If you want to get even more out of your Instagram presence, the Swipe Up in the stories is a good addition to your marketing strategy on Instagram. With this feature, you can make your stories more thoughtful, which in the next step will lead to more clicks, traffic to your website, and/or sales.
In this post you will find answers to the following questions:
- What is Instagram Swipe Up?
- How do you get the feature and who can use it?
- How to add a link to the Instagram Stories with the swipe-up?
- What alternative options are there for accounts that don’t have 10,000 followers?
What is Instagram Swipe Up?
Instagram’s core concern is to keep users on the platform for as long as possible. As a result, there are few ways to include links to external posts within the app. Most users only have the text box available to share a link. However, some accounts and users can use other options in the form of the swipe-up function.
When a swipe-up link is added to an Insta Story, viewers can tap an arrow at the bottom of their screen or swipe up on the story to view the link. This is marked with a button that says “Swipe Up”. In German, swipe up means “show more”. The corresponding pages open directly in the app.
Who can use Instagram Swipe Up?
To be able to use Swipe Up, however, certain requirements must be met. Not all Instagram users have access to the link feature for their Stories. To use Swipe Up, you have to
- have set up a profile as a business account and
- have over 10,000 followers
or have a verified account. An account with verification enabled can be recognized by the blue tick next to a profile. It means that Instagram has verified that an account is the authentic presence of the public figure, celebrity, or global brand it represents.
Compared to the total number of Instagram users, only a very small proportion have a verified account. However, there are also some ways to implement the link function in the stories without verification. How exactly, we explain below.
How to add a link to Instagram Stories with Swipe Up?
Once you’ve met the criteria that give you access to the Instagram swipe-up feature, the link icon will automatically appear in your stories editor. This is the chain symbol.
Tapping the chain icon will open a window where you can add a link to your story. To do this, click on the “+ Web link” section and paste the URL.
It is important at this point to enter information about brand partnerships, for example when sponsored content is shared. Tagging the business partner adds the flag “Paid partnership with” to the story.
Once all the markings have been correctly made, all that remains is to complete the process by clicking on “Done” or the green tick. Editing or changing the link is only possible as long as the story has not yet been published. After that, no more modifications can be made without deleting the entire story.
There are many different ways to add links to Instagram Stories, including:
- Link Sharing: Sharing insightful articles or promoting a new blog post
- View product: Direct forwarding to products in the app
- Show shop: Possibility to promote the entire range of products
The last two options require Instagram Shopping to be enabled.
What alternatives to Swipe Up are there for accounts that don’t have 10,000 followers or don’t have a verification tick?
In an interview, Instagram representatives confirmed that tests are already being carried out with a new story sticker, which will eventually also be available to smaller accounts or accounts without a tick.
Even if an account is not verified, does not yet have 10,000 followers and does not belong to the test group of story link stickers, a small workaround can be used to insert a link into the Instagram story or elsewhere within the app.
The following options are available:
Story links via IGTV videos
It is possible to insert a clickable link in the IGTV area. If you then share the IGTV video in your story, your followers will get to the link and then to the corresponding page. This isn’t quite as flexible as the swipe-up, but still helpful.
Swipe-Up-Links in Instagram Shop
Another way to generate traffic from Instagram Stories without having 10,000 followers is to add a swipe-up link to an Instagram Shop. To do this, Instagram Shopping must be activated for the relevant account. This is time-consuming at first, but as soon as everything is in place, the shop and individual products can be linked in every Instagram story – regardless of the number of followers.
Poll Stickers in Instagram Stories
This little gadget in the stories does not generate a direct link, but it does allow you to get to know your own followers better and motivate them to interact. The poll sticker can also be used to engage with users who have responded to something. Within the 24 hours that a story is viewable, the paper airplane icon next to the person can be clicked to send them a link to a topic related to the poll.
Links via chat stickers
The Join Chat sticker is a relatively new feature in Instagram Stories. He invites followers to join a group chat for up to 32 people. In contrast to contact via the survey sticker, in this case, participation in the conversation is at the initiative of the user. The disadvantage is that the conversations in the group chat also take place among the users and the conversation has to be moderated.
Sending links via direct messages
This measure to increase the range should only be used in exceptional cases and carefully. A personal relationship must be established with the user before any link is shared. However, once the link is in place, direct messaging is one of the best opportunities for lead generation.
Conclusion
The Instagram Stories swipe-up feature is a powerful tool with many capabilities, helping to increase reach and promote leads and products. You simply add a swipe up via the chain icon in the story editor.
Although Swipe Up is currently only available to high-reach accounts, there are good alternatives for smaller accounts to share links. Based on communications from Instagram, it is expected that a similar tool will be available for all accounts in the not-too-distant future.