You’ve probably seen them before. Those little hearts that show up next to someone’s name in your Instagram stories notifications. They let you know that someone has liked your story. But what if you don’t want people to see that you’ve liked their stories? Or what if you don’t want people to know when you’ve viewed their stories? Turns out, there’s a way to disable those story likes. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to enable or disable story likes on Instagram.
What Are Instagram Story Likes?
Instagram Story Likes are a new feature on Instagram that allows users to like stories. Unlike regular posts, when someone likes your story, you’ll see a little starburst animation in the top left corner of the story.
How to Enable Story Likes on Instagram
First you will need to connect your Instagram account with Facebook.
- Go to the Instagram app and tap on “Settings” on the top left corner.
- Tap on “Privacy” and then scroll down to “Social.”
- Tap on “Connected Apps.” Then select Facebook from the list of apps you want to use for this feature (if it’s not showing up, make sure that you’re connected).
Next you will have to change your Facebook privacy settings to only allow friends to view your story.
Go to Settings > Account Settings and scroll down until you see “Who can see my stuff?”. There are a few options here: Public – This allows everyone on Instagram (including business pages) and people who follow your account back from Facebook access to all of your posts
Friends – This only allows people who follow you back from Facebook access to the content posted on this page
Only Me – Only shows posts made by yourself
When you post a story, the public will see it and you can preview it before publishing.
Viewers can send you a message, like your story and comment on it. You should also be able to view details about who liked or commented on your Instagram Story in the “Post” section of the “Info” tab found under each post’s profile picture. Once you publish your story, the public can like it. To view this post on Facebook go to Facebook.
This is how it works:
- Publish your story. Once you’ve published your story on the app, the public can like it. To view this post on Facebook go here (Facebook).
- Visit the privacy settings section in Instagram and click Edit at the top of your profile page to enable Story Liking or disable it altogether if you prefer not to use that feature. You can also change your default follow count by clicking “My Account” at the top right corner of any Instagram post and then selecting Settings from there.
Tips for Optimizing Your Instagram Story Likes
Create Stories that Ask for Feedback
You can create a story asking for feedback on any aspect of your business or brand, from the products you sell to the services you provide and everything in between. For example, if you want to know what customers think about your store’s customer service experience, ask them directly by sharing an image with a prompt like “What do customers think about this?” or “How did they find us?” This is also a great way to set up social media posts before they happen—you’ll get much more engagement this way!
Have Fun with Your Company
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when optimizing their Instagram stories is taking themselves too seriously. Instagram is a photo-sharing app, not a business blog or magazine—so don’t try to be too serious about it. Instead, use your company’s story as an opportunity to share behind-the-scenes content and events that show off the fun side of your brand: from parties and outings, to team building exercises and office lunches (if you have one).
Repurpose a Post from Instagram or Facebook
Repurposing your content is a great way to engage with your audience and reach new audiences. Your story can be repurposed in many ways, including:
- Re-posting the same photo or video more than once on Instagram Stories
- Uploading an old post from Facebook (or Twitter) onto Instagram Story
It’s also important to note that when you repost something on social media, it will appear as a new post with all of its original details intact. So if you wanted to re-use an image from Instagram Stories but change its background color or add text for SEO purposes, this would still count as a separate “post” on Instagram itself—making it eligible for likes!
Create a Poll
A poll is a great way to get people to engage with your content. It can be used for a variety of purposes, from collecting feedback from your audience to gathering data on a specific topic. You can create polls in Instagram by simply typing “poll” into the search bar at the top of any post and then selecting one of the results that appears under “Create New Poll”:
If you’re looking for inspiration, there are plenty of options available! Here’s an example: We asked our followers what they thought about this new product. How would this work? You could use it as an opportunity for community members who don’t see each other often (like family members) or even distant acquaintances (like coworkers). In addition, there are plenty of ways that polls could benefit businesses—for instance: Which social media platform do most employees prefer? Do customers like our brand loyalty program?
Share a Personal Story
If you’re looking to get more likes on your story, share a personal story of how your company has helped you. Maybe it’s advice from one of the people who work there, or maybe it’s something that happened to someone else in their family or community. Whatever it is that resonates with people, share it!
If there’s something specific about being part of this company culture that makes a difference in your life—if you feel inspired by the mission and values—share those as well! It can be as simple as saying something like: “I’m so glad I came here because…” or “I love working here because…”
Engage with Others’ Stories
You can also like, comment and post to other people’s stories. This is a great way to engage with your followers and build relationships. You can also share your story with others by clicking the button that says “Share Your Story” at the bottom of your screen when you’re posting something new on Instagram. It says Share Your Story but this doesn’t mean you need to sell anything; it just means that other people will be able to see what’s happening in your life through the filter of this particular moment in time when they come across one of these posts from someone else who shares their own experiences too.
Add Branded Stickers to Your Images and Videos
Adding a sticker to your images and videos is an easy way to add your brand. You can use stickers as part of a call to action, or as an easy way to add links in the caption.
Stickers are available in all shapes and sizes, so you’ll be able to find one that fits right into your story without taking away from the content of your post.
Analyzing Your Story Likes Data
After enabling story likes, you’ll want to review your data periodically to see how your stories are performing. You can access the insights from the audience page of your Instagram Analytics dashboard. Here, you’ll be able to review various metrics about your story like count, such as the number of likes for each story and the total number of likes received over a period of time.
In addition to viewing your insights in the analytics dashboard, you can also view them within individual stories. Just tap on the “View Story Stats” option from the top right corner of any of your story posts and you’ll be able to see the number of likes, views and replies it has received over time. This will allow you to keep track of your progress and refine any strategies that aren’t working as well as you hoped.
Troubleshooting Tips for Story Likes on Instagram
Name Your Privacy Setting
If you’re using a public profile, it’s important to make sure that your privacy settings are set to ‘public’. To do this, go to your profile and click on the gear icon in the top right corner. This will take you into your account settings where you can choose what information is available for others to see on Instagram. The first option is “Public Profile” which means that anyone with an account can view this information about you (name, username). If this isn’t selected then only people who follow you will have access. However, if it is selected then everyone else connected through Instagram should be able to see all of these details about them as well.
Add a new password
If you’re having trouble remembering your Instagram password, try adding a new one. You can do this by going to the “Account” section of your profile and selecting “Edit Profile.” From there, select “Password.” On the next screen, enter your current password in the box that says “New Password,” then click on “Forgot?” If you have trouble remembering this new password—perhaps because it’s similar to other passwords or just downright confusing—consider adding another layer of protection by using a security tool like LastPass or Keebio (which is free). If these options aren’t working for whatever reason, make sure to keep track of which ones are most important: perhaps switching up their order every once in awhile would help prevent anyone from guessing them easily.
Remove your online identity
Delete any personal information from your profile and delete any comments or posts that don’t contribute to the story you’re promoting. If you’re using a pseudonym for this account, change it to something more descriptive before trying again with the same username.
Delete your account
If you have a story and are seeing a lot of likes on it, but still aren’t getting any engagement from other users, there are two main things you can try. First off, delete your account. This will reset the algorithm and make it easier to see how people interact with content in order to improve future posts. You may also want to consider doing this if you’re experiencing issues with other accounts on Instagram (e.g., someone is tagging their friends into photos).
Deleting an account means that all previous stories will be deleted and cannot be recovered once deleted; however, new stories created after deletion will not have any issues related directly or indirectly due specifically because they were created after deletion took place!
To figure out why you’re not getting as many likes:
If you’re still not getting the results that are expected, it might be time to delete your account. The easiest way to do this is by tapping on “Settings” and then “Manage Account.” From there, scroll down until you see an option labeled “Delete This Account.” Tap on this button and confirm that yes, indeed—you want to remove Instagram from your phone!
If deleting doesn’t work out for whatever reason (you have a lot of followers or something), then consider changing your privacy settings so that only approved people can follow/like posts from other users whose accounts appear in their timeline.
