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Which do you prefer: brands that post a single Instagram story per day or those that share a flood of updates? Which of these tactics actually gives a brand more reach? Is there even a “right” number of Instagram stories to post per day?
Of course, we have our own personal preferences, but opinions are nothing compared to data. As dedicated social media scientists, we put on our lab coats and fired up Instagram to find out once and for all. whether the number of stories you post per day can affect your reach.
Bonus: Download a free Instagram Stories style guide template This allows you to maintain a consistent look and feel across your channel and be the single, trusted source of information for your team.
Hypothesis: If you post more Instagram Stories per day, your reach increases
We've asked this question before, but the idea for this experiment comes from popular social media consultant Rachel Karten's (great) newsletter “Link in Bio.”
Karten's theory was simple: You can ruin your reach by “only posting 1-2 IG stories in a 24-hour period (I feel like reach is better if you post 5-10 story slides rather than a single story post).”
When you think about it, it makes sense – Instagram (and other social platforms) tend to reward power users with greater reach and engagement.
And when you post Stories more often, your followers are more likely to see your profile picture at the top of their Stories feed. Your most active followers will see each of your Stories when you post something.
The only way to find out is to try, so I decided to test this hypothesis using my business Instagram account.
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methodology
I'm an avid user of Instagram Stories for my business, so posting 5-10 stories a day is no problem – I usually do that anyway.
Here's what I did:
- Week 1: Post 1-2 Instagram Stories per day
- Week 2: Post 5-10 Instagram Stories per day
On days when I only posted a few stories, I spread them out throughout the day. On days when I posted multiple stories, I posted 2-3 times per day, posting a few stories in a row each time. To ensure I collected enough data, my experiment spanned two weeks.
Armed with my hypothesis, I began my experiment.
Results
At the end of the experiment, I went back to Instagram’s native analytics to to reach, engagementAnd Impressions every story.
Here were my results (remember, week 1 is 1-2 stories/day and week 2 is 5-10 stories/day):
| Number of stories published | Total range | Total commitment | Total impressions | Average reach* | Average engagement** | Average impressions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| week 1 | 15 | 1,966 | 37 | 1,985 | 131.1 | 2.47% | 132.3 |
| Week 2 | 55 | 5,678 | 94 | 5,732 | 103.2 | 1.71% | 104.2 |
*To calculate these averages, I took the total reach/engagement/impressions and divided it by the number of stories posted that week (e.g. 1,985 impressions/15 stories = 132.3 impressions per story on average).
**Average engagement is expressed as a percentage. Most social media marketing experts agree that a good engagement rate is between 1% and 5%.
As a bonus experiment, I ran my numbers to find out what type of story post gets the most reach and engagement. Here are my results:
Week 1: 1-2 Instagram Stories/day
| Type of contribution | Average reach | Average engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Carousel/Roller Repost | 93.8 | 2% |
| Call to action – Vote on a poll or interact with a sticker | 139 | 1 % |
| Static photo post | 169.4 | 4.2% |
In Week 1, static posts were significantly more successful than reposted carousels, reels, or other interactive posts.
Week 2: 5-10 Instagram Stories/day
| Type of contribution | Average reach | Average engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Carousel/Roller Repost | 96.7 | 0.83% |
| Call to action – Vote on a poll or interact with a sticker | 110.1 | 1.75% |
| Static photo post | 110.8 | 3.1% |
In week 2, the results were the same, with static photos still outperforming other content types.
In short, stories with static photos performed better, regardless of how many stories I posted in total.
Here is a static photo story that was really well received.
What do the results mean?
After conducting this experiment, it seems that My average reach, engagement and impressions were all better when I limited myself to publishing 1-2 stories per day. This was interesting and not at all what I expected as it contradicts Karten's original hypothesis!
I looked at Hootsuite's Social Media Trends 2024 report to find out what might be causing this decline in viewership.
“Too focused on self-promotion” is at the top of the list and I think that might have been my problem during this experiment. I went into promotional mode and my followers probably found my stories too self-promotional.
Authenticity also played a role. I try to add humor to my brand, so funny posts like this one were well received:
However, people were less interested in direct, sales-oriented content like this:
After completing this experiment, I think a modified version of the original hypothesis is correct:
Posting more Instagram stories daily will improve your reach, provided you post the right type of stories. Read on to learn some insights to help you perfect your brand’s Instagram Stories strategy.
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findings
Be consistent
When developing your social media strategy for Instagram Stories, focus on consistency. In our Social Trends Consumer Survey, 14% of respondents said that Rare posting has a negative impact on brand perception.
Ultimately, it's not really about how many stories you post, but about consistently engaging with your audience on this platform.
Share exclusive content
Direct followers to your stories by Create content they can't get anywhere else.
These could be weekly AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions, behind-the-scenes videos, previews of upcoming releases, or any other unique form of story content that makes sense to your viewers.
Need inspiration? Check out this post on 19 engagement post ideas that will spice up your analytics
Give your audience what they want
Schedule a regular check-in to Check your Instagram stories metrics and use your insights.
Find out what works well and focus on that. Maybe your viewers like to take polls or question stickers. If that's the case, create a story with a “question of the day” to keep them coming back.
Stay realistic
According to Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends Report, 56% of consumers believe brands should be more identifiable on social media.
Use Instagram Stories to Build connections with your audience rather than talking to them about your brand. Stories can enable meaningful interactions with your followers and help you build deeper, long-term connections.
Save time managing Instagram for your business with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can create, schedule, and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance, and manage all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.
Grow on Instagram
Easily create, analyze and Schedule Instagram posts, stories, reels and threads with Hootsuite. Save time and get results.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
