The Power of Social Media Stories
Introduced by Snapchat and propagated globally by Instagram, the concept of stories is here to stay. They are not just brief and concise bits of information ready to be viewed by the people but also have a lasting impact on them. This is what’s making them so popular and a great asset to marketers. Keep reading to find out how.
The Inception of Social Media Stories
Do you know that an average user of Instagram spends anywhere between 24-32 minutes each day watching stories? Instagram itself has confirmed this statement. Nobody had any idea that a concept invented by Snapchat way back in 2013 will become what it has today.
While Snapchat was the one that came up with it, it was Instagram that made it a household name. Stories are basically disappearing status that expire after 24 hours. They are published in the vertical format and are optimized to be seen on mobile devices.
This section, where the stories of all the different profiles that the user is following are mostly shown on the top of the screen. A colored band encloses them or highlights them to actively catch the eye of the user so that they are tempted to open them. Some of the most popular platforms where stores are a feature are:
- Snapchat
- YouTube
Impact of Social Media Stories on Marketing
While every platform that has this story feature has its own slightly different version, the main gist remains the same – they want to deliver information to the users in easily digestible bites. It is all about communicating your message effectively to your audience.
Many think that since it is such short-lived content and just one slide or something needs to be created that it must be easy. But they’re wrong. This is exactly what makes it so tough. A lot has to be communicated in the few milliseconds that the user spends on a story before tapping away to the next one.
You have to reel them in and hold their attention immediately without going too crazy and missing your point completely. Therefore, when it comes to using them for marketing purposes, a lot of thought goes behind each story.
How marketers leverage the power of stories
When thinking from a marketer’s perspective, each story that is uploaded needs to have a certain depth to it as that is what will motivate the viewers to seek more of your content. Instagram has provided marketers the platform to run commercials and get real business expertise just from creating and publishing quality stories.
When the concept became so popular because of Instagram and Snapchat, other platforms (as listed above) also came out with their own variants to reach their customers more effectively.
With the help of story marketing, you can:
- Easily engage with your audience
- Go live and give your audience real-time updates, webinars, and so on
- Promote any content that you might have published, such as a new post, blog, or video
- Repurpose the content shared about your brand by the influencers you are collaborating with
- Improve transparency between your customers and the company
How to Make the Best Use of Stories?
The following things need to be kept in mind when creating stories:
Create content that fits the stories
When we say this, we don’t mean to say that you limit yourself. But always remember to create content that can fit the dimensions properly so that the message comes out more clearly and aesthetically. It has been observed that live-action videos fare better with the audience.
Keep experimenting
There are endless things that you can do with stories. So don’t restrict yourself to a template, or some color scheme, or anything that can make your content seem monotonous or repetitive to the audience. Keep trying out new things.
Be as creative as possible
Filters, stickers, fonts and so much more you have at your disposal when creating stories. Utilize these different features and come up with content that immediately connects with the audience.
Monitor your progress using UTMs
Using UTM codes that can be added to the URLs you put in your stories, you can easily track what your followers do after they see your stories. Find out what clicks with them and what doesn’t. The ‘swipe up’ feature is another great feature to take your followers directly to a landing page or some website.
Include AR and custom GIFs
Stories are focused on storytelling, naturally. Taking the help of custom GIFs or augmented reality can further improve the experience of users. Try to incorporate these elements as well in your content.
Conclusion
No two days are the same in the digital space. This is why our content needs to be at par with these constantly shifting moods of the industry. Creating stories is currently one of the quickest ways to communicate your message to your audience. So start creating, and make sure to include it in your marketing strategies.
For more such content, don’t forget to check out Simpliskills Blog section. Further, go over the various digital marketing courses that we offer and take your first step towards becoming a digital marketer.
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