If you’re an event organizer, you’d be crazy not to be on Instagram. With over two billion users worldwide, it’s one of the globe’s most popular ways to share beautiful images and engaging videos, chat, buy, sell, and everything in between.
With all that activity, Instagram Stories are perfect for building your brand, showing off your fantastic event content, and selling tickets for upcoming events in your pipeline.
But coming up with Instagram Story ideas again and again can be a little tricky. At Eventbrite, we love helping event organizers promote their events successfully, so we’ve created this guide.
Read on to get inspired by dynamic Instagram Story ideas for businesses, Instagram Story poll ideas, and pro tips on boosting your Stories using Eventbrite.
Instagram Story ideas for your next event
Instagram Story ideas that’ll impress your followers
Instagram Story ideas for photos
Instagram Story ideas for business use
Pro tips to boost your Instagram Stories
The power of Instagram Stories for events
Instagram Stories are a series of photo compilations and videos up to 60 seconds long that frequently employ filters, interactive stickers, lenses, texts, and more. You can slow down, speed up, rewind, or “Boomerang” your videos (so that they play forward and backward).
The magic of Instagram Stories is your content’s ephemeral nature — Instagram Stories are viewable for only 24 hours after posting, which can help you tell a larger brand narrative while creating fear of missing out (FOMO) in your followers. This 24-hour deadline encourages your followers to stay more present with your account to avoid missing important information.
Best of all, you can add clickable links to your Stories after you reach 10,000 followers, helping you drive viewers to your ticketing page. Likewise, Instagram Stories lets you see who’s been looking at your posts — enabling you to track post engagement at a glance.
Instagram Story ideas that’ll impress your followers
If you’ve got followers on Instagram, they’re interested in your brand and want to learn more about your events.
Instagram users can follow up to 7,500 different accounts, so you have to make sure your Stories stand out.
Here are some of our favorite ideas to help every type of content pop:
1. Stream live video
Almost a quarter of users say the main reason they log into social platforms like Instagram is to watch live videos. So, why not use your Instagram Stories as a live-streaming platform to speak directly to your target audience?
How to use Live video in your Instagram Stories:
- Create FOMO with sneak peeks of the crew setting up your event
- Humanize your event brand via interviews with performers or speakers
- Provide shareable snippets with behind-the-scenes content
The NYC Fair Trade Coalition does this really effectively to promote their events.
They often stream behind-the-scenes footage to give followers a taste of their upcoming launch events — and it’s a great way to keep followers close and wanting more.
2: Do an artist or speaker reveal
The lineup is a massive part of the excitement and anticipation for your attendees in the months before your event.
Before artist or speaker announcements, you can use Stories to tease the reveal with hints — like the speaker’s initials or a blurred picture that viewers can decipher.
3. Influencer takeover
Every once in a while, you can delight your followers with an influencer takeover of your Instagram account (or vice versa), where big content creators make their own Stories from your account for a day or week.
Partnering with the right influencers is critical to making this idea work! Look at influencers who match your brand’s values, sponsors, performers, or even vendors on Instagram to see who would be the right fit as your brand ambassador.
4. Host a live Q&A
Do your attendees have common questions about your event? Or maybe followers interested in your event keep directly messaging you with the same questions?
Collect the most popular questions and answer them in a picture as a Live video in your Stories!
You can create Highlights on your profile that allow viewers to watch Stories more than once. This makes it easy to compile Q&A or FAQ questions in an easily accessible format that will not disappear. Remember to add a cover image that reflects each Highlight’s contents.
5. Stage a contest or giveaway
Social media contests are a powerful tool to motivate followers to spread the word about your event. Consider asking entrants to tag your event’s handle or use your event’s hashtag in one of their Stories to enter.
Then, be sure to tag the winners in your Stories to build buzz and show you’re trustworthy!
If you’re looking for inspiration on this one, it’s worth taking another look at the NYC Fairtrade Coalition’s Stories.
Their team regularly hosts live raffles and giveaways on Instagram. These giveaways provide an incentive to follow and periodically check in on new pieces of content, making promoting future events easier.
6. Promote your event content with custom stickers
Custom stickers are tiny graphics you can superimpose over your content to make it stand out. Instagram has plugins that let you choose from a wide range of stickers and gifs — but if you want to stop people from scrolling, try adding some stickers users have never seen before.
Creating a custom sticker on Instagram is pretty simple:
- Start creating your Story
- Tap the ‘Stickers’ button
- Select ‘Cutouts’
- Choose the photo or video you want as the sticker
From there, your new sticker will be automatically generated so you can add it to your next Story.
Want to see stickers used effectively? Take a look at event organizer Art Battle International.
They do a brilliant job of adding fun GIF stickers to their Stories, adding a bit of movement to static images for personalization and attracting scrollers.
7. Organize your Stories by theme
Want to create event-specific Stories that last more than 24 hours? Instagram lets you save stories and create highlights to organize them according to event themes so followers can rewatch them.
Here’s how to save your Instagram Stories:
- Go to your Instagram profile
- Select ‘…’ in the top right corner
- Name Highlight
- Hit ‘Next’
- Click ‘Stories,’ then select the Story you want to add to your new highlight
- Click ‘Next’
- Hit ‘Done’
Organizing Stories by theme can help you share essential info about upcoming events or let followers relive epic events they’ve attended.
8. Generate social proof with user-generated content
For event promotion, sometimes less is more. That’s why you should post user-generated content to your Stories. Reposting other users’ content saves you time and energy when generating your own content ideas.
But mainly, by reposting other people’s work, you generate social proof that attendees love your events, and it validates you and your brand.
If you need inspiration, The Last Bookstore is awesome at this.
Their Stories are full of reposts that share what customers love about their business.
9. Show off happy customers with event testimonials
Customer testimonials can help you generate social proof and show off your happy eventgoers.
This is often a bit more formal than a quick repost of other people’s content. Instead, take aside a couple of people at each event and ask them a few questions on-camera about their favorite parts of your event.
Just make sure you get their permission to post their video testimonials on social.
Create a quick consent form where they can tick a box and sign their name. In some states, written consent is a legal requirement.
10. Promote upcoming live streams
Live streams can often be a big undertaking, and Stories are a great way to promote them to your followers.
Make a short preview or teaser trailer for your upcoming live stream, or simply post a photo with text reminding followers to tune in at the right time and include a link. You can even use your Stories as a reminder for followers to catch your live streams on-demand after they finish.
For best practice, check out Pioneer Works. They consistently nail it when it comes to promoting their event live streams.
11. Create explainer videos about your events
According to Eventbrite’s TRNDS 2024 report, two-thirds of event attendees (and 73% of 21 to 35-year-olds) feel happier knowing there’s a conscious effort to make an event sustainable.
If you’re an event organizer making an effort to be more sustainable, Instagram Stories are a great vehicle to show off your sustainability credentials. Create explainer video content where you showcase cool interactive elements of your event space or adjustments you’ve made to be inclusive or environmentally friendly.
12. Share recommendations
Recommend other businesses to increase your chances of collaborating with local businesses.
For example, you could promote fabulous restaurants or hotels, name-checking them for anyone attending your upcoming event. Make sure to tag those business owners, too. This will motivate them to repost your Stories and expand your event’s reach to a broader audience — potentially increasing ticket sales.
Bollywood Dreams always does an excellent job at this.
Their Stories regularly promote like-minded businesses with vibes that match Bollywood Dreams’ brand. This builds trust with your followers and shows them that you’re not on Instagram just to promote your tickets.
Instagram Story ideas for photos
Instagram isn’t all about video. It’s the perfect place to share beautiful, fun, or flirty images that capture your event and build a sense of FOMO.
Here are some Instagram Story ideas for photos that we absolutely love:
13. Create shareable event filters
Everybody knows Instagram filters are helpful for hiding how exhausted you look or bringing beautiful sunsets into focus. But did you know you can create custom filters for your events?
When it comes to Instagram story ideas for photos, this is a useful one because it prompts your guests to post about your event. Everybody loves a chance to use a new filter and show off that they’re at your fantastic event!
Filters also add a bit of excitement and exclusivity to your event and increase brand awareness. Every time your followers use one, more and more people get info about your event and brand.
You can use a few tools to create event filters, but it’s also worth checking out Instagram’s built-in Meta Spark Studio. This platform takes a bit of technical know-how. But if you’re familiar with apps like Photoshop or Canva, it’s not too difficult to start creating weird and wonderful customer filters.
14. Use countdown stickers to build FOMO
Countdown stickers are a simple and effective way to build a sense of urgency around ticket sales.
Adding countdown stickers gives your followers a visual representation of the remaining time until your event starts — hopefully getting people off the fence and pushing them to buy tickets. Your followers can even subscribe to your countdown sticker so they receive a reminder when the countdown is up.
To see it done right,the team over at Duck Club does this on a regular basis.
15. Create infographics about your events
Looking for Instagram Story ideas for photos that convey a lot of info? Infographics are helpful if you want to showcase all the work that’s gone into your event.
You could also use it to show off your sustainability credentials or promote a relevant cause to your event or business. You can also use them just to be quirky and include some fun information about your brand.
The NYC Fair Trade Coalition offers some great examples.
Their Stories regularly include short, simple, but effective static infographic images that convey essential facts relevant to their cause — simultaneously promoting live streams, podcasts, and events in the same post.
16. Add emoji sliders to your Stories
Emoji sliders are a simple tool to push followers to engage with your event snaps without having to write. All you’ve got to do is superimpose a slider sticker onto your Story. Sliders can help validate your content by measuring follower satisfaction with your events or Stories.
Event organizer Bollywood Dreams is excellent at this, too.
Adding sliders to Story content promotes their new song mixes and helps the organizers understand how much followers enjoy their latest tracks.
17. Show off your event space
Stories are the perfect place to showcase how flawless your venue looks in the run-up to an event.
You can capture it from all different angles, highlight catering options with tasty food close-ups, or even show off your range of facilities so prospective customers know what to expect when they arrive.
Instagram Story ideas for business use
Instagram Stories allow businesses to promote key moments and events, which is why Instagram needs to be a central part of their social media marketing strategy.
Whether it’s product launches, an upcoming new partnership, pop-up events, or a new event series you want to test out, Stories are the place to do it.
Here are some of our favorite ideas to boost your business on Instagram:
18. Flash ticket sale
Since Instagram Stories disappear in 24 hours, it’s the perfect vehicle for announcing flash sales. If you use Eventbrite to plan and manage your events, create discount codes to support flash sales.
Here’s how it’s done:
19. Boost your Stories with cash
Do you have amazing IG Stories but want them to travel beyond your follower count? Boost your Stories by turning them into a targeted ad campaign.
With tools like Eventbrite, you can set up your Story ads, pre-schedule, and pre-select your budget to control your ad spend. This is an effective tool to expand your reach and get the right eyes on your event content.
Ready to start marketing your events?
20. Introduce followers to your events team
Looking for Instagram Story ideas for business that will add a human touch to your brand? Share your team’s faces online.
Introducing your team before event day allows eventgoers to get to know you as more than a business but a team of personalities. Having a team of experts behind you also adds a level of legitimacy.
Make sure you tag your team to encourage them to share your Stories so you can reach a wider audience.
For a unique take on this idea, check out The Last Bookstore.
Instead of sharing staff interviews or facts, they introduce followers to staff members by having the team share their top book recommendations.
21. Make a shoppable Story
Looking for Instagram Story ideas for business that’ll improve ticket sales for your scheduled events? Shoppable IG Stories are the perfect solution.
Add the URL to your Eventbrite pages as a link sticker to your Stories. This will point followers directly to your event page.
Have an Instagram business page? You can even add shopping tags to different sections of your website or different blog posts so users can find exactly what they’re looking for with minimal swipes.
To see how it’s done right, look at In Todo.
Their Stories regularly link directly to their ticket pages — giving users a quick and seamless buying experience.
Instagram Story poll ideas
Interactive elements like adding a poll sticker are a fantastic way to engage your followers and build excitement about your upcoming events.
Here are some Instagram Story poll ideas we love that’ll boost your audience interaction.
22. Ask for playlist recommendations
Give your audience a sense of ownership over an event element. If you’re putting together a playlist, ask followers what they want to hear!
Asking your guests will also help you gauge the tastes and interests of your prospective customers so you can adapt accordingly.
23. Ask followers to guess event facts
This is a fun Instagram Story poll idea that combines educational content with event promo. You can add a question sticker to showcase cool facts about your entertainers or venue — and even offer a small prize for anyone who guesses correctly.
Beyond Us & Them does a great job of asking followers for guesses with quiz stickers.
Exciting content like this action shot can also build some FOMO around your event and show off cool elements that’ll convince people to try out your next event.
24. Find out what guests are looking forward to about your event
If you’re after a quick win, create an interactive poll asking followers what they’re most excited about for your event.
This showcases unique elements of your event ahead of time. But you can also use any answers to help gauge your event guests’ interests to ensure you’re giving them exactly what they want.
25. Ask attendees how they’re getting to your event
A poll asking attendees about their travel arrangements prompts your guests to consider their travel arrangements in advance.
Knowing how people plan to get to your event will also help you plan regarding scheduling and staffing at your venue space.
26. Let guests choose their own catering options
Dietary requirements are an essential aspect of event planning. Often, nailing the catering is a matter of making your guests happy — but if any of your event guests have serious food allergies, it’s also a matter of health and safety.
Get inspiration and find out about your guests wants and needs by adding a poll sticker to your Stories, asking them to choose between a range of event catering ideas. You can then use those preferences to put together your menu or work with caterers to create suitable options.
27. Ask questions that get followers guessing
Simple questions promote different elements of your event to build some excitement.
For example, event organizers at Mess Hall use this question style on their Stories to preview upcoming catering options and tease new menu items for events.
28. Get followers to choose your next event venue
Want to get your followers involved in the planning process? Create a poll asking your community to choose your next event venue.
This can offer great inspiration if you’re planning an event series in multiple cities or different parts of town. Just make sure you’re giving multiple-choice options that are achievable so you can actually deliver on the poll winners.
Pro tips to boost your Instagram Stories
If you’ve got some really good Instagram Story ideas but are looking for ways to make the process faster or generate better engagement, we’ve got you covered.
Here are five pro tips that are sure to save you time, effort, and energy:
29. Save time with Story templates
If you’re spinning a lot of plates planning upcoming events, try using templates to build your Instagram Stories.
Use an app like Adobe Express or Canva to customize pre-built Instagram ad templates, saving you time and energy when coming up with cool-looking content ideas.
Want to know how to create IG Stories on Canva and post them seamlessly using Eventbrite’s range of marketing tools? Here’s how:
30. Use audience insights to steer your content
Effective event marketing is built around data. That’s why numbers should drive your future content initiatives to spell out which types of content your followers prefer.
This ensures you’re only producing things people want to see.
Using Eventbrite? Check in on all your social media marketing efforts in real time on your dashboard to ensure you’re always posting the right content to the right people.
31. Make sure you tag your vendors and entertainers
This is a super quick win. If you’re posting stories about your event’s lineup or catering options, you should always tag their Instagram accounts.
This is an excellent option if you want to promote your business collaborators and expand your social reach to a wider audience who are likely to be interested in your events.
If you need inspiration, Bob’s Dance Shop is great at this.
By tagging event spaces and participating organizations in their Stories, the Bob’s Dance Shop team can maximize engagement and promote causes important to their community.
32. Think mobile-first
When it comes to Instagram, build your key design elements around mobile. Only 2% of Instagram users regularly use a desktop when looking at Instagram — which means you should favor mobile-friendly, vertical content.
You should also pair text with a focal point to make your messaging simple and easy to digest for users on the move.
33. Schedule your Stories to maximize engagement
Scheduling Stories is an intelligent option for boosting engagement if you like to create your content in the morning — but you know your target audience won’t start flipping through Stories until late at night.
Scheduling also makes it easy to reuse content from one shoot multiple times by spreading out your Stories.
You can’t schedule Stories in the Instagram app, but social media management platforms like Hootsuite and Buffer let you schedule Stories in advance. If you’re creating a paid Stories campaign, you can even use Eventbrite to control who and when you target Instagram users with your amazing content.
Go beyond the buzz
Without a doubt, Stories are Instagram’s “darling,” which means they’re only going to get more traction as a business tool in the coming years.
As an event organizer, there are so many options you can deploy to engage your followers, sell more tickets, and boost your profile using IG Stories.
Try out some (or all) of the Story ideas we’ve shared, and if you need a hand organizing your event or promoting it on platforms like Instagram or Facebook, Eventbrite is here to help.
By partnering with Eventbrite, you can create shareable event pages and discount codes, VIP packages, create and manage your Story ads on our easy-to-use platform, and everything in between.
