Why Are Instagram Stories Important for Business?
Today we’re tackling Instagram stories.
If I’m being honest with you, prior to becoming a social media manager, I was one of those people who used to reject any and every new app and update. It felt like every time I would get the hang of a new app layout or update it would all switch up on me.
So when Instagram introduced stories, I hid from them. Rolled my eyes at them.
Why was Instagram trying to mess up an app that was already perfectly fine the way it was?
WELL. Eventually I caved. People looked like they were having fun with story features, so I dabbled in it. I dabbled for a couple of years until I started learning social media management.
While I still think Meta’s endless fight to try and become every other social media platform is a bit pathetic (like girl just be you, you’re enough as you are Instagram 🙄), I’ve learned that stories hold a lot of value. Especially for business owners.
So let’s get into it!
What is the point of an Instagram story?
Instagram stories are vertical, full-screen photos that disappear after 24 hours. They appear at the top of the screen of your feed in profile picture circles, instead of in your news feed.
They also have fun sticker options to get your audience engaged and make your content pop.
What are the benefits of Instagram Stories for business? 🧐
They are more personable. Think of Instagram stories like a daily vlog or photo blog of your day updating your friends and family on what you’re up to. While Instagram posts live forever and should always follow branding guidelines to build an aesthetic feed, stories are less high stakes because they disappear after 24 hours. So post a pic of your gorgeous brunch, snap a selfie during a client meeting, post a video of you giving a fun update on your biz. As a rule of thumb with stories, it’s not really all that serious.
Direct links to make you $. Through Instagram story stickers you are able to include links on your stories. These link stickers, when tapped, will lead your potential customer out of Instagram and straight to where you want them to go. With posts, we normally use a “Call to Action” at the end of a caption to try and push your followers to the link in your bio. With a story sticker, it makes potential link clicks a whole lot higher, which means more eyes on your link and a higher chance of sales for you!
Audience engagement leads to community building. Another feature of Instagram story stickers is engagement stickers. These include, but are not limited to, “questions”, “poll”, “product”, and “countdown” stickers. These stickers allow you as the biz owner to get your followers included in the conversation. Ask questions, get feedback, make them feel included! Treating your followers like friends and including them in the conversation is the start of building an audience.
Hype up your friends. Instagram stories also allows for tagging and reposting. We already learned a little bit about reposting yesterday, if you want to review that, feel free to view yesterday’s blog here! With Instagram story stickers or text, you can tag a friend. This will give a notification to their account. Then they will be given the option to repost the story that you created. This is the only time reposting stories works. This is beneficial for your friend because tagging them in your story will create a direct link for your followers to see your friend’s account. It is beneficial for you because if your friend reposts the story, there will be a direct link to your account on their story.
Okay that was a lot… I promise what we’re learning is a lot more simple. 😆
So what can you do today to start learning to navigate stories?? Interact!
On your news feed, click one of the profile picture circles at the top of your page. At the bottom of the story you are viewing there will be three options.
They are:
Send message.
Like.
Or send.
Send message will start a Direct Message (DM) conversation with that person. Like will send them a notification that you liked their story. Send will allow you to send their story to another person, share their story to another app, or copy the link.
Your Challenge: Interact with a Story!
Now that you’re getting the hang of it, head over to an account that has a story posted!
Start one DM conversation from an Instagram story. Like one Instagram story. Then send one Instagram story.
If you’re nervous about starting a DM conversation from a story, a compliment is always a great start. If you’re not sure what kind of story you would want to send to someone, see if you can find a good quote to brighten a friend or fellow biz owner’s day!
And if you’re nervous about trying this out on other business owners, feel free to practice with the stories I have posted today over on @entirelybonkersmediaco!
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People prefer Instagram stories because they are timely updates on people’s lives. It is a way for people to stay connected to you on a day-to-day level.
There’s also sometimes less planning and prep when it comes to Instagram stories because their nature is more “on-the-fly”.
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Stories are often more popular than posts because people tend to scroll through stories first before scrolling through their feed.
It’s also less curated so it feels less intimidating for people to interact with.
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To use Instagram stories effectively, make sure you are leveraging story stickers, mentioning and engaging other accounts, and allow other users to share your stories.
