Social media’s a fast-paced world. And if things like reels and duets weren’t fast enough for you—we’ve got stories, too.
First introduced to Instagram in 2016, stories have become a staple of the platform. They’re fast, raw, authentic—and consistently a great way for brands, businesses, and creators alike to reach their audiences.
That said, stories can be pretty intimidating if you don’t know where to start.
If you’re ready to learn all about creating high-quality, visually compelling Instagram stories that tell your, well, story to the folks out there, read on.
I’ll go through what stories are, how they’re different from other media, how to make a (great) one, and what you can learn from the greats on Instagram.
Want to spice up your Instagram stories? Get started with photo editing, adding icons and frames, finding imagery, and more with CorelDRAW Go. Get your free trial today!
What’s an Instagram story?
Unlike posts and reels, which are both permanent forms of content that users can upload, Instagram stories are a form of temporary post. They’re ephemeral, here for 24 hours, then they’re gone.
They’re vertical photos or videos, limited to 15 seconds each, measuring 1080 x 1920 px.
And they serve a unique purpose.
What Instagram stories do
Stories are a way for creators, brands, and influencers to share a more authentic, behind-the-scenes view that their audiences otherwise wouldn’t get in the highly curated content that makes up an Instagram grid. They take a more casual, less structured approach than other forms of content.
This makes them highly useful for the human connections that make social media so powerful.
Where Instagram stories appear
Instagram stories will appear in a couple of places across your Instagram account.
Users can find your stories on your profile by tapping on your profile picture. They’ll also see your stories at the top of their home pages.
You can also choose to save past stories on your profile as highlights, so they’ll show up in organized albums above your feed on your profile.
How do I create an Instagram story?
Making an Instagram story within the app is a straightforward process—and with the Instagram story templates in CorelDRAW Go, you’ll be up and running in no time.
1. Open the story creation section
Tap your profile picture either in the top left of your home page or on your profile page to add to your story. This will open a new camera section where you can create your story.
2. Take or upload a photo or video
Stories can use a new photo or video using your device’s camera or an existing photo or video from your gallery.
3. Stylize your story
When you’re taking a new photo or video, you can dress it up with filters or capture modes like boomerang or dual camera to fit your vision for your story.
4. Make your story interactive
Instagram has a feature called stickers to make stories interactive for viewers. Once you’ve taken or uploaded your photo or video, you can add text or elements like polls, links, countdowns, and quizzes to keep your audience engaged.
You can move these around on your story to make sure their placement and your overall layout make sense.
5. Finish your upload
Once you’re happy with your story and its elements, you can choose whether to share it publicly or just with a set list of close friends, then upload it.
5 tips for making your Instagram stories more enticing
If you’re putting effort into creating and designing stories, you want people to see them.
On Instagram, reach is determined by an algorithm that shows popular content that people are engaging with to even more people—so your goal is to create stories that become popular and show up to more people.
How can you do that, though?
1. Make your stories memorable
Stories can be useful forms of content to make people remember you. Maybe you can teach them something new about a shared interest. Perhaps you can inspire them to try a new hobby or dish.
As a business, you could also experiment with exclusivity—sharing time-sensitive offers, product teasers, or early access to upcoming announcements.
2. Incorporate your aesthetic
They may be intended as ad-hoc content, but they’re still on Instagram. There’s no harm in having elements of your brand aesthetic in your story designs.
It can even add to your strategy for Point 1!
Pro tip: CorelDRAW Go gives you a wide library of templates and elements that you can use to create your own memorable aesthetic for Instagram stories.
3. Add interactive and social elements
Users want to engage with brands on social media, and research has shown that videos under 15 seconds are a favorite method. This makes your stories a prime source of Instagram engagement—and more engagement draws more attention to your content.
Adding interactive and social elements like mentions, polls, links, and quizzes gives your audience an excuse to interact with you the way they already want to on your stories.
4. Incorporate trends
Social media is all about trends. Keeping up with story trends and using the ones that fit your brand in your own stories means your stories stay relevant to your audience—so they’re more likely to engage and help you draw in new attention.
5. Use speed to your advantage
According to Meta, people consume stories faster than other types of content on Instagram.
Focusing your engagement tactics on the first few frames of your stories can make this speedy consumption work in your favor—so people get hooked and want to see more from you.
3 examples of brands using Instagram stories well
Curious what others are doing to make use of Instagram’s here now, gone soon content format? Let’s take a look at some effective ways stories are being used.
Encouraging engagement: Urban Barn
People love interacting with content they can see themselves in. Because of this, brands are always looking for new ways to involve users—and one popular method is user-generated content.
Urban Barn is a furniture and decor brand that does this in a clever way. They have a hashtag that users can add to their own stories and content for a chance to be featured in the brand’s story.
It’s a double-whammy—users want to share and be seen, so it’s an incentive, and it provides social proof to potential buyers viewing the stories.
Making memorable content: Drunk Elephant
One way to make your content memorable is to teach users something new. This establishes you as a trustworthy source and shows them they can come to you with questions.
Drunk Elephant is a skincare brand that uses story highlights to establish trust and teach their audience about their approach and priorities. Right from their profile page, you can see the awards they’ve won, their philosophy, and the specifics of their products—helping people make educated decisions based on ingredients and safety.
Incorporating interactive elements: Later
Instagram has all kinds of different ways for users to interact with stories—polls, quizzes, questions for ask-me-anything sessions, you name it. And users love interacting with these features.
Later is a social media scheduling platform that uses interactive elements well. They frequently add polls and quizzes to their stories to gauge interest in a topic—which can come in handy for planning their next marketing tactic, too.
As a bonus, pinning stories like these to highlights on your profile can help you see larger trends in interesting topics—when people start thinking about them, when they come back to them, and how interest changes over time.
How to craft an Instagram story that encourages reactions and shares with CorelDRAW Go
We’ve gone over a lot—engagement, interaction, aesthetic. Need a little extra help from here making stories that resonate with your audience?
With CorelDRAW Go’s free trial, you can create visually stunning Instagram stories in minutes, match them to your aesthetic, and make sure they’re sized properly—no complicated software necessary.
Meet the experts: Erin Penney
Erin Penney is a writer and wordsmith passionate about blending narratives and data into powerful and informative pieces. She combines her experience in journalism, publishing, and tech marketing with a love for all things creative—from graphic design to the world of gaming and beyond—to tell clear stories that inform, inspire, and engage readers.