Should my business use Instagram Stories? How?

Last year saw an explosion of the story format!

Many years ago (by many, we mean 5), Snapchat was the first and only social media employing the concept of sharing a glimpse into one’s life online - a glimpse that would be gone in 24 hours.

As it grew in popularity, Facebook wanted in and so it replicated it with the Facebook-owned platform, Instagram. And then with Whatsapp... with Messenger… and Facebook itself. This made the feature even more popular and accessible. It became captivating for a younger audience before spreading on, in a fast timeframe, to everyone else.

Instagram now reports there are 400 million accounts using Instagram Stories. And more so "one third of the most-viewed stories come from businesses, and one in five stories gets a direct message from its viewers." (Instagram For Business)

Despite what you think of our fast spreading trend to consume more and more content in minuscule amounts, it’s actually a good opportunity for brands in the middle of all the ad noise faced online.

Brands can get more visibility.

The uniqueness of Instagram Stories (or any Story format for that matter) is that for a few seconds you have full real-estate on a user’s screen. That’s 100% of their screen dedicated for you and what you have to say. They don’t even see their reception status, notifications or even the time! And a very big number has their volume on. You don’t get this opportunity as a brand anywhere else.

So here’s what you can do to make the most of this:

Take advantage of polls within Instagram Stories

Learn more about your users; discover what they like and dislike or what changes you can make to your product or communications to appeal more to them...

It’s quick, it’s simple with almost real-time feedback.

Use links in your Stories to increase sales, generate leads and gain traffic Peak their interest and generate traffic to your website or blog article. As mentioned before, Stories have a huge audience, and that’s room to drive more traffic to your online space.

Make use of the vertical space & sound

You have their full attention so make sure you’re maximizing your vertical layout to capture their attention.

It’s all about digital storytelling

It sounds like it’s advertiser heaven; but there’s actually quite the pressure there. You have a second (if you’re lucky) before the user decides if you’re worth an extra second or not, let alone taking the action you’re asking them to do. So make it count!

We’d be happy to chat about how you can make use of Instagram Stories for you business. Send us a message.