram Stories, and how to make those Stories are compelling and cool as possible. In this post, we’ll cover:

• Why Share Instagram Stories in the First Place
• How to Post Instagram Stories (The Basics)
• Hacks and Tips for Cool Killer Instagram Stories

Why Share Instagram Stories?

Instagram Stories can drive a ton of engagement and value — whether you’re sharing a Story from a brand account or your own personal profile.

Since launching back in August 2016, a total of 250 million Instagram users have started sharing disappearing content on Instagram Stories — contributing to the huge jump in time spent in-app every day from 24 minutes to 32.

What’s more, a lot of brands have already seen success publishing content to this platform. Instagram Stories have fueled the growth of brands like Teen Vogue, Insider, and Bustle. Whether publishers are trying to grow brand awareness, grow traffic to videos or newsletter outside of Instagram, or share sponsored content, publishers are flocking to Instagram to publish fun disappearing content that infuses brand voice and personality without taking up too much of the average techie’s dwindling attention span.

What’s more, Instagram Stories are credited with fueling the massive growth of Instagram Direct — private one-to-one messaging between users within the app. Instagram Direct has grown into one of the most popular messaging apps in the world with a staggering 375 million users. Even more impressive, TechCrunch reports that one in five Instagram Stories shared by a brand receives a Direct reply — giving brands a direct line to connect with their audience and learn more about them.

How to Make Stories on Instagram

You can make Instagram Stories this successful too — but it requires a few more hacks and tips to make them look like the Stories big brands and influencers share. (Some of my favorite Instagram Stories are shared by chef Chloe Coscarelli, actress Busy Phillips, mattress brand Casper, and interior design app Hutch — and don’t forget to check out HubSpot‘s Instagram Stories, either.)

But first, let’s review the basics of how to share an Instagram Story:

1) Open Instagram, and tap the camera icon in the upper left-hand corner of your phone.

2) Share a photo or video you’ve already captured by swiping up on your screen to browse your gallery.

Disclosure: Yes, I did a photoshoot featuring my cats. Can you blame me though?

3) Or, choose a camera lens to capture a photo or video in-app.

You have a few different options to choose from:

1) Live

If you toggle your screen to the “Live” option, you’ll start filming and broadcasting live on Instagram. Like Facebook Live, friends can follow along and leave comments, and when you’re done with the broadcast, you’ll have the option to let the video disappear, save it, or share it Instagram Stories for an additional 24 hours.

2) Normal

It means what it says: Tapping once will capture a photo, and holding down will record a video. Instagram Stories can be 15 seconds in length, so if you want to share a video that’s longer, film in 15-second stints, or use CutStory to split your longer clip into 15-second installments.

3) Boomerang

Boomerang mode films looping GIFs up to three seconds in length. 

4) Superzoom

Superzoom is, on the surface, a video recording lens that zooms in closer and closer on your subject. But turn up the volume, and you can use Superzoom to create a dramatic soundtrack to accompany your video.

As my friend Marissa put it, “It’s like it’s BUILT for cats.”

I will forever be in love with this Insta lens!!!! http://pic.twitter.com/HvU6rarmNa

— Sophia Bernazzani (@soph_bern)
November 17, 2017

5) Rewind

Use the rewind lens to film a video in reverse.

6) Stop Motion

Use this lens to film cool stop-motion videos: several different still images woven together in one seamless video. Think of it like the video version of a flip book (like this example below):

Stop-motion artist Alex Unger spends months creating incredibly detailed pieces. http://pic.twitter.com/m6R4MNLIQj

— Business Insider UK (@BIUK)
November 14, 2017

7) Hands-Free

Use hands-free mode if you want to set up your camera to film a video for you. Make sure you prop it somewhere stable before you call “Action.”

4) Once you’ve edited your photo or video (more on that below), tap “Your Story,” or tap “Next” to share it to your Story and to other friends at the same time.

You can also save your edited photo or video to your gallery by tapping “Save” in the lower left-hand corner.

Now that you know the basics, let’s run through tips and hacks for producing high-quality, clickable Instagram Stories.

7 Pro Tips and Hacks for Instagram Stories

1) Use stickers.

Once you’ve captured a great photo or video, it’s time to jazz it up with some fun stickers. You can access these by tapping the smiling sticker icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen once you’ve captured a photo or video — or swipe up from the bottom of your screen.

Change the size of your stickers.

You can pinch the sticker once you’ve added to your story to increase or decrease its size. You can also tap and drag it around the frame to change its position.

Check stickers every day for new and unique ones.

Instagram releases unique Story stickers often — whether it’s Monday, a holiday, or a season. Check this section every day for new and timely stickers to add to your Story.

Add location, hashtag, and poll stickers.

Boost the engagement on your Instagram Story by opening it up to other people doing the same things you are. Open up the stickers section, and tap any of these buttons to customize your story:

Location

Start typing in wherever you are, and you’ll be able to pull in a geographically-specific sticker to show where you are.

When people view your Story, they’ll be able to tap the location sticker and see other photos and Stories happening around the same place.

Hashtag

Same concept here: If you add this sticker and type in a hashtag, your Story will appear in searches for that hashtag, and viewers will be able to click it and see who else is using it. #MotivationMonday, amirite?

Poll

You can add a two-option poll to your Instagram Story, and you can even customize the possible answers so they’re more unique than “Yes” or “No.” Use a poll sticker to gauge if people are really engaging with your content.

Turn a face into a sticker.

Open up the Stickers menu, and tap on the camera icon.

Then, take a selfie — or take a picture of anyone else’s face (that will work too). Then, you can use that face to decorate your Instagram Story. Somewhat creepy, but very memorable and funny, too.

2) Let viewers share your Stories.

Increase engagement and views of your Instagram Story by letting viewers share them with their friends — as Direct Messages. 

Go to your profile, tap the gear icon, and navigate to “Story Settings.”

Toggle on “Allow Sharing” so viewers can DM your Story to friends to increase your audience reach. Voila!

3) Use the pen.

Use the pen to add embellishment, symbols, or more text to your Story. If you tap the pen icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen once you’ve captured a photo or video, you’ll open up your options.

From there, you can adjust the thickness of your pen stroke or change the color you’re writing with (more on that later).

I like using the highlighter pen (the third option) to add emphasis to words — or even the highlight of my photo or video.

4) Add a background color.

If you want to share a Story with a background color — like the images I’ve shared above — you can actually select it from the color palette.

Take a picture (it doesn’t have to be a picture of anything in particular), and then tap the pen icon to open up the color palette. (Here’s Leela again — my unwitting cat model.)

You can choose one of the colors from the three available menus, or if you want a specific shade of one of those colors, you can open up the full color spectrum by pressing and holding one of the colors.

Then, scribble anywhere on the screen, and hold your finger down until you get the background color you want to appear.

If you want to get really crazy, you could use the eraser tool (the fourth option) to create new words or shapes from the background, too.

5) Make your text funkier.

The text on Instagram Stories is pretty basic — jazz it up with these tricks.

Customize your colors.

If you’re unsatisfied with the color palette Instagram offers, create your own from one of the colors in the photo or video you’ve captured.

Open up the text icon, and tap the eyedropper icon in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.

Use the dropper to sample a color from somewhere in the image you’ve captured, and use it when typing out text or using the pen tool.

Add shading.

If you want to add some extra drama to your text, add highlighting or shadowing by retyping or rewriting your text in a different color. I recommend choosing black or white to add emphasis to a bright color you’ve picked. Then, move the text above or underneath the brighter text to add some drama to your words.

Turn your words into a rainbow.

This one’s tricky, but you can actually turn your text into a gradient rainbow.

Tap the text icon, and type out your message to add to your Story. Then, highlight your text.

This is where it gets tricky: Turn your phone to the side so you can hold one finger down on the right side of your text, and with another finger, tap on a color and hold until the color wheel pops up.

Then, slowly drag both fingers across both the text and the color wheel from right to left to create rainbow text. Go slowly, letter by letter until you’ve created a rainbow. (This one took me several tries before I nailed it, and I succeeded using both thumbs to highlight the text and the color wheel.)

I wonder if Leela knows she is my model for when I write step-by-step instructions in blog posts http://pic.twitter.com/OgcKhmIdNV

— Sophia Bernazzani (@soph_bern)
November 19, 2017

Gradually add text to a Story.

Sometimes, you might want to add text or stickers to an image to build on it — perhaps to promote a content offer or event, or to encourage viewers to swipe up to read a link you’ve shared (this is only available to verified accounts).

Start editing the photo you want to share, post it, and save it to your camera roll. Then, swipe up on your screen to add the screenshot to the next installment of your Story — adding new text or stickers on top of the first photo. Keep doing this for as long as you want the Story to last — just make sure to keep taking screenshots of your latest photo so you can add to it.

6) Center your text and stickers.

When you’re moving around text and stickers on your story, you’ll see blue lines appear vertically or horizontally in the frame. These are guiding lines you can use to make sure you’re keeping everything centered.

Don’t put your text too high or too low on the screen.

That said, make sure you don’t add anything to your Story too high or too low in the frame — or it will be cut off when viewers scroll through your Story, when Instagram adds things like your name and how long ago your story was posted that could block out your carefully-crafted text.

7) Add music to a Story.

This one’s easy: Turn on music using your phone’s native streaming app, and record a video Story. Once you get ready to edit and share, make sure the sound icon isn’t muted so your viewers can jam with you.

Alternatively, if you’d rather your video be muted, tap the sound icon so an “X” appears over it.

We hope these tips help you post killer Instagram Stories your audience won’t be able to stop following. There are lots of hidden ways to take your Stories to the next level — some we may not even have covered here — so our best advice? Keep clicking around and see what you can do with the latest updates from the app. Happy ‘gramming!

How much thought do you put into the fonts you use for your visual content?

It’s worth taking a moment to consider which font will best communicate your information. For example, most people know that Comic Sans is a faux pas for more professional situations. But what fonts
should
you use?

According to a study we conducted over at Venngage looking at the most popular font types in America, it might be worth basing your font choice on where most of your audience is located.

We analyzed the 50+ fonts we offer to see which font types people favor, and how their preferences vary depending on location. Our analysis focused in on the top 25 most populated cities in America, since they’re the ones creating the most content.

Most fonts can be broken down into 5 distinct types: serif, sans serif, decorative, headline and script.

This infographic summarizes our findings:

Let’s go into what each font type is, and when you should use them in your visual content.

Serif Fonts

A “serif” is a small line or embellishment added to the end of a stroke in a letter. A serif font has serifs! Pretty easy to remember, right?

There are a lot of different fonts that fall into this category. Times New Roman is a classic example. Merriweather and Playfair Display are other examples.

When should you use serif fonts?

Serif fonts have a more classic feel than sans serif fonts often do. They’re reminiscent of traditional print. With that in mind, any situation where you want to invoke traditional print would be an appropriate time to use a serif font.

For example, if you were to create a poster for an arts event, or a writing course, a serif font like Merriweather or Courier New would work well. Or if you were to create an infographic about a historical subject, a font resembling traditional typeface would give your design a more historic feel.

Take this presentation slide that uses Playfair Display for the title:

You might also want to use a serif font when you’re appealing to a primarily southern cities. Fort Worth, TX, Memphis, MS and El Paso, TX all used more serif fonts than the rest of the country. Nostalgia runs pretty deep in the South — perhaps that influences their font preferences?

States that liked serif fonts the best on the whole are Delaware, Nebraska and Vermont. Delaware promotes itself as the “First State”, and that love of history might influence its residents’ tastes in fonts.

Sans Serif Fonts

You can probably guess what sans serif fonts are. That’s right…they’re fonts without serifs. Fonts like Open Sans, Arial and Oxygen.

When Should You Use Sans Serif Fonts?

Sans serif fonts have a modern and efficient feel. They are also generally thought to be easier to read than sans serif fonts, although legibility often actually comes down to characteristics like weight and distinct letter forms.

Still, most sans serif fonts will be a pretty safe bet for narrow and low-resolution screens. That’s part of why most websites and mobile apps use sans serif fonts, particular for body text. Open Sans, Roboto and Oxygen are a few popular choices (we use Roboto and Open Sans at Venngage).

What’s more, the minimalist and efficient feel makes sans serif fonts makes them a prime choice for visual content dealing with modern topics like tech, innovation, and productivity.

For example, this social media marketing infographic uses Raleway for the headers and Open Sans for the body text:

Interestingly enough, cities that favor sans serif fonts are pretty spread out. Sans serif fonts are most popular in San Francisco, CA, which makes sense when you consider how many tech companies are located there. They are are also very popular in Houston, TX (another tech hot spot) and Charlotte, NC.

On the state level, sans serif fonts are most popular in Arkansas and Utah. Considering how Salt Lake City is emerging as a tech hub rivalling Silicon Valley, you can see how this mountain west state would appreciate modern sans serif fonts.

Decorative Fonts

Decorative fonts characteristically have plenty of embellishments and quirky themes. They’re generally used in small doses and sized large for headings, rather than used for body text. These are different from headline fonts, which are more basic fonts that are typically used for headers and titles.

Some examples of decorative fonts are Graduate, Bangers and Contrail One.

When should you use decorative fonts?

Because decorative fonts can be pretty out-there, they’re generally not the best choice for body text. Instead, they are perfect for using in attention-grabbing headers. Infographics, blog headers, posters, and social media visuals are all perfect opportunities to use a creative decorative font.

Look for a decorative font that reflects the theme or mood of your visual content. For example, if you’re designing an infographic about the movie industry, writing the headers in Limelight can give your infographic a classic, retro feel.

Decorative fonts are also great for using in social media promotions where you want to get people excited about your brand.

For example, this social media flyer uses Quicksand and Monoton for a fun feel:

Decorative fonts are most popular in cities like Indianapolis, IN, El Paso, TX and Boston, MA. On the state level, though, decorative fonts were by far most popular in Hawaii. That’s interesting when you consider how much tourism Hawaii gets per year–perhaps advertising campaigns are taking advantage of flashy fonts?

Headline Fonts

Headline fonts are bold, easy to read and full of character. They’re similar to decorative fonts but tend to be less embellished. They’re designed to be eye-catching and impactful.

Archivo Black, Voltaire and Wine One are all examples of headline fonts.

When should you use headline fonts?

Any situation where you want to grab people’s attention is a good opportunity to use a headline font. Blog posts, reports and presentations are all places where you are likely to want attention-grabbing headlines.

Pair a bold headline font with body text in a sans serif font to ensure that your content is super legible (a lot of headline fonts happen to be sans serif fonts for that reason!). While headline fonts don’t tend to be as out-there are decorative fonts, they still allow you to add a bit of flare to your design.

For example, you could create a slide deck that combines titles in Arvos with body text in Dosis for a modern, easy to read presentation design:

Headlines fonts are most popular in Philadelphia, PA, which is funny when you consider that Philly has a reputation for being in-your-face. But Philly is also home to Comcast, one of America’s biggest telecommunications conglomerates. Plus, The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of America’s longest running newspapers. So maybe Philly folks appreciate a bold headline.

Interestingly, West Virginia likes headline fonts on the whole. Outside of that, western and midwestern states like Idaho, Nebraska and Montana like headline fonts best. Keep that in mind next time you create content to appeal to those regions!

Script Fonts

A lot of script fonts get a bad rep, but they deserve a place in your design repertoire. Script fonts resemble handwritten text. That means that they are not as clean-cut and easy to read as basic serif and sans serif fonts, but they definitely bring personality to your designs.

Fonts like Lobster Two, Pacifico, and Yellowtail can all enhance your design when used sparingly. And maybe even … Comic Sans (I’ll leave that up to you).

When should you use script fonts?

The key to using script fonts in your designs is to use them scarcely. They should be used to accent your content — and should definitely not be used for body text.

One place where script fonts won’t look out of place is on a greeting card:

Similarly, you could use a script font in an Instagram visual. Posters and infographics that focus on lifestyle topics like baking or home decor could also make good use of a playful script font.

Script fonts can give your design an inviting and personal feel. For example, you might want to use a script font for the headline in an education poster. Or take this nonprofit campaign poster, which uses Unkempt for the header to make the message inviting.

No one city outranked the rest in its use of script fonts. Nashville, TN topped the list, followed closely by Dallas, TX. Perhaps a connection can be found in the frequent use of Gothic script fonts in typing out religious quotes, since southern states are generally the most religious.

The trend carries into the state level. Nevada tops the list, but it’s followed closely by West Virginia, Vermont and South Carolina.

Pick Fonts That Fit Your Brand

While it’s good to have at least an idea of what your target audience likes, you will have to find what they respond to best through trial and error.

Perhaps more important than putting too much stock into what fonts your audience will like is picking fonts that fit your brand. Pick fonts that help embody your brand’s personality and message and incorporate those into your visual content. After all, cohesive design is an important part of building brand awareness!