Quick questions: how does the Instagram question sticker help brands?
Image from Tubefilter.com
It may have been going through testing for some time now, however, all Instagram users will now be able to see that the new ‘question sticker’ is in full effect.
The sticker allows users to place it in their story for their followers to ask a question - you know what, we’ll just let Instagram explain:
“Add a question sticker to your story by selecting it from the sticker tray after taking a photo or video. Type out your prompt then place it wherever you’d like and share it to your story. When friends see the sticker, they can tap it to reply - and they can reply as many times as they want, right from the sticker.”
You can even add your responses to your story, letting everyone see your answer:
“You can find your friends’ responses in your story’s viewers list. Tap any question they’ve asked to create a new story where you can answer it, and the question you’re answering will appear on your story for context. Though you’re able to see who submitted each response in your viewers list where it’s private, when you share that response in your story, your friend’s photo and username will not be shown.”
As you can imagine that has been a particular hit with social media influencers, giving their fans the ability to conduct on the spot Q&As. It had been seen around April this year, with further rollouts happening at the start of this month, but now anyone can access and use it. It’s another addition to the growing list of interactive elements on the stories platform, most recently we have seen music stickers (which allow the Instagrammer to post music over their story, displaying the song and the artist and leading to more music discovery. You can read more about it over here), mention sharing (which allows users mentioned in another user’s story to share the post onto their own story) and emoji slider polls; amongst other things.
Basically, Instagram stories have a lot going on at the moment, but this development is particularly exciting. Similarly to the polls, the Instagram question sticker offers great opportunities for feedback from clients and customers. There are 400 million active users on Instagram stories alone, while all 400 million won’t be following you, it’s likely that people who deal with your business are. Using stories and features like the Instagram question sticker is a great way to reach out to them instantly, everyone scrolls through their stories each day and that almost guarantees you a place on their screen.
From FAQ questions to queries about a new product, it’s an ideal way to get easy feedback and a good narrative going. Another great option would be to conduct an FAQ question session on the app, posting the answers to your story and then saving it to your profile. Meaning, people would be able to access the FAQ questions directly from your profile. You could do this with products new and old and build up a catalogue of FAQ questions or regular product queries, meaning when people ask in the future, you can just direct them straight to where they need to go.
It may seem like a fun gimmick, but the Instagram question sticker is quick and offer your followers a way to interact with you on a more relatable level, as opposed to filling out forms or sending emails. In fact, this report from Sprout Social found that 90% of people admit to using social media to contact a brand, whereas over 34% of people would prefer it as a contact method entirely. Social is already becoming the favourite for brand and customer interaction, we may as well just go with it!
If you’re on Instagram but not harnessing the stories option yet, the question stickers could be a great, low effort and simple way to start. Try it out and see how many customers you can engage. If you want to make the most of the platform, check out our blog “Tall Tales: A guide to making the most of Instagram Stories” for some great info!