No matter how committed you are to managing your company’s Instagram account, you can’t always be there. Everyone needs a vacation once in a while!

When another team member needs to take the reins, an Instagram Stories style guide will help set them up for success by covering everything they need to know. Read on to find out:

  • Other reasons you might need to create an Instagram Stories style guide
  • Everything you need to add to your Instagram Stories style guide

Why do you need a style guide for your Instagram Stories?

Just as you need a style guide for your other social media channels, you also need an Instagram Stories style guide. It will help you maintain a consistent look and feel for your Stories that strengthens your brand and relationships with your followers.

It also gives your colleagues confidence when they need to get on the right track so they can focus on creating great Stories instead of worrying about them using the wrong fonts or hashtags.

With that in mind, here’s what your style guide should cover.

10 things you should add to your Instagram Stories style guide

1. Fonts

Choose from one of the five standard fonts (classic, modern, neon, typewritten, or strong) in Instagram Stories, or use a third-party app like HypeType to expand your options, your font says a lot about you.

As designer Sarah Hyndman finds, fonts convey your brand’s personality and character to viewers. Using a different font will change the tone of your Stories, as if they were suddenly speaking in that weird British accent of Madonna.

So wherever your font comes from, be sure to add it to your style guide. Specify dimensions and weights and exceptions or exceptions. If you use all caps for titles or prefer a casual tone with all lowercase letters, be sure to specify that.

2. List of approved + branded hashtags

Adding hashtags to your Instagram Stories can help them reach a wider audience. However, they can also work against you if you accidentally write something embarrassing or trivial.

Save your colleagues (and your brand!) the embarrassment with an extensive list of hashtags. These should include branded hashtags (those specific to your company or campaigns, such as Warby Parker’s #WarbyHomeTryOn), as well as any other approved hashtags you use regularly and when to add them.

Don’t make assumptions about how familiar other team members are with Instagram shorthand. You may think everyone knows what #TBT means, but it doesn’t hurt to be clear.

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3. List of approved GIFs

I hope you use GIFs, the common language of the internet, in your Instagram Stories. There is hardly any post that could not be improved with the addition of a dancing Tina Belcher. If you are, you should add them to your style guide!

Whether you create your own or shoot some favorites via GIPHY, your style guide should cover GIFs and their use.

For example, when you add a link to your Instagram Stories, you always add a specific “swipe up” or “read more” GIF. Adding screenshots or image files here may help.

These details are small, but they make all the difference in creating a Story that feels right to your followers.

4. Image sources and instructions

As the most important part of your morning is coffee, the most important part of your Instagram strategy is images.

Leave details on where to find approved images, such as your preferred stock photo sites or meme accounts, and shared folders with assets for your products or campaigns.

Providing guidelines on visual best practices can also be helpful when your colleagues need to shoot live photos and videos for their Instagram Stories.

Lucky for you, we have tips for taking great photos! However, to provide guidance for image editing as well, you should also add any regular filters or edits you make to keep your images on brand.

5. Colors

Color is key to your brand identity. Using colors consistently in your Stories will help you build brand awareness and create a distinctive style. Just think of Starbucks and their signature green:

Starbucks Instagram Story

Your Instagram Stories style guide should include a list of your brand colors, including where and when you use them. Include secondary colors as well as your primary palette (for example, the colors of your logo and packaging that are most strongly associated with your brand). Secondary colors can be more neutral or lighter, but should complement your primary palette.

For creators designing images or working with templates, add specific HEX codes and RGB values ​​(more on that below).

6. Apps and tools

What do you use to make your stories look great?

Whether it’s VSCO for enhancing your videos and photos or Life Lapse for stop-motion Stories, your style guide should include these tools!

video editing Instagram Story

Add any presets or go-to filters and settings so your teammates can bring out the look and feel of your Instagram Stories.

7. Instagram Stories templates

Suggesting specific apps will help you achieve a brand-appropriate look and feel for your Instagram Stories, but providing templates will ensure the perfect fit.

If you have multiple team members uploading Instagram Stories, we recommend using templates to create polished, consistent content (start with our free templates).

There are loads of apps for creating story templates. Some of our favorites include Adobe Spark and Unfold used by Tommy Hilfiger to create this Story:

Tommy Hilfiger Instagram story

Add your account sign-in details to your style guide so your teammates can access templates you use regularly.

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Provide guidelines for the use of each template. For example, if you’re using a specific template for Stories about new blog posts, make a note of it in your guide!

8. Content calendar

Maybe you take a spontaneous approach to Instagram Stories, capturing everything that inspires you every day. We respect a free-spirited approach!

But most likely, you use a social media content calendar to schedule your posts. If someone new is taking longer to look at your Instagram Stories, this is valuable information!

The content calendar should include featured content for all of your channels, such as product launches and special occasions. But it should also include tips for recurring or scheduled Instagram Story features.

If you’re adding regular Story content on certain days (like Everlane’s Transparency on Tuesdays, or Basically Wednesday’s Cooking Questions and Answers), be sure to outline these details in your content calendar.

9. Evergreen content ideas

Whether or not you have a calendar that maps day-to-day (or week-to-week) content for your stories, it can also be helpful to include a guide to your brand’s timeless content.

Evergreen content refers to posts that are always relevant to your target audience. It can be reused to fill in the blanks in your posting schedule or if you’re drawing a gap in what to post.

These could be your “best” blog posts, your most popular interviews, and the most engaged photos and videos. You can also recommend user-generated content here, such as posts from influencers that feature your products.

Your style guide should include suggestions and links here for guidance, as well as tips on what types of Stories work best for your audience. If you know that your followers always love a Story about the cutest pup in your office, that’s good information!

That way, if your teammate isn’t sure what to post, they’ll have solid ideas to come up with.

10. Posting times and frequencies

There’s no best practice for how often to post or what time of day to post on Instagram Stories (unlike posts in a feed or posts on other social media channels!) The key to success isn’t a magic number of stories per day. — is consistency.

For you, this might mean posting a few Stories every day, or only posting a few days of content each week. If you follow your story analytics, you’ll understand what’s best for your audience!

Whatever you do, put it in your style guide. If you typically post three Stories a day, it will seem odd to your followers that an overzealous teammate posts 25 at once.

Once you’ve created your style guide, you can safely take a break from your brand’s Instagram account.

It may take some effort to put it together, but it will save your team a lot of time and worry down the road! Most importantly, it will let you all enjoy the process of creating great Stories and sharing them with your audience.

Manage your Instagram presence along with your other social channels and save time using Moyens I/O. You can schedule and publish posts, engage audiences, and measure performance from a single dashboard. Try it for free today.

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