It’s hard to go a day without seeing an update or new feature on social media platforms. The hottest update this week is Instagram’s ‘stories’.
This new capability is a great way to share a plethora of moments from throughout your day, not just the ones on your timeline. Which is AWESOME, but is it worth your time? Here’s the low down.
So, what is a ‘story’?
If you’re on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed the format change of the newsfeed screen. There are new circles filled with profile pictures of those you follow. If a person has a new story, there will be a colorful ring around their picture.
Stories can spark creativity for postings with the use of its colorful text and drawing tools. In addition, the stories are only visible to followers for 24 hours. Sound familiar? If you’ve had any experience with Snapchat’s story feature, this one is very similar to use.
Even though Instagram’s story option seems a lot like Snapchat, there are a few reasons why we think this could be a great move for your small business’s online marketing.
Five reasons to utilize Insta’s new story option
- Instagram is brand friendly. With the option to heart pictures and videos, Instagram makes it easy to interact with followers. It’s also user-friendly to search and find accounts.
- See updates on own terms. Similar to Snapchat, Insta lets your followers see story updates on their terms within the 24-hour time period. There’s no pressure to watch stories and they can skip through by tapping the screen.
- Target millennials. Instagram has over 300 million daily users, many of which are younger folks. As we’ve previously discussed in our Targeting Millennials article, millennials crave authentic and less-staged content. Use this to your advantage for showing everyday aspects of your business to followers.
- Use it for analytics. One of the ways posting a story differs from a regular Insta post is you can see who’s viewed it. Just swipe up from your story post and it lists the viewers. This is great for gauging what content works best for you.
Pro tip: Another great tool to use is changing your posting time to see what posting time gets the most viewership.
- Highlight new promotions, contests, and products. Keep your followers up-to-date on sales going on or any news updates about the business.
Can’t decide if stories are for you?
If you’ve been leery about jumping into Snapchat for your business and already have an Insta account, try your hand at these stories first. It’s a great starting point to perfect your story skills before you add another platform to your online marketing.