By: Chelsea Homen and Austin Leos
SOCIAL MEDIA STORIES ARE A POWERFUL NEW TOOL FOR BUSINESSES TO UTILIZE.
As digital media continues to grow and develop at such a rapid pace, it is crucial for businesses to keep up with new trends to remain relevant on social platforms. Keeping up with digital trends can be hard for some business owners because technology has proven not to be everyone’s forte. If this is you, have no fear, advertisers are here.
Social Stories are one of the most recent developments in social media strategy for businesses. Social stories allow you to post photos or videos updates to your business’ Facebook or Instagram profile. However, there’s a catch – Stories are only visible for 24 hours. If stories are only temporary, then what’s the point? Let us explain.
Over 400 million people view stories every day. Therefore, stories allow businesses to interact with consumers quickly and easily. Since the average attention span of a human has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds, social media stories provide a unique way to interact with potential customers and clients.
Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “okay, stories are a great new feature, but why should my business take advantage of them?” Here are the top reasons for your business to begin soaring into people’s stories.
THE FORMAT FOR STORIES IS PERFECTLY SUITED FOR MOBILE DEVICES.
The format for social media stories is perfect for mobile devices, both for creating and viewing content. In 2017, mobile web traffic overtook desktop traffic for the first time. Since then, mobile browsing sessions have continually gained more traction over computer web browsing traffic.
For those consuming content, the vertical video is taking social media by storm, and users are beginning to realize that they enjoy engaging with vertical videos rather than the traditional horizontal video format.
Stories work alongside this trend to make viewing content more comfortable than ever before. The mobile-friendly aspect of stories also means that the production of business stories is accessible to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Stories also utilize many mobile trends, such as:
Location Tags
These make your business or brand more discoverable locally and globally by including the specific location of where your story is being created from.
Hashtags
Hashtags increase the searchability of your profile and its content among the community.
“Ask Me Anything” Feature
This allows you to ask your followers questions or it lets your followers ask you questions via your story, creating a natural dialogue.
Tagging people
Much like tagging people in your posts, you can tag others on your story. Tagging other businesses, brands, or influencers, increase the chances of customers seeing your brand. Those that you tag then have the option of reposting your story, maximizing your reach. (Reposting is only an option on Instagram)
Stickers
You can add emojis and other fun emblems, logos, and symbols to your story allowing you to get creative and fun. The more creative, the better chance you have of catching your consumer’s attention.
STORIES CREATE FREE PROMOTION OPPORTUNITIES AND GENERATE WEB TRAFFIC.
As highlighted above, one of the many perks of Instagram’s story feature is that you if someone tags your business in a story, you can repost it to your profile.
For example, if an employee posts behind-the-scenes drone footage at a shoot and tags our company, we can then repost that footage onto our company profile. Through stories, you can repost what different departments are working on without having any one person dedicated to story production.
More so, if your business’ stories are engaging, anyone can choose to repost stories to their personal profile, generating free promotion.
No matter the kind of business you own, you can take advantage of stories to lead consumers to your website or e-commerce store. According to a Facebook study, 1 in 3 users said they were more interested in a brand or product after seeing it on a story.
You can also tie your stories to your recent posts leading to top of mind awareness, as well as utilize functions such as:
Shopping Bag Shaped Notifications
These allow users to click on a select item on your story and shop that item on your site.
“Swipe Up” Feature
Incorporating this feature creates a compelling and eye-catching call to action you can direct followers to your blog, website, landing page, and more!
STORIES HELP ORGANICALLY SHOWCASE YOUR BUSINESS OR BRANDS’ PERSONALITY
While posts are often thought-out ideas or finished products, stories can give your followers a glimpse into day-to-day life at your business. Whether it’s behind-the-scenes footage at a photoshoot or renovations in the office, your followers will get a better understanding of who you are as a company.
Posting stories helps to promote your business’ personality while leaving your professional posts unaffected. Stories also disappear after 24 hours, so you don’t have to worry about ruining the theme or overall aesthetic of your page.
You also don’t have to worry about overloading your audience with too much content daily. Giving your brand the ability to stay fresh and leave your audience wanting more.
STORIES ARE THE FUTURE, AND THE STATISTICS PROVE IT.
According to the latest research stories are growing 15 times faster than newsfeeds! Facebook’s chief production officer said, “The Stories format is on a path to surpass feeds as the primary way people share things with their friends sometime next year.”
This data means that your business can get the ball rolling before stories become a more saturated market.
READY TO GET STARTED?
Although you may see results through posting to your profile alone, stories can complement and increase those results in many ways. If social media isn’t your thing, then calling an agency could be the next move for growing your business.
If you still have some questions about Instagram and Facebook stories or need help determining if your business/brand should take advantage of them, Griffin Wink Advertising is here to help. We have years of experience when it comes to running social media accounts, and we would love to help you take your business to the next level!