All About Instagram’s Link Sticker

Instagram Stories are a great tool to share fun polls, company news, or new products. Even better is when you link the products you want to share with your audience, so they can go directly to the product page. With the swipe-up feature, Instagram accounts had to have a minimum of 10,000 followers to have access. Recently, Instagram made a big change from swipe-up to a link sticker and open access to accounts of any size! Here is everything you need to know about the new link feature, and how you can use it on your Instagram Stories.

What Was The Swipe Up Feature?

Instagram Story’s swipe-up feature was a way for influencers and larger companies to help reach their audience and promote products directly from a Story. If you saw a product you were interested in, you could swipe up to be taken directly to the product page. Once you were done shopping, you could exit out and be taken directly back to the Story you swiped on. Swipe up was a popular feature, and very helpful for accounts with a large following.

What Is Instagram’s Link Sticker?

Recently, Instagram announced that they were doing away with the popular swipe up, and replacing it with a link sticker. Instagram stickers are not a new feature, but the link sticker is a new addition! Much like swipe up, the link sticker allows you to add an external link for your audience to click on.

How Do I Use The Link Sticker?

Using a link sticker works about the same as using any other sticker on your Instagram Story. First, open Instagram. Next, select the “Story” option from the top of your screen. If you have never created a story before, look for a square with a plus sign in the center, then select “Story” from the options shown. You will then choose what you want your Story to be: you can either take a photo or record a video, or upload content from your camera roll. Once you have that done, look for the sticker option at the top of the screen. Select that, and then choose “Link” from your options (you can also search for the link sticker!) Then, type in your URL and you are all set!

Why Should I Be Excited About Link Stickers?

One of the most exciting things about link stickers, as mentioned before, is that anyone can use them! While this probably will not make a big impact on bigger accounts, for smaller businesses this is a great new feature.

Another reason to get excited about link stickers is that they allow audience interaction. Unlike swipe up, users can react to stories with link stickers, or respond with a message. This makes it easy for customers to ask a question about a link you shared, voice a concern, or let you know how excited they are!

Link stickers are customizable, and you can add them anywhere on your story that you see fit. To customize your sticker, add it as you normally would. Next, get on your favorite design app (we love Canva!) and create a sticker. Once you have the sticker you want, export it to your phone as a PNG with a transparent background. Go back to your Instagram Story draft, and add the customized sticker to your story on top of the link sticker. That’s all there is to it!

Instagram link stickers are a great addition to your Instagram Story, as long as you use them correctly. Don’t overdo it with the links, but do use them when appropriate to help make it easy for your audience to find what you are promoting! Have you tried the new link sticker? Have you ever used the link to find a product someone else has shared?