Instagram is one of the best social media to use as a marketing platform. Instagram boasts 1 billion active users monthly, with America and India as the two countries with the highest number of users. Instagram also boasts 500 million active users daily with an average usage time of 28 minutes. Other than the number of active users, Instagram also has a lot of features that can be used to perfect your social media marketing. Features such as Instagram Story which have more than 500 million uploads/da,y are the best tools you can ask to market your products on social media. Another prominent feature is Instagram TV, where users can have their own video channel on Instagram.
One of the prominent features of Instagram Story is Instagram stickers or IG Stickers for short. Simply put, IG Stickers is a graphic that you put on your Instagram Story. IG Stickers can be used in different ways and for many purposes, such as adding text to explain the images or videos in the stories, making your stories more expressive by adding cartoony images, and engaging audiences by adding interactive stickers.
If you have not realized it by now, IG Stickers is helpful for your social media marketing. You can, for example, gather your customers' thoughts by using a suggestion box sticker in your Instagram stories. Most important, you can spread your brand by sharing stories or slogans of your company through a sticker on Instagram.
This article will explain the basics of Instagram Stickers. You will find what kind of Instagram stickers you can use, how to get them, and how to use stickers on Instagram.
Type of Instagram Stickers
Instagram Stickers comes in many kinds of forms. The Instagram app has around eleven types of stickers. Those eleven types are:
- Donation Sticker
This sticker allows you to donate to a non-profit they care about. Once they select this sticker, you can choose the non-profit organization you want to raise money for and create a name for your own fundraising program. If other Instagram users see the donation sticker on your story, they can tap to donate to the non-profit organization you chose. You can find how much money has been raised and who is donating by swiping your story.
- Challenge Sticker
With this Instagram sticker, you can participate in a popular challenge, like the Ice Bucket Challenge. Once you choose this sticker, you can nominate a friend to do the same challenge.
- Quiz Sticker
You can write a multiple choice question with this Instagram sticker. Once your story is published, your follower can answer by tapping the options that you have provided and see whether their answer is correct or not. You can find how many people have participated in your quiz and see their answers by swiping up your story.
- Countdown Sticker
As the name suggests, this sticker is used to show a countdown to something. You can customize this sticker in several ways. You can adjust the time and date, create the name of your countdown, such as the countdown to a national holiday, and pick a color. If your follower sees your sticker in your story, they can share it to their own story. Once the countdown ends, you and everywhere who shares the countdown will get a notification.
- Questions Sticker
This Instagram sticker allows you to ask a question in your story to your followers. Unlike the quiz sticker, this sticker asks an open-ended question and can also ask for song recommendations. Your follower answers your question by typing the answer in the box provided by the sticker. You can find the answers by your follower by swiping up your story. You can also share their responses by tapping the answer.
- Music Sticker
Using this Instagram sticker, you can look for a song. If the lyrics are available, you can customize them by choosing the fonts and designs. You can also trim or edit which part of the song you would like to play in your story. If your follower sees this sticker in your story, they can listen to the song by tapping the lyrics.
- Poll or Emoji Slider Sticker
This Instagram sticker allows you to make a poll and let your followers have a vote. If you use the poll sticker, your followers can vote by tapping the options provided. If you use the emoji slider sticker, your follower can swipe the emoji along the provided bar to vote. Your followers can see the result in real-time. You can find the number of votes that have been cast by swiping up your story.
- Location Sticker
With this Instagram sticker, you can share the location where you take a picture or video of your story.
- Hashtag Sticker
You can add a hashtag to your Instagram story by using this Instagram sticker.
- Current Time or Weather Sticker
With this Instagram sticker, you can add time and weather information no your story.
- Selfie Sticker
You can add emojis to or change the background of your selfie. You can also add effects to your boomerang story.
These are eleven types of Instagram story stickers that you can add to your story. By understanding the purpose of each Instagram sticker, hopefully, you can use them more effectively.
How to get Instagram Stickers
You can get Instagram stickers in several ways. The first and easiest one is to use the stickers that are mentioned in the above section. The other way is to create your own Instagram sticker. To do this, you need to create an account on GIPHY.
Instagram has partnered with GIPHY, a search engine that allows you to search short looping videos. Once someone has uploaded their videos to GIPHY, everyone can search for them and use them in their Instagram story.
Now, you can create your own Instagram stickers. Follow these three simple steps to create your brand Instagram stickers:
- Create an account at GIPHY
GIPHY supports brands to have their own channel on their platform. You need to fulfill several requirements to apply for a brand channel. Once you have all the requirements, you can start applying for your brand channel by reading their guidelines.
- Make your GIF and upload it to GIPHY
You can create your own Instagram stickers on GIPHY. You can use their sticker maker tool and upload your sticker immediately to GIPHY. Make sure to set your sticker as public so other people can find your sticker via searching for your username.
You can also create your own Instagram stickers by using other applications. You can use Photoshop and/or Illustrator to make a sticker. Make sure to check the sticker requirement so that you can upload your sticker successfully.
- Spread your brand across the Instagram
Once your Instagram sticker is made public, there are limitless steps that you can take to grow your brand on Instagram. The most common one is to encourage your follower to use your sticker on their story. You can also regularly update your stickers collection by creating or adding new stickers. You can also make a collection based on seasons or occasions so people can easily browse your sticker collections.
How to use Instagram Stickers
Once you have your own Instagram stickers, the question now is: how to add stickers to Instagram photos and/or videos? Spoiler: it is really easy.
The first step is to upload your images or videos to the Instagram story. But, do not publish it just yet. You are going to add stickers and download the result later. So, start uploading your images and/or videos.
Image taken from writer’s documentation
Once you have added an image or video, tap the red circled button beside the download button to see the list of stickers on Instagram.
Once you tapped it, you will find the collections of stickers that you can use.
Image taken from writer’s documentation
Tap the one that you wanted to use. You can tap the GIF sticker (green circled) to start browsing GIF stickers on GIPHY.
In this case, try to use the April GIF (green circled) to add your image or video.
Image taken from writer’s documentation
Once you have added the sticker you want, you can publish your story. You can also save your image or video by tapping the download button (blue circled). Once you have finished, you can upload your picture or video into your feed.
Image taken from writer’s documentation
Congratulations! You have Instagram stickers for your brand. Now, you can level up your branding on Instagram with these stickers. However, this is not the finish line. To have a successful brand, you need to spread your brand beyond Instagram. The Internet is such a huge place, and Instagram is just one big place on the internet. If you want to reach many more people, you need a website for your brand.
Create a Brand by having a website using Strikingly
Strikingly allows you to create a website easily at an affordable price. With a website, you can inform your customers about your products or services much more easily. You can also post a picture or video about your business to help you create a brand. In short, having a website is a good thing for your branding strategy.
Strikingly offers many templates that you can choose from. You can easily browse by categories. You can also find websites that other Strikingly users build so you can learn from others how to build a website using Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly websites
Once you have found the template that you want, you can start to build your website to create a strong brand. To do that, you need to have the About Us section. This section is where you put images, videos, and/or texts that tell your brand’s story.
Image taken from Strikingly users’ website
If you want to add images to your website, make you optimize them beforehand. You can do this by following Strikingly guidelines about image size on a website. You can also compress your images with several tools to load faster, which helps create a good user experience.
Image taken from Strikingly product
You can also add videos to your website. Strikingly, you can add videos in four sections: Gallery, big media, other media section, and section background. To add videos to your website, you need to upload your video first at either YouTube or Vimeo. Once you have your videos uploaded, you can embed them on your website for people to see. You can learn more about adding videos to your website on our help center.
Now, you understand everything you need to know about Instagram stickers. You can use Instagram stickers to step up your marketing game on Instagram. Stickers can help your marketing effort as they can act to make your Instagram stories more attractive and engage your audiences. More importantly, you can use Instagram stickers to widely spread your brand and products and reach more people. Other than Instagram, you can also create and grow your brand by using a website. With a website, you can also create your brand through media such as texts, images, and videos. A website can also act as an online store or contact center if your customers have an inquiry about your services or products.
Are you ready to level up your marketing? Start your branding today with Strikingly!
