Your Instagram Story views are flatlining. Engagement’s on life support. Sales are nowhere in sight. Time for an emergency intervention for this “code blue”.
Instagram growth expert Brock Johnson was doing everything right — posting consistently, engaging with his audience, and sharing valuable content. But there was a problem.
His Story views were in critical condition. The usual treatments (posting non-stop, engaging 24/7) weren’t working. 😱
So, Brock ditched his old IG methods and developed a new one.
The Challenge
Brock had been following the tried-and-tested Instagram Story strategy:
- Posting multiple times a day
- Always having an “active” Story
- Using engagement stickers
- Talking straight to the camera
“I had all these hundreds of thousands of followers, but 0.2% of my followers were watching my Stories,” Brock explains. “I was following the strategy that worked on Instagram for so many years: never letting your Stories expire, having a constant Story.”
So, it was clear that the approach used to work. But not anymore.
The Goal
About a year ago, Brock posted an Instagram Story about his Halloween decorations scaring the life out of him. A simple text post. No fancy visuals. No talking head. Just a quick, relatable moment.
Boom! It became his most-viewed Story of all time.
That got him thinking: Why did this work? What made this one Story go bananas while others flopped?
Brock needed a diagnosis.
So, he broke down the engagement patterns, and developed a repeatable system that could 10X Story views each time he posted.
How it Works
Brock created the Clean Slate Strategy — a four-step method that flips the old approach on its head and delivers more story views than ever.
Step 1: Let your Stories expire
First, Brock put his Stories on bed rest. No updates. No engagement stickers.
Just a full detox to reset the algorithm.
He let every existing Story expire. Then, he waited.
Step 2: Go dark for 24 hours
For a full day, he posted zero stories.
Brock discovered that Instagram’s algorithm used to prioritize recency — new Stories would bump you to the front. Now, it rewards engagement per story.
“Now what the algorithm cares about most is how much engagement you are getting, divided by how many stories have you posted,” Brock explains. “Posting more Stories is making the [engagement] number lower. If you’re posting 10 stories, then Instagram divides your engagements by 10.”
More Stories = lower average engagement. Fewer Stories = better engagement.
It’s simple math, really. 💁♂️
Step 3: Post one single-text post Story with DM automation (an STD)
Time for the breakthrough treatment: the STD. No, not that kind…this one’s Instagram-approved.
“STD stands for a single text post story with DM automation,” Brock explains. “So single is the S, T is single, text post story, and the D is DM automation.”
And this is the shot of engagement your IG needs to feel alive again.
After going dark, Brock posted an “STD” that had all of the following:
- A strong hook: The first sentence grabs attention.
- Example: “Had quite the scare over the last 48 hours.”
- Example: “Reels views are down by over 76%.”
- Multiple sentences of text: Not just one or two sentences. The post should have at least 5-8 sentences to keep people reading.
- Example: His most-viewed story had the most text he’s ever posted.
- A clear call to action (CTA) with a keyword: Tell folks exactly what to do and what they’ll get in return.
- Example: “Reply now with the phrase ‘55 stories’ and I’ll send it to you.”
- Example: “Reply ‘LIVE’ and I’ll send you the ticket.”
- Instagram DM automation: The CTA must trigger an automated response via Manychat to deliver the promised resource, link, or freebie.
Folks could instantly reply with a keyword and get an automatic response — whether that was a freebie, a link, or a special offer.
Psst: You can use our free ”Give coupons in stories” template to kick-start the DM part!
Step 4: Post nothing else
Once that high-impact story was live, Brock left it alone.
No follow-ups. No extra stories.
Just one post sitting at the front of his audience’s story queue, racking up engagement and views.
The Results
One dose of the Clean Slate Strategy and his views made a full recovery.
In fact, Brock’s Story views 10X’d overnight:
- 207% increase in views
- 2,218% increase in engagement
- 8,000% increase in clicks
“As silly as those numbers sound, those are real,” Brock adds. “The average person gets 150 views on their stories. They get nine people engaging with their stories, and they get about 1.5 clicks per story.
“But when we use this strategy, now we can multiply those numbers by that increase, suddenly the views go from 150 to 310. That is more sales, more leads, and more customers.”
Why this works (and why you need it, too)
The old way: Chronic overposting. An engagement rate so low it should come with a medical warning.
The new way: The cure is one simple, high-impact STD (single text Story post with DM Automation). Take as needed for rapid Instagram growth. 😉
Swipe This Strategy
Ready for a full recovery to 10X your Story views? Doctor (Brock)’s orders are as follows:
- Let your stories expire
- Wait 24 hours before posting again
- Drop an STD: a single, text-only story with a DM automation
- Don’t post anything else for 24 hours
No more Story burnout. Just a proven formula that works — stat.
| Step 1: Sign up for Manychat (oh, did we mention it’s free?!) Join 1 million+ smart brands and sign up for a risk-free trial. No lock-in contracts here. | Step 2: Build your first automation (with a lil help)Choose from one of our ready-to-go templates and get it up and running faster than ever before. | Step 3: Secure the bag! 💅No, really. Get more sales from Instagram every time you post. |
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