If you are reading this blog I can guess that you fall into one or more of these categories:

1. You are a small business owner.
2. You have a goal this year to be better at posting on social media and in your scrolling you have seen/heard that posting on stories is “a thing now” 
3. You have decision fatigue and you saw the words “best” and “worst” and you're like, “I love a rating system, LET’S GO.”

If you are one, or all of the above, you have come to the right place. When you're done reading this blog, you will understand why you should use these stickers in your Instagram stories. You’ll also know which ones work best for you and your social media marketing bandwidth. 

But first, why should you be using interactive stickers in your Instagram stories to begin with? 

When you post in your stories using interactive stickers it makes your audience feel seen, heard, and part of the conversation without putting themselves out there by posting public comments. When your audience feels seen, heard, and part of the conversation, you build more trust and deepen your relationship with them. The deeper the relationship and the more trust your audience has, the more likely they will be to continue to watch and engage with your content (and hopefully work with you). All that engagement makes the algorithm happy, meaning your content as a whole will be shown to a wider audience of new accounts that become followers and loyal customers. 

And let’s be honest… Who doesn't LOVE pressing buttons that do something or get something? It's like a busy board for grown ups. IYKYK.

There are a lot of different ways I could rate Instagram’s interactive stickers. For the purposes of this blog, I’m keeping it simple and practical.

First, I’m grouping stickers by what they help you do (easy engagement, feedback, excitement, or conversion).

Then, within each group, I’m rating stickers by effort level, meaning how much time, thought, or typing you and your audience will be putting out there. 

Low-effort stickers require just a tap for each of you. 

Medium-effort stickers ask for a bit more intention and customization.

High-effort stickers invite your audience to pause, think, and respond in their own words, and you to put a little more work in to make that happen. 

None of these are “better” or “worse” overall (I guess I tricked you with the title (IT’S CALLED A HOOK, PEOPLE), but the real goal is to choose the right sticker based on what you want your audience to do at that moment. So there might be a best or worst choice for you afterall. 

Best stickers that the audience doesn’t have touch (unless they want too): 

Mention Sticker:

Use this sticker if you want to get the attention of another account, hopefully they will reshare whatever you posted.

Rating: 

• Business owner: Low
• Audience: Low

Location Sticker:

These are great for brick-and-mortar stores to get your story featured on location specific stories!

Rating:  

• Business owner: Low
• Audience: Low

Best Stickers for Easy Engagement: 

Emoji sticker 

These are super easy to use as the poster and they offer your audience an easy and quick reaction on something you're sharing. Choose an emoji related to your story and include the sticker. Your audience can click on it to “react” to your story. 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium only if you want to customize by choosing your own emoji, (which I recommend)
• Audience: Low

Emoji slider

Similarly to the sticker, they offer your audience an easy and quick reaction on something you're sharing. They can still be customizable with any emoji you choose, plus you can add a statement/question and they can slide for their answer.

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium effort (only if you want to customize by choosing your own emoji, which I recommend)
• Audience: Low effort 

Best Stickers to Get Feedback:

Poll

You can ask a simple question and customize the answers you want your audience to give. Your audience can feel like they are helping you make a decision or giving a more specific opinion as they vote in your poll.  

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium 
• Audience: Low to medium

Questions Box

You will want to frame your question in a way that quickly hooks attention and your audience wants to answer. Then your audience can share exactly what they want to tell you (within character counts, of course.) But a little word to the wise; it's hard to get people to type in the box! (You CAN answer them yourself to get things started, trust us, NO ONE KNOWS). 

Rating: 

• Business owner: High
• Audience: High

Best Stickers to Build Excitement: 

Notify:

Want your audience to keep in touch? This sticker makes it easy for them to opt-in to receiving certain notifications from your account.

Rating: 

• Business owner: Low
• Audience: Low

Countdown:

Add this to count down to an important event. You have to set the specific date/time and it still goes away in 24 hrs, so plan to repost. The audience can choose to get a notification when the countdown ends. 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium 
• Audience: Low

Best Stickers to get UGC: 

Add yours template:

Instagram has their own prompts people can answer with a photo. They are not customizable, but you may use them to create a conversation or find a moment of relatability. 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Low
• Audience: High

Add Yours: 

When looking to get more content from your community, this is a creative one! It is the same concept as above, but you get to customize the prompt. You can see if people have replied and you could reshare in your stories, or message them to see if you can share the photo in other posts!

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium
• Audience: High

BEST Stickers for Conversion: 

Link:

Link to a website or landing page. You can choose the direct link you want your audience to go to AND pair it with an engaging CTA. 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Low (HIGH REWARD)
• Audience: Low

Product:

A great sticker if you have an online storefront and are showcasing a specific item for purchase. Skip if you don’t utilize the shop!

Rating: 

• Business owner: Low (HIGH REWARD)
• Audience: Low

Best JUST FOR FUN: 

(These are not all interactive, but can add some whimsy to your content) 

GIFS:

Add fun designs to your stories to spiff it up. These can add some movement or action to your story that will keep people interested and can also help direct them, like arrows! 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Low (HIGH REWARD)
• Audience: NONE!

Frames: 

Frames stickers are made to look like a polaroid picture that your audience literally can “Shake it like a polaroid picture” to reveal the photo. These are great for launches, announcements and just when you want to add something fun! Your audience shakes their phone to reveal your sticker. 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium
• Audience: Medium (it’s the shaking, it’s interactive BUT fun)

Highlight:

Post something to your story and then save it as a highlight, giving it a special/reserved spot on your profile page. This is not necessarily for the audience right away, but it’s a “twofer” because you can post the story to your highlight right away. This is great for FAQ’s or upcoming events. 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium
• Audience: Low

Music: 

Want to add a soundtrack to your story? Add some music! There are also different stickers, like a spinning album, title sticker or lyrics. 

Rating: 

• Business owner: Medium
• Audience: Low 

Are there any stickers that you wish I mentioned or have questions about? Let me know! 

Oh! And Instagram does have a Help Center Article as well that can give you some tips! 

Before You Start Posting Stickers Everywhere, Here are a Few Things to Know: 

• One sticker, two tops per Story is enough.
• Put stickers where thumbs already are (middle-lower third of the screen).
• Use text to give more context/clear direction (“Vote below 👇”).
• Reminder: You don’t need face-to-camera for these to work (hello, b-roll)! 

Ready For Homework? I snagged a few of the prompts from our Back to Social Challenge that you can try!:

📲 Story Prompt: Share a post from an ideal client or collaborator you’d love to work with and add a reaction sticker so your followers can engage with it too. (Yes, this is secretly salesy, but it's coming for a place of community! 😉) Need help finding the reaction sticker? Watch this quick reel for the D/L.

OR

📲 Story Prompt: Create a story using a photo or B-roll*. Sharing something about you or your business. Add a question box for people to answer a question about themselves.

*Want the D/L on b-roll? Check out this blog.