An Instagram feature that many business ignore is Instagram Stories. Instagram stories are pictures and videos that appear in a slideshow format. What’s surprising about adding stories on Instagram is the fact that they disappear after 24 hours.
Many businesses that are involved with content marketing don’t like the idea that the content that they’ve worked hard to create is all for nothing. After all, you want your content to return an investment for a long time. But here are some reasons why you need to know about and use stories on Instagram. Did you set up your Instagram Business account yet?
6 Things That Are Possible by Using Stories on Instagram
1. Increase Your Engagement and Visibility
According to Recode, Instagram Stories is now used by 250 million users everyday. That’s a huge number considering it’s only been a year since Instagram released the content platform to users. With so many users embracing the idea of consuming stories on Instagram, you want to try to be a part of the movement and use it to get more engagement from your audience and visibility for your business.
The other part of it is the algorithm. When you post stories on Instagram, you have an additional way to make it on to the top of user feeds. At the end of the day, you need to have your content show up in user feeds if you want users to consume it. By posting stories on Instagram on a regular basis, you’ll be able to gain the extra real estate for your account and win over followers that haven’t been connecting with you.
2. Use a New Way to Market Your Products and Services
Like every other business, you’re always looking for new ways to market your products and services. Creating stories on Instagram around whatever you’re selling is the perfect way to drive sales and give your products/services the exposure they need. Imagine creating a slideshow on creative ways your product can be used or how it can solve a problem your audience may be facing.
Obviously, you don’t want to abuse Instagram stories as a platform for selling. You want to use it to engage your followers. You want to add value to their lives and eventually promote something when you feel you’ve gained their attention. Don’t worry about bombarding your followers with too much content. Instagram stories appear separately from your regular posts and because they disappear after 24 hours, you can post more often than you think.
3. Create Intricate Visual Content
One of the downsides of posting regular posts is that it’s really hard to create a narrative. By creating stories on Instagram, you can create visual content that really stands out from other types of posts. Instead of one images, you can use a series of images to create a more emotional impact. Instead of just one 60 second video, you can create a series of short videos that immerse your audience into a new type of video experience.
Stories on Instagram also stand out from regular posts in that they offer unique ways to edit your content. You can add colors, captions, filters, stickers and other special effects to make your stories stand out. Boomerangs in particular are becoming very popular in Instagram Stories. Boomerangs are a collection of photos stitched together to create a video loop and users are really into these GIF like videos.
4. It’s an Effective Way to Brand Your Business
Part of creating an audience affinity for your brand is to create an emotional impact. Stories are the perfect way to create strong emotions. By creating strong stories around your brand, you can grow your follower count and strengthen the relationship you have with your audience. The perfect example of this is GoPro. The camera company create video stories and cover events that tie into their brand (X Games, surfing competitions, etc.).
Another great way to promote your brand through Instagram stories is through events. You can set up events like contests, competitions, Instagram announcements and limited promotions. Because everybody knows that stories expire after 24 hours, it’ll create the urgency required to drive users to take the action you want them to.
5. It Allows You to Collaborate with Others
Do you have brand ambassadors or close partnerships for your business? If so, you can allow takeovers for your Instagram stories. How this works is that you allow somebody else to take control of your Instagram stories for a limited time. This means that you can have other people create content for you. This is more than just a fun feature and can be used strategically.
For example, you can:
- Use takeovers to set up cross promotions with other brands;
- Let your brand ambassadors speak for you;
- Bring in popular influencers, and more.
The amount of engagement, visibility and buzz that it will create for both parties can be immense. There is no end to all the things that you can do with this feature. The only limit is your imagination.
6. It’s a Great Feature for Live Interaction
Some brands have already used stories on Instagram to set up live Q&A sessions. While there are only a few case studies available so far, the prospects for using this feature to interact with audiences look really good.
It’s very possible that you’ll be able to answer questions live within the story and allow users to engage directly through Instagram Direct in the near future. You want to get your audience following your stories so that you can use all these features when they are released.
Telling Your Story
If your business isn’t using Instagram Stories yet, you need to start doing so as soon as possible. Don’t let the fact that your stories get deleted in 24 hours dissuade you. Your content for Instagram stories doesn’t need to be complicated and can be created in a simple manner.
There are so many benefits of using Instagram Stories. So, tell us: Has your business been seeing good results from Instagram stories? How creative are your stories what approaches are working well for you?
Images: depositphotos.com.