Instagram stories, what are they and can they help my business?
When you are marketing your business, you should always be looking for fresh ways to connect with customers and attract the interest of clients. Social media provides a wide range of options on how to do this including Instagram Stories.
What Are Instagram Stories
This is a feature available on the social media network Instagram. With the story feature, you will be able to post images or video content in a slide-show style format. While different from posting in a typical way, it is possible to modify the stories with the same features as the app. It’s quite similar to the story feature on Snapchat.
This feature was originally released in 2016 and was almost immediately hit with criticism for being too similar to the Snapchat feature. For instance, in both features, the stories disappear after twenty-four hours. When you create content for the story, it will also show up in the feeds of your followers.
With the feature, you will be able to use Instagram to promote services and products. You can do this without cluttering up your main Instagram page. Instead, this remains clean and clear, potentially with evergreen content. It’s commonly used by celebs and influencers however there are a number of reasons why Instagram stories are great for businesses.
Front and Centre
One of the main benefits is that since these stories appear at the top of the feed for 24 hours, they aren’t immediately forgotten. You can also add more small posts regularly and maintain a high level of brand awareness with followers. As well as this, since they are only viewable for a limited time, it will trigger feelings of FOMO or fear of missing out. It could make it more likely that followers view your post.
Discoverable
Stories are discoverable and as such, they can be a great way to ensure that you are expanding your follower base. This could again lead to a higher level of traffic for your brand online.
It also sidesteps a major issue that is typically present with Instagram. Typically, to get users to visit a particular webpage, you need to direct them to your profile and then alter the website. This isn’t the case with stories. Those with more than 10K followers can add links to story content. This reduces the chance of customers getting lost in a marketing funnel that is a little too complicated.
Bring the Fun
Finally, it’s difficult to have fun with your content on Instagram. You need to make sure that you are protecting the quality of your feet. With Instagram stories, you can unlock the benefits of real-time marketing. So, your profile doesn’t get cluttered and you can produce content fast without perfecting it. You can also be more creative, and this allows you to experiment with different marketing ideas. That could lead to you stumbling onto a possibility that will send your brand viral.
Ultimately, this is a flexible, fun opportunity that you should be taking advantage of and which helps you dodge issues with changes to the Instagram algorithm. Click here to find out exactly how TU Marketing can help you.
