Stories Rock: Why Using Instagram & Facebook Stories Is a Must for Your Business
When Snapchat launched Snapchat Stories which has changed the way consumers and businesses interact on social media. Now, most platforms have some sort of stories format and over 2 billion users use Instagram Stories daily, with more than one third being business- posted. So, why are Instagram and Facebook stories a must for your business and how can you use them to your full advantage? Let’s find out…
Increase Your Discoverability
About 25% of Millennials and Gen Zers use Stories to learn more about products and services they want to buy, and between 15% and 25% of people will swipe up on links from branded stores. As Stories are discoverable content, you don’t have to follow an account to view the story and get that first interaction.
This allows you to showcase your brand to prospective customers and leads in an easy to digest way and ultimately increase your reach and discoverability.
Get Access to Valuable Analytics
Both Instagram and Facebook Stories have Insights that give you detailed information about your Stories’ performance. Data is key to understanding your target audience and their behaviour and using Insights allows you to get the information you need to tailor marketing campaigns and even product development for the future.
In Insights you can look at things like the impressions and reach of a Story to see how many people have viewed and how many times they’ve watched, as well as any actions they’ve taken on your Story. For example, swipes or exits. These analytics in particular help you understand which content your audience prefers to see and are more likely to interact with at minimal cost.
*Note: You will need business accounts in order to use Insights.
A Direct Link From Social to Store
The option to link Stories to shoppable pages increases the customer experience and allows customers to see something and go straight to the shop with limited clicking. More than a third of businesses use Instagram Stories to promote products and two thirds of these link to shoppable pages. It’s becoming the norm to offer this streamlined experience, and you don’t want to be left behind.
6 Tips for Story Success
Stories appear at the very top when you open Facebook or IG apps, meaning it’s the first thing customers will see at the top of their feed. The more often your followers view your content the more front and centre you become.
So, how do you ensure they don’t swipe away from your Stories?
1. Have direct flash sales
The FOMO (fear of missing out) effect makes sales via Stories very successful because you can use this 24-hour-only format for flash sales. Embed a link that will lead your followers directly to the sales landing page when they swipe up and make them very aware that when it’s gone, it’s gone.
2. Drive traffic to your website
Use Stories to drive traffic to content you have already published on your website. Create short snippets from the original article to pique their interest or turn some of the key points into quotes and then link to the content from your Story.
3. Share updates and announcements
Announcements on new products or updates on current sales and campaigns feel super exclusive too. Use that to create hype to your dedicated followers before public release. You can even offer exclusive deals just for them!
4. Make them interactive
Use geotagging stickers so that users discover you when they search for terms related to your Story in an area where you tagged it. You can also use poll, question, or CTA stickers that let users interact with you!
5. Use the Live feature
Going live lets users comment in real time. To show just how human you are, reply to their comments while live and use their names to maximise engagement.
6. Be Authentic
Your Stories, whether images or videos, don’t need to be professionally shot. Stories maximise the organic feel of shared content and can give your audience a ‘behind the curtain’ feel. People who view stories love them because of their authenticity, and you’ll achieve a better connection and growth if you follow suit and share organic, wholesome moments from your business’ journey.
As you can see, Stories on Instagram and Facebook in particular are becoming an essential marketing and engagement tool that you should not be missing out on!