How to add a link to a story on Instagram or attach it to a post from a story

Instagram is a social network that allows users to communicate and share photos and videos. The app offers a variety of filters, stickers, and editing tools to turn dull and unappealing photos into masterpieces. One of its interesting features is the ability to publish short stories, which is a convenient and colorful way to exchange information, promote products, and advertise. With this feature, users can invite others to visit external resources and websites. In this article, we will explain how to add a link to your Instagram story.

Who has access to posting links in stories?

Stories are short video clips and informational posts that last for 15 seconds. This short time frame is enough to grab the attention of viewers and followers. Stories are particularly attractive to advertisers, business account owners engaged in commercial activities, and bloggers interested in developing their channel or product. After all, external links can be inserted into informative blocks. This means that a curious user will follow the specified URL to get a detailed understanding of the product or service.

To begin with, links should be divided into several categories. This determines the availability of this feature:

Using links to external resources outside of the social network. This feature is only available to business profiles that post advertising blocks or promote a specific product, as well as to users with more than 10,000 readers and viewers. The latter group includes bloggers or internet companies interested in promoting their creativity.
All other registered users have the full right to post only internal links, for example, to publish a link to their or someone else’s page on Instagram, to a specific publication, or video from the IGTV channel in their story. Various colorful stickers embedded in the social network editor are used for such purposes.

External links in Instagram stories can only be inserted by business accounts to promote their product or service, as well as pages with more than 10,000 followers. All other users do not have access to this feature.

Ways to use links in stories

As mentioned earlier, transitions can be internal and external, with the latter being available only to a certain number of people. Let’s consider why you might need to use this function:

Commercial activities and advertising.
Promoting your product or service, actively increasing demand, inviting to an external website, YouTube channel, or personal blog.
Promoting your account on the social network Instagram. If your post interests other users, they will follow an internal link to your page specified in the story.
Leave a mention or tag other users in photos or videos in stories.

The function works as follows. A user who sees your publication with a link clicks on it and swipes up. A swipe is a finger movement on the touch screen of a mobile phone. After that, they will automatically be redirected to the specified external resource.

How to add a link to your Instagram story

The Instagram interface is very simple, and you will have no trouble understanding the settings and features of publishing. The process of attaching, inviting, making a transition or swipe is done in a few steps. Let’s look at ways to add transitions to stories on third-party resources or within the social network – for business accounts and advertisers, owners of a popular page, as well as for regular users.

When there are more than 10,000 subscribers

If you own a popular and well-promoted Instagram page with more than 10,000 subscribers, you have the full right to place external links in stories for free. Let’s consider the procedure for adding and attaching a link in an Instagram story to another site, a YouTube channel, or a personal blog:

Go to the main page of the social network by logging in to your account.
Find the button to add a new story, which is located on the top panel in the form of your avatar with a plus icon, or swipe right.
Use the built-in camera of your mobile device to take a video or photo, or upload a ready-made one from your smartphone’s memory.
Start editing the publication. If necessary, insert stickers, write text, apply filters.
In the editing mode’s top panel, find the icon in the form of a link and click on it.
After that, a insertion window will appear on the display. Select the link attachment section.
In the appearing field, insert the copied address to the desired resource – any site, page on a social network, product, and much more.

Done. Now use your imagination and, with the help of text or a sticker, depict a call to action. Make the user swipe up.

Advertisement in stories

You can advertise your product or services on Instagram using stories, but you need to have a business account and link it to your Facebook page. The large user flow promotes the quick promotion of your offer, especially if the post is made as colorful and bright as possible. To create an advertising link in an Instagram story, you will need to:

Go to your Facebook account and open the ad creation section.
Select the ad creation item. Then fill out the service questionnaire.
Specify from the list the advertising goal and the overall promotion campaign.
Set personal profile settings – time zone, currency.
Determine the audience – age or gender restrictions, interests and tastes.
Specify that the ad will be presented in the Instagram feed or story.
Select the required budget, which determines the number of views.
Design the story itself, attach a photo or video with a call to action. Set a link to the desired resource.
Post the publication.

Note. Placing advertising banners requires certain financial costs.

Link to post

If you don’t have an army of followers or a business account, you can still place internal links in a social network. Let’s see how to mention a specific post of another subscriber or community in your story:

For example, you liked a certain post of your friend or another user. Open it.
Under the publication, find the button in the form of an airplane and click on it.
A repost window will appear on the screen. Here you can choose who to share the post with or send it to your stories, which is what we need.
After that, a publication editing window will open, decorate it to your taste, if necessary, add text or other graphic elements.
Launch the recording in the stories.

The algorithm is the same for Android and IOS.

Link to another story

In this case, the principle of action is completely analogous to the previous item of the article:

Select the desired story.
Below the publication, click the button in the form of a paper airplane.
Indicate that the link will be inserted into your story.
If necessary, decorate the post and publish it confidently.

Profile link

In your story, you can mark or mention another page, profile, or yourself. To do this:

Log in to Instagram under your account.
Swipe right to access the post editor.
Take a photo or short video with your camera or upload it from your phone’s internal memory.
Select the desired filter and decorate the post as you wish.
Then go to the sticker panel, the button is displayed as a square smiley and is located on the top panel of the workspace.
On the next page, you will see all available stickers and emojis. At the very beginning, you will find the mention, select it.
The sticker will appear in the post, and all that’s left is to add the user’s username. When the viewer clicks on the sticker, they will automatically be taken to the specified person’s page.

Link to IGTV

The principle of operation is practically no different from previous instructions. You will need to select the desired channel in IGTV and publication. Under the recording, click on the airplane and place the link in your story. Make all the necessary graphic changes and launch the publication.

How do stories with a link appear to subscribers?

What another user will see in the story. The final result depends on your imagination. The story can display both the link itself and a call to action – swipe up. Otherwise, it is a regular publication of a video or photo.

How to make a link attractive

To ensure that users follow your link and bring you profit, it is necessary for the publication itself to attract attention. The more colorful and vibrant the call to action looks, the closer you are to success. There are many special tools available for designing stories. You can use ready-made stickers in the Instagram editor by entering ‘Swipe’ in the search bar, which will immediately provide all available images and design solutions in this direction. You can also use the simple and free service Canva, which allows you to create colorful and high-quality publication layouts.

Possible issues

The procedure for placing a link is very simple, with the exception of advertising blocks and commercial activity, as this requires financial investment. If the attachment icon in the form of a paperclip or chain link is missing when adding a link to external resources in the editor, it means that you do not have access to this function due to an insufficient number of subscribers. If you encounter this problem, it is recommended to contact professionals in the technical support service of the social network in the account settings tab.

In this article, we have discussed the available ways to add a link to Instagram stories. It is important to note that this feature is only available to a certain number of users, while internal links can be added by anyone.