Wondering if it’s worth your time to devel- op 10-second content that will disappear after 24 hours? As of November 2017, Instagram Stories had more than 300
million daily active users and that number continues to grow.
That means about 60 percent of Instagram’s total daily active users are viewing and/or publishing on Instagram Stories.
If that isn’t impressive enough, according to Sprout Social,
80 percent of users follow at least one business on Instagram
and, of those users, more than 120 million of them used a
business’ Instagram to privately message them, get directions,
find a phone number, website, or email information.
Still not convinced it’s worth your time? If your product or
service is visual in nature and appeals to the primary users of
the app, ages 18-29, you should be utilizing Instagram Stories.
The Instagram algorithm takes Stories engagement into account when considering what to serve people in their feeds.
The more users interact with your story, the more likely your
regular posts will appear in their feed.
Instagram Stories are an effective marketing tool for
brands and have the potential to drive a significant amount
of engagement. They allow more flexibility in what you can
showcase of your brand than a simple Instagram post — and a
lot more time to capture people’s attention.
Instagram has quickly become a social media powerhouse
where users browse for up-to-date information. Stories, which
features temporary 10-second photo and video clips placed
atop the feed, is the best place to find the most recent updates. Since posts are live for 24 hours, users are practically
guaranteed that the information is fresh and relevant.
Instagram has designed several features for Stories that
encourage engagement in a fun way. The swipe up feature
allows customers to go directly to links outside of Instagram’s
platform, while the polling feature gives customers a fun way
to interact while providing some useful
statistics for consumer engagement and
feedback.
The hashtag feature is also available on
Stories, which allows you to create a Story
that is both relevant and searchable, thus
adding visibility to your story. The other
underutilized feature on Stories is its stick-
er location option. The geotagging feature
does not exist on Stories yet, but you can
add a location with a sticker. This location
sticker increases the likeliness of showing up on Instagram’s
Location Stories. Location Stories are an excellent feature
because you can reach more people with just one post.
Instagram Stories are an effective way to create and sustain customer engagement. The format is less polished and
more organic since it is supposed to be “live,” and no one
expects the lighting or backdrop to be perfect. It is also an
entertaining way to interact and keep your customers up-to-date with what is happening behind the scenes.
More great news for Instagram users is that the app is
readying a feature that would let certain users post videos
that run up to 60 minutes, according to a recent report in; The
Wall Street Journal. The most obvious positive effect is that
developing longer videos ensures additional time for ads.
Currently, Instagram’s time limit is 60 seconds in its feed, and
15 seconds in Stories, and the only way to post lengthy videos is via livestream, a service that doesn’t allow for ads.
This new policy should add to the popularity of Insta-
gram, which has been growing strongly since its acquisition
by Facebook. While many smart brands are already on
Whatever apps you choose to use with
Instagram, you can have a lot of fun at the
same time as improving your brand on so-
cial media. With the launch of Instagram
Stories, it’s an exciting time to be a social
media maven and to bring extra value to
traditional branding methods your compa-
ny or product have been accustomed to in
the past.
New Advertiser Best Practices Using
Instagram Stories
