Avid users of the Instagram app have a trend to get on board – the Instagram Story Sticker. First rolled out in November 2021, beginning with pilots in Indonesia and Japan, this now global feature makes Instagram much more interactive, engaging, and collaborative.
The “Add Yours” Sticker lets users create threads with their friends, encouraging them to display their latest creations or updates, get feedback from followers, and prompt other users to respond, via their own stories.
This article tells you all you need to know about this latest fix, how exactly to interact with others using a story sticker “chain,” and the benefits for your brand from this latest version of Instagram.
The Big Idea? Content Threads Users Can Discover and Respond to
In simple terms, The Add Yours Sticker is a way for a user or brand to share something specific and prompt followers and the Instagram community to say, “Ok, now why not show us your story?…” For instance, a user can post a “Last day at school” story or “post your best sunset” story, or “outfit of the day” story and then prompt their followers to add their own, thereby creating a chain of responses via the sticker.
“With custom prompts and public responses, you can share the sticker and see who responds to it in their own Stories,” says Instagram on its official Twitter page.
Finding “Add Yours” Stickers on the Instagram App
When you open Instagram to capture content or upload it from your camera roll to make an Instagram story, you can go to the sticker tool on the top navigation bar to find this new feature. Browse the stickers to look for the “Add Yours” sticker.
Clicking on the “Add Yours” sticker will give a window encouraging you to “write a prompt” before sharing your story.
You can then start a public thread, encouraging others to share their latest photos, ideas, tips, or comments, creating a chain of trends as you do so!
The Battle for Social Media Dominion
This new feature on the Instagram app is essentially allowing users to respond to other users’ stories with their own content and images, following a prompt, example, challenge, or a specific topic.
In addition to the latest posts, people generally hate to miss out on the best trends and like to appear informed or participative, increasing the chances of community interaction.
Embedding this trend has allowed Instagram to create chain reactions, not unlike Twitter does with a Twitter thread.
Further, this latest feature allows Instagram to compete for head-on with rival TikTok. In fact, the Add Yours Sticker resembles TikTok’s “duet” functionality, with a bit of a twist. Instagram’s sticker function is different; rather than displaying all of the “duetted films” from an original TikTok, Instagram allows users to see everyone’s subsequent posts related to the chain.
A New Tool to Aid Brands in Collaboration, Discovery, and Expansion
The Instagram story sticker can help your brand get people to work together or join your chain. All you’ve got to do is start a trend and let your followers participate with their own content and contributions!
It can also be a great tool to locate more individuals who can follow you.
Clicking on the “Add Yours” sticker in someone’s story gives a user access to view everyone who has joined the chain and see their stories.
In addition to the option to “Add Yours,” the feature also displays a metric of the number of people that have participated in the prompt, which could range from the thousands to the millions.
There’s a lot brands can do to leverage this latest tool. Here are 6 simple ideas.
#1 – They can start a “Show us your (for instance, shoes) for the day…” chain
#2 – They can create a “challenge” to go viral
#3 – They can ask for prompt responses on product feedback or new product ideas
#4 – They can show gratitude to their investors, clients, customers, or fans
#5 – They can gain insights by asking questions along the lines of ‘Would you Rather,’ or ‘This or That’…
#6 – Lastly, large organizations can improve internal work culture by starting meaningful threads around values and things that matter most to employees.
Promoting Live Events to Instagram Users Just Got Easier!
Any business that leverages social media has long known the advantages of creating live events using Instagram.
The Add Yours sticker is an excellent method for brands and users to interact with eventgoers, get an audience to submit their own stories, and discover new people to follow by tapping the sticker.
Instagram had launched Stories as far back as 2016 to compete for neck-to-neck with Snapchat, based on content that disappears after 24 hours.
A year later, the app introduced features such as story archives and highlights, giving businesses and users a chance to permanently display their videos and images on their accounts. Around the same time, the Instagram app also began to boost the Live video functionality that is now used by 100 million app users daily.
Now, the Add Yours Sticker enables Live Feed content creators to take their media strategy to a whole new level.
Summing up, the latest feature on Instagram, aka the “Add Yours” sticker, makes it easier for brands, influencers, and large-scale movements to create and share content much more quickly, in a manner that is much more engaging and responsive.
For instance, think of this feature’s impact on mass movements such as the ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge” or the Dove “#RealBeauty Campaign!”
The sticker makes it easier for content to go viral. And it makes it easier for businesses to find people who are delighted to subscribe to their content and their brand.
Businesses, influencers, and general Instagram audiences now just need to add a sticker with one tap on their mobile device screen, in addition to a picture or video. And they’re all set to engage their partners, followers, and fans in a much more urgent and immersive manner.