In a world where digital marketing has become increasingly more effective and cost efficient than traditional marketing, Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms at our disposal that we can use to enhance your online presence and brand awareness amongst consumers.
Instagram Stories is an incredibly diverse feature available on Instagram to both personal and business accounts alike. This feature allows users to share their own personalised content with their follower base for 24 hours. From photos, to videos, to gifs (or boomerangs), or even live broadcasts, the content you can share on Instagram Stories varies immensely depending on what you want to do.
With a wide range of ways to customise your content, such as adding text, filters and drawings, Instagram has equipped us with endless tools to accurately convey the identity of your brand to consumers as well as directly communicate and engage with them. Additional features such as polls and questions invite consumers to interact with you on a more personal level. We also have the ability to make an Instagram Story a link, which can be used to redirect traffic to your Facebook page, website or your store. This is a particularly useful feature as it allows you to advertise your business and instantly offer consumers the opportunity to learn more about what you do or even purchase your goods or services.
Instagram Story Highlights is an added bonus to the already massively successful feature. Although Instagram Stories will only last for 24 hours once you’ve posted them, the Highlights section of this feature allows you to permanently save stories that you feel are particularly successful or important and save them in an easily accessible folder of sorts located near the top of your instagram profile.
The surge in popularity is accredited to the fact that you can communicate in an almost entirely visual manner rather than using text. Instagram Stories has also rapidly overshadowed any competitor apps, in particular Snapchat. Reaching 400,000 daily active users in 2018, this figure is more than double that of Snapchat’s and has actually caused a decline in Snapchat’s daily active users this year for the first time since launch.
At Escalate we understand how invaluable Instagram Stories has become as a digital marketing tool, and so we make it a priority to utilise this feature to its full potential and deliver high quality content directly to your followers as well as new customers.
Our tips:
Keep content relevant.
If you’re posting simply for the sake of posting something, this won’t go unnoticed. People will regard your content as filler content and immediately swipe past it, which can damage the perception your business’ online presence has. Hold your content to a high standard by using well-thought-out, high-quality images and videos. Imagine you’re a consumer who has an interest in what your business does, is the post you want to share going to keep you engaged and satisfied?
Switch it up.
You have a multitude of options when it comes to the kind of content you can share. Don’t limit yourself to just photos or just videos, you can post a variety of both as well polls, questions and live broadcasts where you can interact with consumers directly. This also allows you to put a familiar face to your brand which can make people feel more comfortable in reaching out to you about any enquiries they may have about your business.
Respect your consumers’ time.
If you’re posting excessive amounts of content every day, people will grow tired of seeing you in their Stories newsfeed and will almost definitely swipe past whatever you’re sharing. On the contrary, if you aren’t posting enough people will forget why they’re following you and question what it is you have to offer them. We recommend posting maximum 5 times a day and spreading your posts throughout the day so you can reach a larger audience.
In conclusion, Instagram Stories has become essential to any brand or business that want to engage with audiences and stay relevant in an ever changing digital landscape. With the endless possibilities of how you can customise your content, there is no limit to what you can create and share with your followers. Be conscious of what you’re posting, how often and why. Using Instagram Stories to its full potential can be tricky, but if done well is a very lucrative skill to have for your brand.