The article has been updated. First published: September 10, 2018

Although the Stories functionality appeared a long time ago, many users still do not fully understand how to use it, and especially how to add various stickers, change filters and, of course, attach links. In this article, we will walk you through two ways of how to upload Instagram Stories step by step. And how to upload a photo from a computer to Instagram using the link.

In 2016, when Instagram began to lose ground and yield in terms of traffic and audience to the American app Snapchat, the world saw Instagram Stories – or Stories. This new content format has allowed the social network to regain its lost ground and once again become a popular communication tool for both people and brands. What is the distinguishing feature of Instagram Stories?

First, the format. This type of content maintains a 24/7 aspect ratio. Of course, at the beginning of 2018, Instagram added the ability to upload content of any format to Instagram Stories, but in this case, a kind of “background” appears under it.

Secondly, the limited lifetime. So, if you do not add content to relevant Instagram stories, it is deleted 24 hours after publication. This is useful if you want to share something with your subscribers, but not save it to the feed.

Thirdly, the obvious prevalence of Instagram Stories over regular posts – publications in Stories are displayed at the top of the user interface in chronological order, which allows for more views and interactions.

How to post Stories on Instagram

There are several ways to add Stories to Instagram, depending on which is more convenient for you. We will analyze each in more detail and tell you about the pros and cons.

Directly from the app

If you want to add Stories from your mobile device, go to the Instagram app and swipe the screen to the right. You will see a screen for adding a new Story.

In the next step, you can either take a new photo by clicking on the white circle, or upload Stories to Instagram from your own media library.

In addition, in Instagram Stories, you can configure the flash mode, turn on the selfie mode and choose a mask for it.

Now let’s figure out how to add a video. In Instagram Stories, the publication of any content is approximately the same: you need to open the media library and select the video that you want to add.

Both photos and videos in Stories provide ample opportunities for design. Swipes to the left and to the right allow you to choose the most suitable filter for the case, and the icons in the upper right corner make it possible to add various “features”:

• Link (only for business accounts over 10,000 subscribers)
• Sticker (regular and gif)
• Drawing
• Text

For videos, there is also a choice: to include sound in publications or not.

A little higher, we already talked about the fact that since the beginning of the year such content format has appeared on Instagram as relevant or eternal Stories. In order to add eternal Stories to Instagram, you need to open your profile screen and click on the plus sign and select all the photos that you want to save within one current Story.

To clearly show you how eternal Stories work, we have chosen the “Question-Answer” section, which takes place on SMMPlanner Instagram every few weeks.

First of all, we selected all the Stories that were published in the Q&A. The next step was to set the main picture as the cover, indicate the title and publish!

As you can see, adding actual Stories is a simpler task than it initially seems.

Many are also interested in the question of how to add several Instagram Stories at a time – not to the current one, but just to the profile? Unfortunately, in the Instagram application itself, this function is not yet available, and you have to add Stories one by one, but soon it will be implemented within the SMMplanner – wait for the news!

How to add Instagram Stories via SMMplanner

And we move on to the next method of adding posts to Instagram Stories – using the SMMplanner deferred posting service. Firstly, it will allow you to post Stories on Instagram from your computer, and not from your phone, which is much more convenient for streaming tasks. Secondly – and this is, of course, the biggest plus – SMMplanner will save you from having to sit at your phone and wait for a certain time in order to post Stories – you can schedule content a week in advance and switch to other work tasks without worrying about publication of publications. Let’s take a step by step how to add Stories via SMMplanner.

Go to your account and click “Schedule a post”:

Choosing a photo for the first slide:

If you need to edit a photo – set it the correct aspect ratio, add stickers, text, geolocation or a mark – feel free to go to the editor.

We needed to crop this photo, which we did in just a few seconds in a convenient interface.

After editing your photo, simply select the account you want to post it to and check the “Publish as Stories” checkbox.

Pay attention to the posting time. Do not assign all posts the same time, it is better to pause between them for a minute or more.

In SMMplanner, you can specify a hashtag for Stories and bring it to the top by this hashtag – note, for this you do not need to add a hashtag to the picture itself!

After choosing Instagram as a publication site, you can mark a user on Stories, specify a location or add a link. Please note that only accounts with more than 10,000 subscribers can add a link to Stories.

After that, feel free to click “OK”. Done!

Requirements for Instagram Stories

Regardless of how you plan to add Stories to Instagram, there are basic requirements for the format of such publications, which must be adhered to.

Picture

• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Instagram Stories Size: 1080 x 1920 pixels
• Orientation: vertical

Video

• Recommended aspect ratio: 9:16
• Resolution: 720p (minimum), file size: 2.3 GB or less, file format: .MOV, .MP4, or .GIF.
• Instagram Stories (how many seconds): 3 to 15 seconds

If you want to save time and not waste it on the selection and processing of materials for the desired characteristics, use a unique service from SMMplanner, Story Constructor. Integration with popular services, the ability to create both unique and template solutions, Instagram stickers and much more in two clicks.

Leah Canary, SMM specialist:

I see that many brands and in general, the entire business on Instagram, are dismissive of the Stories section. That doesn’t mean they don’t use it. But it can be clearly seen that postings in stories occur from time to time, haphazardly. If you want to justify your efforts to master the new format, I recommend checking out my article on content planning on Instagram Stories. This is the first place to start after learning the functions for creating stories directly.

Let’s summarize

So, you can add Stories to Instagram in any way convenient for you. Each has its own pros and cons.

The main thing is not to forget about the basic technical requirements for Stories, so that your photos are loaded correctly and not cut off at the edges. And also – to think over the strategy of Stories publications so that they are of high quality and justified.

You can learn about the intricacies of promotion through Stories on the Stories for Business 2.0 online course from SMM.school. The training will help both beginners and advanced users to significantly improve their skills in creating interesting and effective advertising publications.