Instagram Stories is a popular feature that allows users to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
Stories don’t appear in the standard profile grid or in the Instagram newsfeed. Instead, they appear in a bar at the top of the feed, and when someone posts an Instagram story, a colourful ring appears around their profile image to alert other users. Users can tap said profile photo and watch their Story, it’s as easy as that!
Unlike regular posts, Stories offer interactive tools like stickers, polls, and filters to make content really stand out. They also allow you to include links which regular posts don’t, so they are great tool if you are trying to re-direct followers to a product or service!
Now you might be wondering why you would want to use Instagram Stories when they only last for 24 hours. Well, the answer is simple, Stories offer an urgency that most forms of sharing on social media don’t have. This presents an excellent opportunity to catch people’s attention. Stories are all about authentic, real-time content with that added element of creativity.
And if you do want to keep a story on your profile.. you can! Using Instagram’s Highlights tool – you can organise archived Stories into groups, which become accessible from the top of your profile grid.
Still unconvinced of the benefits Stories provide? A recent study showed more than 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day, with many of those users have a keen eye for new products and trends. 58% said they’ve become more interested in a product or brand from seeing it in a Story, and half of those say they’ve actually visited a website to buy a product or service after seeing it in Stories. So put that link in folks!
Just remember, Stories are a powerful tool when used to their full potential, and with 4 million businesses using Stories to advertise every month, we can’t argue with that! But if you’re more of a Facebook user don’t panic… Facebook have their own version you can use.
So get stuck in, get creative and get noticed!