Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Good news for small businesses — Instagram link stickers are now available to everyone using the social platform. This feature, which lets you include hyperlinks in Stories as stickers, was previously only available to verified users and those with over 10k followers. So, in the past, people and businesses with smaller audiences weren’t able to access this function, but now, everyone can use it to their advantage.
What are Instagram link stickers?
A link sticker lets you add a hyperlink to your Instagram Stories — an especially useful feature for small business owners, since now you can link out to external sites, pages, products or services. But most importantly, they allow you to engage with your followers in an easy and direct way.
How do you add a link sticker to your Instagram Stories?
To add a link to your Story, upload your content first. Go to the sticker tool in the top navigation and tap the ‘Link’ sticker, then add the URL. The link sticker acts like any other sticker on a Stories post, so you can place it anywhere you like and change the colour to suit your aesthetic. Right now, the link stickers can only be used in Story posts, and not in your main feed.
Tips for using Instagram link stickers
This new feature means that small business owners can do more with their Stories, from driving audience engagement to improving sales. Here are some quick tips on how you can use the new Instagram link stickers for your business.
1. Link to products on your website. Add a direct link to the product you’re highlighting in your Story. This is great if you’re using a Story to highlight product features that will make a customer want to buy or learn more. Since they can navigate to your product page directly from your Story, you won’t have to worry about them getting distracted or losing interest.
2. Promote your site, blog or About page. Whether you’re using Stories to help your audience get to know you better or you’re showing some behind-the-scenes videos, link to places where customers can find out more about you and what you stand for. You can also link to any press you’d like to share with your followers — maybe you were recently featured in a local news article or earned a community award.
3. Link to a competition entry page. To drive some audience engagement, create a competition or giveaway page to link to. You’ll get more traffic to your site, and gain more entries — your followers will appreciate how easy it is to enter via the link sticker.
4. Add links to your Story highlights. Create permanent Story highlights for ‘featured products’ or ‘most popular’ with added link stickers. Just tap the circular heart ‘Highlight’ at the bottom of your Story once it’s posted, then save it to a highlight of your choice. Customers can then shop directly from your highlighted Stories at their convenience.
VistaPrint Tip
As you link to your pages more from Instagram, make sure your site is optimised for mobile. People generally use Instagram on their phone or tablet, so you want to make the experience as seamless as possible.
