In October of 2013, Snapchat came out with a new feature: Stories. Since then, stories have become one of the most popular ways to use social media, leading to other platforms following suit, like Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube.
Stories in social media are full-screen videos and photos that are mobile. They appear outside of a follower’s regular feed and last for 24 hours at a time, highlighting one of their key features of being temporary. This creates a sense of urgency to view it before it disappears and entices followers to continue watching your stories so they stay in the loop.
On Instagram, more than 500 million people use stories daily, which is half of the 1 billion active monthly users; and more than 70% of users view stories daily. Sharing impromptu moments with your followers gives them a glimpse into what is currently happening with your business and makes them feel a part of your company. They also create authenticity and a genuine tone that loyal shoppers look for.
There are key ways to get followers to make viewing your stories a part of their social media life. Adding interactive features such as, polls, questions, surveys, and direct message links, is one of the most important things to remember when creating a story. It is also crucial to add detail and decoration, like countdowns, locations, hashtags, mentions, gifs, emojis, and animation to keep viewers interested. As for sound, 60% of stories are viewed with the audio on, so adding music may be something to think about doing if your content has no sound itself. A brand that successfully uses stories shares regularly and often, which means you will need to create a lot of content. This can save time and money down the road though, by being able to repurpose this content into standard posts.
Stories are vital for a successful social media account, and we implement them with our partners to attract more followers. Some of our clients such as Baby BuYou, Blush Bridal and Beauty Boutique, Java Beach, Café Rumba, and Ginger Scorned even have different collections of their stories, sorted in categories and displayed at the top of their pages, called highlights. This way if a current follower or new interested consumer visits their feed, they can see what’s going on and what they may have missed.
Social media stories have proven to be a media marketing tool that will not be disappearing anytime soon. Are you looking to captivate the attention of your current followers and peak interest to new consumers?
Contact us today to see how we can partner!
