Engagement potential is boundless with Instagram Stories. From playing bingo, answering the audience’s questions, to playing around with AR filters, Instagram Stories is packed with exciting features that go beyond aesthetically pleasing graphics and inspirational quotes. In a previous article, we listed some creative ideas to spice up your Instagram Stories and keep your followers engaged. In this article, we focus on Instagram Story Games. Games aren’t just great for grabbing people’s attention and boosting engagement— your followers can also spread the word by tagging their friends to join in on the fun. Check out these 16 Instagram Story Game ideas to play with your followers and increase your reach.
16 Instagram Story Game Ideas to Level Up Your Engagement:
16 Interactive Instagram Story Game Ideas
1. Make Ridiculous Choices with “Would You Rather”
Arguably the most popular Instagram Story game is Would You Rather, which can present hilarious and challenging choices. Would You Rather presents a list of questions either randomly, or based on a category such as ‘travel edition’ or ‘home décor’. Each question allows players to choose between two choices, and they encircle or mark their preferred choice with an emoji or animated IG Story sticker. Would You Rather is a fun pastime, and is fairly quick to go potentially viral. With a subtle call-to-action, your followers can tag their friends and/or family to participate. Jess Conte (@jess) shares her Instagram Story Game templates for businesses, influencers, and creators on the platform to use. Below is her sample template for a game of Would You Rather.
2. Get To Know What People Prefer with “This or That”
Similar to Would You Rather, This or That engages players to pick between options. The game is lighthearted and gives a glimpse of your audience’s preferences. Encourage your followers to share their answers on their Instagram Stories and tag their friends. Remember that a watermark is essential to keep your brand visible as your template gets reposted. Bali-based Canva design expert Fallon (@fallon.travels) shares various templates on her Instagram Stories and Story Highlights. Below, she shares a minimalist template for a game of This and That. It is simple and intuitive enough to encourage her followers and other Instagram users to participate in the game, or utilize the template.
3. Play Around with Trendy Instagram AR Filters
If you think you aren’t creative enough to come up with your own IG Story game templates, Instagram has your back. Instagram creators share a plethora of hilarious AR Filters on the app that can get your followers chuckling. AR filters are diverse, with some outright turning you into a cartoon character. Give these funky filters a spin by making up prompts or scenarios that are likely to occur to the revealed character.
4. Do a Blackout with Bingo
Bingo isn’t just a leisurely way to kill time for your grandparents. By blocking out boxes that describe your experiences and/or current state, Bingo is a classic game that gets people hooked. To make your Bingo template, all you have to do is select a topic (holiday, merchandise collections, etc.), come up with fitting scenarios, and write them down on a 5x5 Bingo template. We enjoy seeing the different characteristics and personalities of people, and Bingo is perfect for getting to know more of your followers’ shared experiences. Keiko Lynn (@keikolynn) created a simple, relatable Bingo card using activities that anyone might have tried during quarantine. This also gives the added bonus of making her followers feel accomplished about themselves if they’re able to mark off several items.
5. GIF Challenges to Make Everybody’s Day
Test the limits of your followers’ GIF keyword knowledge with a hilarious GIF challenge! GIF challenges are eye-catching and open for anyone to join in and send wacky GIF responses. Get more IG users to participate by sharing your followers’ entries. GIF challenges can have a specific theme or nothing at all. With or without context, GIFs are entertaining either way. A template similar to @glammtemplates’ work convinces your followers to express their reactions in various situations through the most random or iconic GIFs. Just note it’s important to keep your challenge template easy for everyone to understand.
6. Pull Up the Emoji Keyboard with the Emoji Challenge
This Instagram Story game helps your followers gauge their mood and emotions for the day while at the same time engaging with your community. The Emoji Challenge does not require followers to type in their thoughts, relying instead on the shared meanings of the different emojis. To start your brand’s Emoji Challenge, set up a custom template asking various questions, such as the 3 most used emojis, the mood for the day, etc. You can add questions specific to your branding, such as your followers’ reactions to your latest product launch. It is similar to a GIF challenge template, just with emojis.
7. Inform your Audience with a Round of “True or False”
The True or False game never gets old, and it translates well too over Instagram Stories. Test your followers’ general knowledge of products and services within your niche. In the next Story post, explain why the fact is either true or false. This is an excellent opportunity to inform your audience and promote your special offers. Meal-kit company Hello Fresh (@hellofresh) keeps their followers engaged with a series of true or false questions, such as the example below. They test the audience’s general knowledge on the various food items.
8. Set Up Product Polls to Determine the Crowd’s Favorite
Polls are versatile, and Instagram Stories lets businesses and creators hype up new launches for their followers through quick surveys. Compare two products and list down their highlighted features. Add the Poll sticker, customize and leave it up for the customers to choose which product or service suits their needs. Consider adding Instagram Swipe Ups to lead followers right to your product pages. Product swipe-ups generate website traffic and improve your brand’s visibility. When fashion brand Forever 21 (@forever21) drops a new line of ladies’ wear, they gauge their followers’ preferences for their latest release by incorporating a poll for followers to vote for their preferred item. Although the two items are both pullovers with identical designs, it is evident that availability of colors and the buyers’ color preference can affect sales.
9. Test Your Word Power with Crossword Puzzles
Feel like testing your followers’ brainpower? Pull up a crossword puzzle template! Throw in some fun to the challenge by telling your followers the first word they can find defines their career or relationship status. Don’t forget to add a watermark so other IG users know where and how to find you! @Storytemps not only makes a template that lets their followers figure out their spirit animal, but also adds a space where they can tag their friends.
10. Quiz Your Followers with Pop Quizzes
A pop quiz is an equally entertaining and informative strategy to introduce your brand and encourage engagement. Set up a pop quiz to test your followers’ knowledge of your brand and the products or services you offer. To set up a pop quiz, add the Quiz sticker from Instagram Stories’ sticker tray. Ask a question, and fill in the choices for the audience to choose from. Remember to select the right answer before publishing! Business experts over at Digital Marketer (@digitalmarketer) test their followers’ knowledge on digital marketing with pop quizzes. In the example below, they quiz the audience on the percentage of people using Instagram to search for new products. The answer: 81% of the 1 billion users of Instagram search the platform for products.
11. Slide To the Left or Right with Emoji Sliders
When words are not enough to express the level of emotion you are experiencing, emoji sliders can do it for you. Let your followers be the judge for a piece of content’s relevance to their needs, wants, and aesthetic appeal. Emoji sliders are highly customizable. Try to match the emoji to the content’s theme, e.g., using the burger emoji to rate product designs for a burger bistro. In the Stories of coffee chain giant Starbucks, they cleverly use a green-colored heart emoji slider for followers to rate the importance of coffee in their lives. Starbucks warms up their audience with an emoji slider as they delve deeper into the brand’s advocacy for sustainable consumption of coffee.
12. Nurture Friendship and Community with Slam Book Pages
Slam Book pages are an amazing technique to encourage participation and build engagement within the audience. Similar to a regular slam book, Instagram Story slam book pages have empty fields for participating followers to enter their information, interests, and hobbies. Personalize the slam book page according to your brand for brand awareness. Add questions related to your brand, such as their favorite product, or how they heard about you. These can pique the interest of your followers’ friends. @Noataieb makes a simple slam book page that encourages his followers to share their favorite things, but adds a simple twist by noting the choices should be from their childhood.
13. Keep Your Followers Guessing with Guessing Games
If you think you’ve gathered enough information on your audience, it’s time to turn the spotlight on you. Allow your followers to take a guess on just about anything using the quiz or question sticker, and ask what type of music you are currently listening to, or have them guess how far you have jogged this morning. Guessing games are great to keep the audience engaged with the person or people behind a brand. After revealing the correct answer, share a thing or two more about how you found your new favorite artist or some advice on staying fit.
14. Ask, and your Followers Shall Receive with Ask Me a Question
If you are familiar with Reddit’s #AskMeAnything, the question sticker or Ask Me A Question is no different. Followers ask you anything under the sun, and you choose which answers to share onto your Instagram Stories. Ask Me A Question is a wonderful opportunity for followers to have an insider’s view of your work’s behind-the-scenes process, or simply get to know more about you (and the rest of the team, if ever). Select the Questions sticker to add the question box to your IG story. This is where your followers can input their inquiries. Nothing beats asking professionals for expert advice, especially when it comes to skincare. Cosmetic brand Dr. Jart (@drjart) showcases their expertise on skincare by answering the audience’s questions and concerns. The brand also gives advice aside from introducing different products and their purposes.
15. Focus on Your Audience with “Fill in the Blanks”
Think you’re running out of game ideas? Don’t fret! Even just filling in the blanks gets your audience engaged and raises brand awareness. Think of unique lists or opening statements related to your brand. Encourage your followers to share their answers to Instagram Stories. This game helps involve your followers in the growth of your brand as you incorporate their sentiments into your product quality and marketing strategy. That, and is a relatively easy way to repost across the platform and increase your reach! Mobile wallet company Paymaya (@paymayaofficial) presents a fun and thought-invoking template for their followers to fill in. While not directly related to their services, their template remains relevant as followers revisit their days back in 2020, and their vision and goals for 2021.
16. Color without Going Over the Lines with Coloring Pages
No one’s too old for coloring illustrations! Posting coloring pages on your Instagram Stories encourages your followers to indulge their creative sides. Coloring pages don’t have to be complex. You can invest in purchasing digital coloring pages, or draw your own illustrations. Followers can take a screenshot of your Story post, color the page, and repost it on their Instagram Stories. Check out the coloring page from @storiesedit (now rebranded to Planoly). This is from their Instagram Story highlight dedicated to coloring pages. They use a straightforward CTA to take a screenshot of the page and share their finished work.
Keep Your Followers Involved
Instagram Stories are fun to make with the different possibilities to keep things colorful or on-brand. However, no matter how creative your Stories are, your followers will only engage if the content is relatable to them. Combine the aforementioned Instagram Story game ideas with a purpose to inform and converse directly with your audience. Remember to mix things up here and there. Scheduling your content ahead is perfect to stay organized and distribute your content evenly over the weeks to come.
