20+ Fun and Engaging Instagram Story Ideas for 2023

Are you struggling with what to post on Instagram? In this post, we’ll cover the best Instagram Story ideas to keep your audience engaged and entertained.

We’ve broken them down by content type:

• Follower engagement
  • Conduct a poll.
  • Host a Q&A.
  • Spotlight your customers.
  • Quiz your followers.
  • Repost user-generated content.
  • Host a giveaway.
  • Start a challenge.
• Team/Company Spotlights
  • Introduce your team.
  • Share behind-the-scenes footage.
  • Celebrate milestones.
  • Do a takeover.
  • Share company updates.
• Products and Services
  • Share testimonials and reviews.
  • Spotlight products and services.
  • Announce discounts and specials.
• Educational Content
  • Share industry news.
  • Post quick tutorials.
• Miscellaneous
  • Direct traffic to other sources.
  • Start a countdown.
  • Promote new posts.

20 Best Instagram Story Ideas for 2023

Cool Instagram Story Ideas for Follower Engagement

1. Conduct a poll.

Running a poll on your Story is a great way to engage your audience and learn more about them.

The great thing about a poll is it can be about anything. Say you’re a home decor brand, you can poll your audience on their interior design styles, purchasing considerations, and their favorite decor trends.

On another day, you can ask for specific feedback on their experience with your brand’s products or services. The possibilities are endless, making this a great Story idea.

Conducting polls also serves as a way to get more content ideas based on interactions with your audience. Say the social media marketer from the home decor brand discovers that its audience doesn’t know how to choose a rug size for a room. That could serve as a future feed post or inspire a new blog post.

2. Host a Q&A.

A Q&A allows your audience to get to know your team, company, and its products/services better.

There are several benefits to answering follower questions on your Story:

• You can quickly and directly connect with your audience, in a low-effort way.
• You will discover information gaps between you and your audience.
• Based on the questions you get, you can create a “Frequently Asked Questions” highlight that will live on your Instagram profile. This can also translate to your website.
• Start a hashtag and encourage your followers to use it when using your products or services.
• Search relevant hashtags to find posts that feature your brand but aren’t tagged.

3. Spotlight your customers.

Highlighting your customers kills two birds with one stone: You continue building a relationship with them while attracting new ones.

By showcasing customers who are enjoying your products/services, you’re leveraging social proof. In turn, this will add to your credibility and serve as a testimonial for your brand.

4. Quiz your followers.

In 2014, Buzzfeed has all Millennials in a chokehold with its quizzes. It didn’t matter what the quiz was – from movie trivia to 90’s outfits, I took them all. Why?

It was a fun way to feel connected to others and maybe learn something about myself.

Instagram quizzes can help you accomplish the same with your audience and maybe gain some interesting insights.

5. Repost user-generated content.

If you’re struggling with Story content ideas, reposting UGC is the easiest way to get over this hurdle.

In this case, your audience has done the hard work for you, all you have to do is find it and repost it.

Here are a few ways to set yourself up for success:

• Start a hashtag and encourage your followers to use it when using your products or services.
• Search relevant hashtags to find posts that feature your brand but aren’t tagged. 

6. Host a giveaway.

If you want to increase your reach, hosting a giveaway is a great way to do this. It incentivizes your followers to share your brand with their networks while strengthening their loyalty.

When hosting your giveaway, you’ll want to create an in-feed post with the details of the giveaway – this way, users can access it at any time. However, when it comes time to promote this giveaway, do so on your Story.

Don’t be afraid to post about the giveaway multiple times during its run to remind users to participate.

7. Start a challenge.

On social media, challenges take off like wildfire. If you can be the brand that starts a viral challenge, that can greatly increase your visibility.

One of Instagram’s most recent Story features is the “Add Yours” sticker, which allows users to add a Story connected to a specific thread.

For a home decor brand, this could be “Add your favorite room in your home,” or “Add your favorite home purchase.”

It’s engaging and fun for everyone involved.

Creative Instagram Story Ideas for your Team/Company Spotlights

8. Introduce your team.

In today’s social media space, consumers are no longer content with brands without a face. They want transparency in all areas, including who is behind their favorite products and services.

Introducing your team will help your audience connect with your brand and help foster a sense of community. This is particularly true for small brands that are just entering the market and have to find fresh ways to differentiate themselves from the competition.

In a small company, introductions can include the CEO, the social media manager, the fulfillment manager, and any other relevant role. For larger teams, this may be limited to a specific department, such as the social media team.

Extra points if you add the “Full House” or “Family Matters” theme song in the background.

9. Share behind-the-scenes footage.

Sharing BTS content is another way to bridge the gap between you and your audience, pulling back the curtain and bringing them into the fold.

While BTS isn’t exactly exclusive, it does feel intimate. It indicates trust between you and your viewers, which can translate to stronger brand loyalty.

What should you share? It should vary depending on what’s going on in your company and your current goals. Have a pop-up event coming up? Show a sneak peek of the location. Launching a new product? Share a video snippet of the product photography.

Over time, you’ll notice what kind of BTS footage your audience enjoys the most and from there, you can focus on that type of content.

10. Celebrate milestones.

When building a community, taking the time to celebrate together is important. As a brand on social media, you have the unique opportunity to share company milestones with your online community.

Did your brand recently reach 1,000 followers? One year in business? $500K in revenue? Whatever it is, it’s worth celebrating with your audience.

This is also a great opportunity to tie in a giveaway, discount, or special that your customers can benefit from.

11. Do a takeover.

Takeover can take away the monotony of posting Stories and give your page an instant boost.

A takeover involves someone managing your Instagram account for a designated amount of time (usually 24 hours) and posting from their POV.

This is popular among influencers, brand ambassadors, and even brand employees.

For instance, over at @Hubspotlife, current employees will take over for the day, sharing details about their roles, their daily tasks, their remote life routines, and more.

12. Share company updates.

Company updates aren’t just for internal stakeholders, they can also be valuable for your audience.

For instance, say you’ve hired a new DI&B director or you’re opening up a new store in another city, those are interesting facts your online community would like to know.

As your company grows and evolves, keep your audience updated – it will do wonders toward strengthening your relationship.

Cool Instagram Story Ideas for Products/Services

13. Share testimonials and reviews.

Customers write reviews just about everywhere: Yelp, Google my Business, and social media (namely Facebook and Twitter).

When you find a favorable review, turn it into a creative, aesthetically pleasing Story.

Pro-tip: Create a Story template specifically for this and use it every time you’re sharing a customer testimonial or review.

14. Highlight products and/or services.

Although Instagram has a dedicated tab for shopping, once in a while, you’ll likely want to promote your products in Stories.

For instance, say you have a sale going on – using the shopping sticker within Story is a great way to drive traffic to that product and generate sales.

If you have an upcoming product launch, you can also tease that product in your Story, creating some buzz surrounding the release.

15. Announce discounts and specials.

Everyone loves a discount. So, when you have one, you want to make sure it reaches as many potential customers as possible.

If there’s a big sale season coming up – think the holidays – start working on creative assets to share on your Instagram Story.

In addition to sharing deals, you should also include link stickers leading to your sales page.

This will create a seamless shopping experience, as users will find what they need quickly, increasing your chances of making sales.

Cool Instagram Story Ideas for Educational Content

16. Share industry news.

Sharing educational content is one of the best ways to add value to your audience on social media.

Every once in a while, there will be a trend or news that will make its rounds within an industry. In marketing, that was recently the end of third-party cookies.

Whenever this comes around for your brand, consider sharing the news with your audience in a Story and potentially sharing your thoughts on it. There are three key things to do when doing so:

• Provide the context for the news or update.
• Share what it is quickly and concisely.
• Reveal its potential impact.

Being a reliable source of information will build trust with your audience and sharing your opinion could help you become a thought leader in the space.

17. Post quick tutorials.

Another way to add value to your audience is by creating short, valuable tutorials.

For this to work successfully, your tutorial has to be to the point and include strong visuals that will capture your audience’s attention as they swipe right.

If you’re a home decor company, you could create a quick one-story graphic on selecting the perfect rug size for your bedroom.

Something as simple as this is not only helpful to your audience but is also bite-size and shareable.

Cool Instagram Story Ideas for Miscellaneous Content

18. Direct traffic to other sources.

Instagram is where many consumers discover brands but it shouldn’t be where it ends.

If you have a website, additional social media platforms, or content on other mediums, you should use your Story to drive traffic to these sources.

For instance, say your home decor brand wants to increase its newsletter subscriber count. Using Stories to promote its newsletter and driving traffic to the newsletter landing page is a great way to go.

This is particularly valuable because Instagram limits where and how creators and brands can place links. Currently, Stories is one of the few places to direct users outside of the platform – so, take advantage.

19. Start a countdown.

If you have an event coming up and want to create buzz around a product launch, you need to use Instagram’s countdown sticker.

It allows you to set up a timer countdown via Stories in which users can set up reminders so that they are notified once the event starts. It’s a low-effort way to promote exciting events for your brand.

20. Promote new posts.

With Instagram’s ever-changing algorithm, brands are no longer sure that their posts are getting in front of their desired audience.

One way to drive traffic to your post is by posting about it and using the “New Post” sticker.

Pro-tip: Place the sticker directly on the clickable post, shielding it from view, to entice users to click on it.

There you have it - a comprehensive list of Instagram Story ideas to make sure you never run out of content.