How to Do an Instagram Story Takeover

Handing over your Instagram password can be a nerve-wracking thought, but an Instagram Story takeover is one of the most powerful ways to bring fresh energy and a new audience to your brand. When done right, it's a brilliant collaboration that builds trust, drives engagement, and creates fantastic A-list content. This guide will walk you through exactly how to plan, execute, and measure a successful Instagram Story takeover, from finding the right partner to turning the content into a long-term asset.

What is an Instagram Story Takeover?

An Instagram Story takeover is when you temporarily grant another person access to post on your brand’s Instagram Stories for a set period, usually a day. This person - an influencer, an employee, a customer, or a partner brand - shares their unique perspective with your audience, creating content in their own style while representing your brand. It’s like having a guest host for your account, injecting new energy and personality directly into your feed.

The Benefits of a Successful Takeover

You might be wondering if it's worth the effort and the trust fall of handing over access. The answer is a resounding yes. A well-executed takeover can deliver some significant wins for your brand:

• Expand Your Reach: The number one benefit is cross-promotion. Your host promotes the takeover to their audience, guiding their followers over to your profile. This is organic audience growth at its best.
• Build Authenticity and Trust: Content coming from a real person, unscripted and in-the-moment, feels far more authentic than polished brand marketing. It shows there are real people and fans behind your company, which builds instant credibility.
• Fresh and Engaging Content: Let's be honest, content creation can be a grind. A takeover gives your content team a bit of a break while bringing a fresh perspective that you couldn’t create on your own.
• Highlights Company Culture or Product Usage: An employee can show a "day in the life," giving a behind-the-scenes look at your company culture. A customer or influencer can showcase how they use your product in their daily life, providing powerful social proof.

Step 1: Define Your Goals and Find the Right Host

A great takeover doesn't happen by accident, it starts with a clear plan. Before you even think about who to partner with, you have to know what you want to achieve.

Set Clear Goals

Your goal will shape every decision you make, from who you choose as a host to the content they create. Are you trying to:

• Increase brand awareness? Your main KPI will be reach and impressions.
• Grow your follower count? You'll focus on getting the host to promote the takeover heavily and measure new followers.
• Promote a specific product or service? Success will be measured by link clicks, promo code usage, or direct purchase inquiries.
• Boost engagement? You’ll look at metrics like story replies, poll responses, and quiz participation.

Define one primary goal and maybe one or two secondary ones. Don't try to do everything at once, or your message will get diluted.

Who Should Host Your Takeover?

Choosing the right host is the most important decision you'll make. The person you pick becomes the temporary face of your brand. Here are the most common types of hosts:

Influencers

This is the most popular option. Micro-influencers (10k-100k followers) are often the sweet spot, as they tend to have highly engaged, niche audiences and more affordable rates than macro-influencers. They’re excellent for reaching new potential customers in your target demographic.

Employees

An employee takeover is fantastic for humanizing your brand and showcasing company culture. Have a developer show what they’re working on, let a customer support specialist answer common questions, or follow a sales rep on a client visit. It builds trust and can even serve as a powerful recruitment tool.

Industry Experts or Partners

Partnering with a respected expert in your field positions your brand as a valuable resource. For example, a financial tech company could have a financial advisor take over their account to run a Q&A about saving for retirement. It provides immense value to your audience without a hard sell.

Customers or Brand Advocates

What's more powerful than a real customer showing how much they love your product? This is an incredibly authentic form of social proof. You could give a loyal customer exclusive early access to a new feature or product and have them document their experience.

When vetting a potential host, look beyond their follower count. Analyze their engagement rates, the quality of their content, their tone of voice, and most importantly, check to see if their audience demographics align with your own target customer.

Step 2: Create a Clear Brief and Guidelines

Once you’ve found your perfect host, you need to set them up for success. While takeovers are meant to feel spontaneous and authentic, a little structure behind the scenes is what makes them run smoothly. Simply handing over the password with a "good luck!" is a recipe for disaster. This is where a takeover brief comes in.

The Takeover Brief: What to Include

Think of this as your playbook. It should be detailed enough to provide clear direction but flexible enough to allow for creativity. Here’s what it should cover:

• Goals & KPIs: Remind the host of the primary objective. "Our goal for this takeover is to get 100 new sign-ups for our free trial."
• Timeline & Logistics: State the exact start and end time (including time zones!). How many stories are they expected to post? A good range is typically 10-15 story slides throughout the day.
• Content Pillars: Provide a rough outline for the day. For example:
  • Morning: Introduction & what the day will look like.
  • Midday: A tutorial or 'how-to' segment.
  • Afternoon: An interactive Q&A session.
  • End of Day: A wrap-up and final call-to-action.
• Calls-to-Action (CTAs): Be specific. Do you want them to direct people to a "link in bio" or use a specific swipe-up link? Will you be providing a special discount code for them to share?
• Brand Do's & Don'ts: This is your safety net. Clearly list any topics, language, or controversial subjects to avoid. Remind them of your brand’s general voice and values without being overly restrictive.
• Required Handles & Hashtags: Provide a short list of any other accounts to tag (@partnerbrand) or any campaign-specific hashtags to use (#YourBrandTakeover).

Managing Access: How to Hand Over the Keys

You have two main options here, each with its own pros and cons:

1. Host Sends Content to You: In this model, the host pre-records all videos and creates all graphics, then sends them to your team to upload. Pros: 100% brand safety. You have final approval over everything that goes live. Cons: Loses all spontaneity and the ability for real-time engagement (like answering DMs or responding to poll results). It feels less like a "takeover" and more like a prerecorded ad.
2. Granting Direct Login Access: This is the scarier but more effective option. You give the host temporary credentials to your Instagram account. Pros: Truly authentic content. The host can engage with your audience in real-time, use interactive stickers and respond to DMs, making it feel personal and live. Cons: Requires a high level of trust.

If you choose to grant direct access, always practice good security hygiene. Change your password to something temporary just for the takeover, and change it back immediately after it's over.

Step 3: Promote, Engage, and Monitor

With all the planning done, it's time for the big day. But your job doesn't stop once the host takes the reins.

Build Hype Beforehand

Don’t let the takeover be a surprise. Promote it for 2-3 days leading up to the event. Create a feed post or story announcing the takeover and introduce your host. A graphic that features a picture of your guest host and the date of the takeover is a great idea. Just as importantly, make sure your host is promoting it to their audience as well. The goal is to get both audiences excited and tuned in on the right day.

Go Live and Engage

The takeover should always start with an introductory story where the host says hello, introduces themselves, and briefly outlines what they’ll be sharing. This orients your followers and lets them know why a new face is on their screen.

Throughout the day, the magic is in the interaction. The host should lean heavily on Instagram's native tools:

• Polls & Quizzes: Easy, low-friction ways for the audience to participate.
• Q&A Sticker: An amazing way to get tons of relevant answers from your host without them having to think of more content ideas.
• Slider Stickers: A fun way to gauge sentiment or interest.

As the brand, your team should be on standby. Monitor the stories as they go up, respond to any comments that come in on your announcement post, and be available to help the host troubleshoot any issues.

Step 4: Analyze Your Results and Maximize Your Content

Once the host signs off, your work is almost done. Now it's time to measure the impact and make sure this excellent content lives on.

How to Measure Success

Go back to the goals you set in Step 1 and pull the corresponding metrics from your Instagram Insights. Pay close attention to:

• Follower Growth during the 24-hour takeover period.
• Story Views, Reach, and Impressions for each takeover slide.
• Story Engagement: Taps on stickers, story replies and exits.
• Profile visits and website clicks from your bio.

Compare these numbers to your typical Story performance to see the true impact. A simple screenshot of your Insights before and after the takeover is a quick way to capture a data summary.

Don't Let Good Content Disappear

Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours, but your takeover content shouldn’t. Immediately save the entire takeover to an Instagram Story Highlight on your profile. Create a dedicated Highlight (e.g., "Guest Hosts") so you can add future takeovers there. This creates an evergreen content library that new followers or customers can discover weeks or months later.

You can also repurpose the top-performing content. Did the host share a fantastic tip? Turn that video clip into a Reel. Was the Q&A full of golden nuggets? Transcribe the answers and create a blog post or carousel post about them.

Final Thoughts

An Instagram Story takeover, when thoughtfully planned and executed, is far more than just a fleeting 24-hour event. It's a strategic partnership that builds genuine community, introduces your brand to fresh audiences, and generates authentic content that can serve you for months to come.

Planning and analyzing a takeover requires a clear view of your content calendar and performance. That's why we built Postbase with a visual calendar to help you see where takeovers and other campaigns fit into your larger strategy, along with simple analytics to help you track what’s working. You can easily spot gaps in your schedule for collaborations and see the impact on your growth, all from one clean dashboard.