Instagram’s “Add Yours” sticker template enables users to pin elements of an Instagram Story before publishing, allowing other users to share their own versions of it, including text, emojis, videos, or photos.
This sticker has become very popular on Stories feeds, with users sharing their favourite movies, personal traits and causes they support.
When working managing social media for a music event earlier this year, I started ruminating the idea of using this sticker, both for us and for active social media users (artists, delegates and regular festival-goers) that were going to use Instagram Stories to share their experience at the event.
The result was a success and the feedback was extremely positive.
To my surprise, this is not something widely adopted by social media teams in other events, so I’m sharing some insights from my own experience that could be useful to others who consider doing this:
Why the ‘Add Yours’ sticker?
The idea behind this initiative was creating a virtual shared experience for everyone attending the event, something they could use to highlight their posts and see what other users posted at the same event.
While hashtags have served a similar purpose, recent updates prioritizing algorithmic personalized results over chronological feeds have rendered them less effective.
The ‘Add Yours’ sticker provides a common experience, showing Instagram Stories from users who’ve used the template the past 24 hours.
This Stories-specific feature has the potential to generate substantial engagement for event coverage, especially when focusing on Instagram Stories as a primary social media channel.
How to create the ‘Add Yours’ sticker?
Similar to using different hashtags for each day of a multi-day event, I initially considered using different templates for each day of the event.
However, it became apparent very quickly that this approach was impractical, as users can pick up the template from other users at any time, extending its lifespan beyond 24 hours. Thus, I recommend using a single ‘Add Yours’ sticker template for the entire event.
Keep it simple to ensure user participation.
Users must feel invited to insert their input on the event, through photo, videos and text. A basic design, with the main event’s logo and an engaging call-to-action, goes a long way.
You can use design tools like Photoshop or Canva to create a transparent (.PNG) design in the size of an Instagram Story (1080 x 1920 pixels) or use in-app Instagram features for text, GIFs and other elements, before selecting the ‘Add Yours’ sticker, highlighting what elements should be part of the template, hit publish and kick it off!
Get users in the ‘Add Yours’ wagon
The early hours after publishing are key for the ‘Add Yours’ sticker to start getting traction. After my experience, I recommend identifying as early adopters a series of active users on Instagram who attend the event.
During the event or (ideally) before, slide in their DMs to present the template, forward the original publication when posted, and invite these key users to use the template to share their highlights of the event moving forward. They will be key for the ‘Add Yours’ sticker to go off in full steam.
Continue using the ‘Add Yours’ sticker in the Stories of your main account for the entire event, engage and like the posts from other accounts, re-share them when you get mentioned and, after the event, create a Stories highlight on the Instagram profile to keep them available after 24 hours.
SAVE AND REPURPOSE CONTENT
When you capture highlights of an event to share with the ‘Add Yours’ sticker, photos or videos, my recommendation is to not use the in-app camera on Instagram directly. Capture the content with the camera in your phone, save it without text or any additional effect, and then add it to Stories with the sticker before publishing.
Why? The piece of content without the sticker, text or effects can be repurposed in other platforms. Think, for example, creating a video with highlights from the event on TikTok.
‘Add Yours’ sticker on Facebook
If your Instagram account is synchronized with a Facebook page, your Stories posts gain extra reach by being re-shared as Facebook Stories.
While this wasn’t an option when I used the ‘Add Yours’ sticker for an event in May 2024, I discovered a month later that the ‘Add Yours’ sticker now also gets automatically re-shared from Instagram to Facebook.
It generates the same page where users can create their posts from your template, with a slightly different format for the ‘Add Yours’ button. Although Facebook Stories might seem like the less popular sister of Instagram Stories, they gain significant traction, particularly among certain (older) demographics. So, keep an eye on their performance on Facebook, as well.
No analytics for the ‘Add Yours’ sticker
Another downside to consider when using the ‘Add Yours’ sticker on Instagram is the lack of performance metrics.
You can always find performance metrics from the Stories you posted, on Instagram Analytics or in the always confusing Meta Business Suite, but there is no way to monitor performance metrics for all the Stories that you and other users posted using your ‘Add Yours’ sticker. These are private metrics restricted to the users that posted them.
While the ‘Add Yours’ sticker remains active on Stories, a number next to it accounts for how many users have posted using it. Screenshots can help you keep track of its success but, other than that, you will only have access to the performance metrics for what you posted.
Conclusion
Using Instagram’s “Add Yours” sticker created a successful virtual shared experience that fostered significant user engagement and a sense of community and participation.
The potential for high engagement and community building makes the “Add Yours” sticker a valuable tool for event coverage.
I hope the insights shared in this blog post encourage others to adopt this method for enhancing their event coverage on Instagram Stories, taking advantage of this interactive feature to create memorable and engaging experiences for their social media audience.
Did you use the ‘Add Yours’ sticker for the social media coverage of an event? How was your experience? Do you have any feedback?
Feel free to leave it in the comments or contact me directly.
Photo: Flow Festival 2015 in Helsinki, Finland.
Oriol Salvador 