Social Media Stories

Have you watched social media stories while scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat? Stories are starting to become more relevant as social platforms are continuing to introduce it to their app as a new feature. Social Media and Content Marketer, Ana Gotter, found that “Out of over 1 billion active monthly Instagram users, more than 500 million use Stories daily.” Although stories are only available for 24 hours for users to interact with, they are a fantastic way to increase brand visibility. They can easily be found, posted, and shared as they appear on the top of most feeds. Stories can range up to 60 seconds depending on the platform. For example, on Instagram, it can even split up your video into 15 second frames. This allows for followers to click through more content. Overall, there are a variety of ways in which you can use social media stories to your advantage.

The first benefit of this marketing tactic is that it provides a great opportunity for posting limited time only deals, new features, drops, contests, and more. In addition to the timeliness factor, businesses are able to plan an interactive way to push their products, services, and branding. Furthermore, app specific features such as stickers, gifs, filters, and text can easily be added to the post. Online consumers watch stories and reels in mass quantities, which make it key to engage an audience by posting stories on a regular basis. 

In addition, this social media tactic helps increase website traffic. The increase occurs from mentioning new products, deals, sneak peeks, etc. This can directly be applied with a swipe-up feature that brings the viewer straight to the website page or a pop up of that platform's shopping feature.

Lastly, using the story feature is a great way to become more personal and relatable with your audience. There are a variety of creative trends that can help establish and strengthen connections with consumers by asking them to leave a comment pertaining to a question in the caption or creating a poll. Platforms such as Instagram, allow you to permanently put stories on your page in the highlight icons. This is crucial when trying to emphasize events or longer lasting deals and promotions. Overall, utilizing the story feature on Social Media is important for all companies to take advantage of, no matter their niche.