Hey there. I subscribed to some new software that will allow me to share the Instagram Stories I’ve created here on Design Mom. (I don’t think it will allow me to share older stories — just the new stuff moving forward — but I’m not totally sure about that yet.)
Let me know what you think about this format. And I should note: Stories include a mix of still shots and video, but I know not everyone can listen to video, so I try to be careful to add captions.
For this first attempt, I’m sharing 6 panels. The first two are about our laundry room floor. We took out what we thought were some wooden cabinets in the laundry room — and it turns out they were made of concrete!
We ended up needed to pull out a whole concrete slab. Which means the floor now needs to be repaired. We considered replacing the current tile, but it is vintage and durable and I love the look. So instead of replacing, we started looking into patching it, and the we’re pretty excited about what we found. It turns out our tile supplier, Winckelmans, has a very similar tile! In fact, it’s possible they were the original suppliers of the tile in this house. (Wouldn’t that be wild?)
The last four panels of the Story I’m embedding, discuss how we’re handling some of the plumbing in the parent’s bathroom. The copper pipes are pretty, and I don’t mind having them exposed, but the grey plastic evacuation pipe isn’t quite so handsome. So our mason is planning to box the pipes in, and then tile over the box.
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This is my first attempt at sharing my Instagram Stories within a blog post, and I’m hoping this works well, because these days I do a ton of content creation on Instagram Stories and I want to share it with blog readers too.
I feel confident I’ll get better at this as I learn the new software and explore my options. Thanks for your patience as I try something new.
The app works fine. It’s a bit small to read the captions though once it’s reduced into the blog boundaries. Not sure if you can set the stories to be bigger, or pop out, or maybe you might caption it larger in your IG stories.
Good ideas. I’ll go see if I can adjust the size, or if there’s a pop-out option.
Hi again, Tracey. I found a setting for size. It was set to Medium, and I switched it to Large (which is the biggest option). Hopefully this helps.
I had the same experience as Tracey on my phone — the captions are quite a bit smaller than they’d be on instagram and unlike in Instagram I can’t two finger zoom. I’m not sure if it’s already set to large. Being able to see the stories here is cool! Is there a way to click through to the exact story in Instagram for people who want to see in that format?
Thanks for the feedback, Christina. I think this is as large as it goes with this particular software, and thanks for the smart idea to include the link to my instagram if people would rather watch it there. As for the two finger zoom, that’s not available on Stories (only on posts), but I wish it was!
You can always screenshot and zoom stories if you absolutely need to! (I do that once in a while if I just NEED to see something closer).
SOOOO COOL! Love the house updates and love the new software. Could you share which software you’re using?
It’s called EmbedSocial.
Oh! we have the same yellow tiles in the kitchen of the appartment we’re renovating, now I have hope that we can keep them and put some new ones where they look too used. That was really helpful thank you! I actually like seeing these posts on your blog because they are bigger than on instagram.
A few things:
1. The stories seem to scroll by much faster than they do on Insta. The first few times you post, you may wan to include instructions to “pause” the panel, like you can on Insta by holding your finger on the screen. [That may just have been a glitch the first time the page loaded? They seem to be going by at normal speed now.]
2. Lately, I’ve noticed, in general, that your voice on stories is a lot quieter than any music you add to stories–I don’t know if there’s a way you can even that out?
3. This post is “acting” different than most of your blog posts. It keeps auto-scrolling back up to the content (this is my third attempt to type a comment).
Yes! I noticed the same thing about the speed. I found a setting in the new software that allows me to adjust it. It was set at 2.5 seconds per slide, and I changed it to 5 seconds (it could take a few minutes to show the update). I also have a choice to set it so that it doesn’t auto-advance, and you have to click the side arrow to move it. I’ll have to gather more feedback and see what people prefer.
As for the sound, I’m sorry for the inconsistency — I imagine it’s mostly just an issue of casually filming with a phone versus using a true microphone.
Thanks for the heads up on the post acting wonky. I imagine it has something to do with the new software, but I’ll try some troubleshooting and see if I can find anything else.
I like the embedded stories. A great way to share without doubling the work.
Me too! I’m not on Instagram or Twitter.
Thank you for trying this out! I don’t have a FB or Instagram account, so this is the first story I’ve been able to watch.
I agree the photos are a little small, but that wouldn’t keep me from reading the post anyway.
I follow you on Instagram, but sometimes miss the stories, so I love the addition of Instagram stories here.
I love seeing this content here! I am also in the no social media group but love following along through the steps of your renovation. The technology is a little wonky, which may be me. The story seems to be cycling through over and over as I type this with the audio coming in for the last slide.
I have enjoyed following you on Instagram very much, but I’m getting off that platform for my own security. (If you’ve watched The Social Dilemma, you’ll understand. I got off Facebook a year or so ago and don’t miss it at all.) So the more you can post here, the better! I will be sorry to miss your stories because they have been wonderful. But I would prefer to pay for content by subscription, if you decide to offer that.
Thank you for posting on your blog! I’m not on social media and have missed seeing your updates. It works great, captions large enough, when viewed on an iPad.
Me, too. Since I switched off instagram, Gabys stories were among the few that I really miss. So, so nice to see that you will share them here occasionally. ❤️
I’m using my dell laptop and the Instagram story works perfectly in this format!