The popularity of Instagram Stories can be gauged by the fact that it has over 500 million active users worldwide. The professionals use it rather effectively for their businesses to thrive. Through Instagram Stories, businesses can connect with new audiences easily to spike up both engagement and sales. But if you want to become as savvy as the Instagram professionals and drive up your reach and increase your follower count, you need the right strategy. Hence, it makes sense to invest in a content creation workflow for Instagram Stories. But the question that may arise is why a storyboard should be created for Instagram Stories in the first place?
Well, for starters, a storyboard helps you map and plan the details of your content so that it flows smoothly. Without a storyboard in place, things could get pretty erratic. Have a storyboard template ready even before you begin creating content. This ensures that you save both time and money. Otherwise, you could end up with a lot of photos and videos that you don’t really need. Quality is preferable over quantity any day!
Using a storyboard can help in the making of some awesome Instagram Stories that keep your followers engaged. Here are the ways you can plan your storyboard just like the pros.
1. What is the ultimate goal of your Story?
The creation of every Instagram Story should have your brand goals or objectives in place. Once your marketing goals are clear in your mind, you can easily decide what type of content you should post. Keep in mind that the goal for every Instagram Story need not be the same and can differ. For example, the goals can range from building brand awareness, increasing the engagement rate, driving sales or just informing your followers that you are available to listen to them. Suppose the objective of a particular story is to increase the sales of a product, it should have the relevant information about the product along with a call-to-action at the end that will induce followers to ‘swipe up to shop’.
2. The concept
It is essential that you freeze the concept for your Instagram Stories at the very beginning. A concept can either be simple or detailed but it should be the shining light for creating your Instagram story. It is advisable to build your story concept gradually with a single angle. This could be a company update, a new blog post, a product launch or anything else that you’d like to share with your followers. The next thing would be to weave a story around the angle and your goals. If you are a clothing company for example and wish to highlight a new garment, your story concept could be something on the lines of how your garment provides comfort in winter for example. Once you have frozen on your concept, go for the details to create an outline to make your story come to life.
3. Outline the beginning, middle, and end
Your Story should have a beginning, middle and end. By doing this you ensure that all the points that you need to cover are done. Also, your story has a natural flow to it which is very important. That is why a storyboard is so helpful in terms of curating content. Once you start shooting, there will be no confusion as you will know precisely what you want as everything is in systematic order. A storyboard also helps you understand what props and design elements you need for your shoot. If your storyboard demands the inclusion of graphical elements, for example, you can ask your graphic designer to prepare the same before your shoot itself so that it’s ready when you are editing.
Creating Instagram Stories templates is really helpful to upgrade the content of your stories! By using a set of templates for your Instagram Stories, you can create cohesive, on-brand content that resonates with your brand as a whole.
With Instagram Stories, you can easily connect with your followers, drive traffic to your posts, and enhance that elusive reach. Creating a cohesive Instagram Stories strategy is a fantastic way to attract new followers and display your brand personality. But do make sure you get that Storyboard right!
FAQs
- What is a storyboard and how is it used?
A storyboard is a graphic organiser that is used to plan a narrative. Storyboards present information in a visually powerful way. The linear direction of the cells is perfect for storytelling, explaining a process, and showing the passage of time. Basically, storyboards are a set of sequential drawings that tell a story. - How do you storyboard a story?
Make a Storyboard by following these 4 Easy Steps
- Make a shot list by taking a scene from your script.
- Sketch it out- Draw out a vision of the scene that you will shoot.
- Fill in the details.
- Add words. - What is the difference between a script and a storyboard?
A script is words assembled together that are formatted in a specific way. This is used primarily to describe the scene and the dialogue. The script is the written plan, with characters, description of action and dialogue. A storyboard is also a script but it is depicted as sequential drawings of the scene to be shot. - How many pages is a storyboard?
A finished professional storyboard has at least one frame for every shot. That means 1000-3000 frames for a full-length feature film. But you should definitely start smaller on platforms like Instagram. - Which tool is used to create storyboards?
Adobe Photoshop also serves as a powerful storyboarding software tool. You can draw storyboard images by overlaying them on actual pictures, creating a wide variety of storyboards. - How many scenes are there in a storyboard?
About 15 to 20 scenes can be seen in a 60-seconds storyboard on average. Each scene is drawn separately to highlight the particular scene.
