With the ever-increasing popularity of Instagram and Facebook stories, it is important that brands and businesses get on board with the trend and don’t get left out in the cold; and now with ads being introduced to stories on both Instagram and Facebook, there are even more opportunities for businesses to exploit the platform.
Stories are user generated videos, photos or slideshows that are displayed on either Facebook or Instagram, typically lasting for 24 hours. This short-term format is one of the things that makes the stories platform so appealing for promoting and marketing brands and products, allowing companies to connect with users in real time. The short-lived nature of the content, increases engagement rates as users have a ‘Fear of Missing Out’ or ‘FOMO’ if they don’t stay up to date with the latest content while it’s fresh.
With data suggesting that more than one billion accounts globally now use stories on Facebook, businesses and brands have an immediate, vast and personable platform to use, promote and engage with their customers.
In a recent survey 57 percent of brands stated that they believe that stories have been “Somewhat effective” or “Very effective” as a part of their overall social media strategy.
As the content you share on stories is time-sensitive, it is important you use the platform correctly in order to get the most from it.
Our top 4 ways of making the most of stories for your brand or business are:
And finally, as with all content you put on social media, be sure to track the performance of your stories.
Find out where your stories are having an impact, who is watching them, who is engaging, and what content is drawing in the largest audience using the reporting and measurement tools on each social media platform.
If you are able to see who is engaging and what content they are engaging with most, then you can continue to fine tune your strategy; a targeted story, is an effective story.