In August 2016 Instagram launched their Stories feature. Instagram describes this as a feature that enables the user to ‘share all of the personal moments of your day – not just the ones you want to keep on your profile’. The rise of Instagram Stories has been a dramatic one. Out of the 500 million daily active Instagram users, 400 million are daily Instagram Story users.
So what’s the big deal?
Well, it is pretty simple really. Instagram Stories are a fun way to engage with your followers, offering insight into a day in the life of you or your business, putting out content that is disposable. Like the original Snapchat stories, the content disappears after 24 hours, so you don’t have to worry about over posting or filling up people’s feed. You can post as many stories as you want in a day, they simply become a slideshow within your stories.
So why should your business consider using Instagram Stories?
1. It is a unique way to communicate limited time offers:
Instagram Stories is the perfect way to promote a limited time offer for your business. You can add a countdown feature to your story creating urgency to your campaign and can link to a specific webpage to promote the campaign. Use direct messaging to get your followers engaged with your offer.
2. Get customer feedback:
One of the great tools in Instagram Stories is being able to create polls and ask questions. As a business you can use Instagram stories to gain valuable feedback directly from your customers on product, design or anything else for that matter. This can offer a quick win for businesses.
3. Create some buzz around your campaign:
Instagram Stories are a great way to create buzz around your business. Perhaps you are exhibiting at an Expo, or hosting a product launch event, by adding behind the scenes footage, or teasers, you can start to effectively build up a buzz around your campaign.
4. Get more content:
Content is King! You can download your images and videos that you add to your stories and they can be re-shared and used on other platforms or your Instagram feed another time. You can make use of this content through #ThrowBackThursdays for example. By sharing this content on other platforms, you can encourage followers to follow your Instagram for all the latest updates.
5. Tell a story.
The clue is in the name… ‘Instagram Stories’ is all about telling a story, and everyone loves a good story! From the ethos of your business to a day in the life of your business, you can create a really great emotional connection with your audience, just through telling a story.
Instagram stories offers a really exciting way to engage your followers. Instagram stories paired with a great feed can be a powerful platform for businesses. There are 25 million businesses currently on Instagram with more than 1 million monthly advertisers. This is a platform that is worth investing some time in.
If you would like to start a conversation with us about Instagram or social media management, please just fill in the form below, we would love to chat.
By Laura Richardson
