5 Perks of Using Instagram Stories for Marketing and Brand Building
It’s official: Instagram Stories is here to stay.
After its fair share of initial growing pains, Stories have found its own specific niche within the Instagram universe. Subsequently, it has exploded in popularity. And to the benefit of businesses, it presents significant marketing advantages.
If you’re a marketer or part of a social media marketing team, you’re probably more than familiar with the feature by now. Stories may already be an integral part of your company’s online marketing strategy.
Or perhaps you’ve checked it out, but you’re still not convinced that Stories are worth your time.
In this article, we’re going to discuss 5 of the major marketing perks of using Instagram Stories, so that your business can benefit from everything this feature has to offer.
1. More Content
When the Instagram Stories feature was first released, it turned more than a few heads.
What’s the purpose of a “story” if content can simply be posted to a user’s timeline?
But since then, Insta-Stories have developed an identity, and Instagram has done an unbelievable job at making the distinction between Stories and the traditional “timeline.” For a brand, the synergy of Stories and the timeline covers plenty of ground.
It used to be “anything goes” with regards to the timeline. With it being the only location where content could be posted, businesses had to discern between posting all content to the timeline, or only some.
Once Stories arrived, however, it gave businesses the option to post updates that aren’t exactly worthy of a spot in the timeline. This means that, ultimately, more content gets published.
And that’s good for everyone.
2. Added Structure
With more features and more content comes the need for a tighter game plan. Just because you can post anything to Stories or the timeline, doesn’t mean you should.
The addition of the Stories feature has helped redefine the timeline’s role. Today, the timeline is best used as the hub for a brand’s best and most “permanent” posts. It’s the place where companies can show off their good sides, avoid clutter, and build a “portfolio” of content that set themselves apart from other brands.
That leaves all other content for Stories. It’s easy, it’s temporary, and it’s raw. Stories allow businesses to give customers an inside look at daily or behind-the-scenes functions.
This allows brands to structure their content and market their products or services in a way that was not previously possible.
3. Evolving Features
Instagram Stories has only bloomed since it was first implemented. Thanks to its competition (we’re looking at you, Facebook, Snapchat, and Periscope), Instagram has been forced to tweak its Stories feature repeatedly.
It started as a simple “disappearing” photo/video feature, similar to Snapchat’s interface. But it has become so much more.
Using Stories, a business can live broadcast to its followers (or anyone else tuning in), turn those live broadcasts into disappearing stories, or collect data via polls. These bells and whistles have also encouraged customer interaction, making Stories a versatile marketing toolkit for businesses.
4. A Bigger Audience
Instagram Stories has become so popular that it has overlapped its competition. As of November 1, 2017, Snapchat has 173 million daily active users while Instagram Stories reportedly has more than 300 million.
And Stories is only continuing on this upward trajectory.
With so many active users, there’s a massive opportunity for businesses to build their followings and gain new prospects. As long as your business’s profile is public, your Stories updates can reach new users constantly.
5. Opportunities to Repurpose Content
A good marketer understands the value of being able to reuse content, and the addition of Stories has made repurposing content a reality for Instagram users.
Anything published to the timeline can also be posted as a Stories update, and vice versa – anything posted to Stories can be saved and reposted later as a more “permanent” addition to a business’s timeline.
But there is another element to this. . .
Because Stories updates can be saved, they can also be reposted later on – as Stories updates. If your business has a particular Stories update that performed well or has the opportunity to perform well in the future, you can recycle that post as many times as you wish. Remember, updates disappear within 24 hours; so you may choose to recycle the same update 100 times and new users won’t know.
As you can see by the five perks we’ve mentioned, the addition of Stories has added yet another dimension to Instagram that opens the door to new marketing opportunities for businesses.
And while companies are leaving other social media platforms behind for a variety of reasons, Instagram is only strengthening its position as one of the most valuable social media platforms for businesses today.