Covid-19 has changed our public and professional life completely. We are glued to social media more than ever before. People have turned to social media not only for networking but also for entertainment, shopping, and much more.
From the perspective of marketers and businesses, it has become more important to spice up their social media presence to attract and retain more customers to give them an experience like never before. More and more people are turning to Instagram to search for products and services.
In 2019, there were approximately 1 billion monthly active users of Instagram and 60 percent of them discovered their desired products by using the platform.
Imagine how that number would have given a boost to the sales of different companies worldwide.
However, one of the limitations of this platform as a tool for marketing is the inability to share a clickable in the Instagram posts and descriptions. It might not be a barrier for people who are there to get the news but for those who mean business it can be a very annoying hurdle.
Having a link in the Instagram stories that can be directed to your website can be a fruitful way to channel your audience towards your offerings. If you fail to translate the time users spend on Instagram you’re your brand recognition and more sales for you the goal is yet to be achieved. But it does not end here.
So the appropriate question to ask here is how to add a link to the Instagram story?
The simplest way to add a link to your website to your Instagram account is in your bio, which is the only place where a clickable link can be shared by anyone, even a private or personal account.
In 2017, when Instagram introduced the feature of posting a clickable link in the stories, the privilege was reserved only for a verified account but later the business profiles with more than 10,000 followers were also authorized to use this feature.
The next question is how to share a link in an Instagram story with a swipe-up feature?
There are few simple steps to be followed to achieve this
- Open the Instagram app and make sure your account is either verified or you have over 10,000 followers.
- Start a story by swiping left.
- At the top, find the ‘Insert link’ option (the chain icon).
- Click URL, add the link, and hit ‘Done.’
- Now you can find a ‘See More’ option at the bottom of your story.
Adding links through the Swipe up Feature of Instagram
There is another way of adding and promoting your Instagram link.
- Select the Instagram stories from the top corner page of your Instagram account.
- Make your story interactive using a filter, special effects, icon, and engaging text.
- Here you can insert a link to an Instagram story by tapping on the “insert link” icon.
- From here create a call to action viewers to get to your clickable link.
- If you don’t see the swipe up feature, you can use different ways to promote the link.
- Make the use of Instagram ads and promote the story using Instagram itself.
Does that mean there is no hope for an unverified account?
Now you know that you can’t share clickable links in your caption but does that make captions useless? The answer is No. You still have hashtags. Make better use of them, add them carefully to increase your reach. Try using them as attractively as possible to increase Instagram followers and likes. Besides that, share shortened links in the bio that users can remember and copy in their URL bar. Apart from that wherever you insert a link make it very clear and easy to locate for the users.
