Monday Morning Cool Tool: Buffer Stories Creator

I love learning about new tools to make social media marketing more creative and effective, so I’ve decided to share some of my favorite tools with you at the start of each week. This week I’m recommending Buffer Stories Creator.

Using Stories Creator, you can create the foundation of your Stories with customizable text, graphics, and a background image or color. A quick way to create and download images for your Instagram Stories, it’s a totally free, standalone tool that anyone can use.

How to design great Stories images – advice from Buffer

1. Keep it simple

To tell a powerful story, simplicity is best. The Guardian found that, for their Instagram Stories, simple static graphics and quick explainer videos outperformed their professionally-produced videos.

1. Use a background image to quickly tell a story
2. Add a short copy to convey your message
3. Decorate with up to three graphics

2. Maintain a consistent theme

The second principle is to be consistent. Keeping to a consistent theme makes it easier to create Stories images as you do not have to re-invent the wheel every time you create a new one. It also helps you create a style that will help your followers recognize your brand instantly.

Here are a few things to pay attention to:

1. Style of images or videos
2. Color combinations
3. Layout
4. Fonts

3. Experiment with interactive features

Instagram offers three cool stickers that you can use to drive engagement on your Instagram Stories:

1. Poll
2. Emoji slider
3. Questions

These features make it super easy for your followers to interact with you. Test them in your Instagram Stories to see what engagement you can get. Here are a few examples:

2 ideas to increase your Stories reach

1. Use hashtags and location tag

Instagram aggregates selected Instagram Stories to display on hashtag and location pages. When you follow a hashtag, the selected Instagram Stories will also appear in your Instagram Stories feed.

2. Add to your highlights

Your Instagram Stories don’t have to disappear after 24 hours. Add them to your Story Highlights on your profile so that they are viewable forever!

Do you create Stories? Have you used this tool for your Instagram Stories?