If you don’t use Instagram stories for business, you might miss a big opportunity. Instagram Stories is not only fun and innovative, but it is one of the best ways to increase your engagement, build brand awareness, and even drive sales! With over 500 million daily users, Instagram stories are a great way to reach potential new customers – and build a stronger connection with your existing customers.
Instagram Stories was first launched in 2016, and its popularity has grown on the platform since then. In fact, the average number of feed posts posted by influencers has decreased each year since stories entered the scene.
How is Instagram used in the business world?
As consumers expect more reliable communication from the brands they support, 24-hour stories have risen as the perfect outlet for off-the-cuff content to the camera with minimal post-production production, with brands like Everlane at the fore. Learning how to use use Instagram stories for business is a skill that might come quite in handy in our evolving business world.
Instagram Stories – a full-screen, first-camera visual format that disappears after 24 hours, similar to Snapchat – doesn’t appear in your Instagram news feed. This means that users can easily and quickly post to their followers without worrying about them getting overloaded.
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Also, compared to the polished reputation of the Instagram aesthetic, the vibe is definitely rougher around the edges. Here’s good news for beginners: diving into it doesn’t require hiring a videographer.
Instagram Stories allows users to combine photos and video clips into short slideshows, which can be overlaid with text, graphics, and emojis. Once you upload a Story, your content will disappear after 24 hours. So, while the photos and videos you post on your profile will be found forever by anyone who want to search for them, your stories are ephemeral and only visible for a limited time. Once they are gone, they are gone. This gives you a chance to be a little more casual and fun with your marketing content – if you like.
You might be surprised how much people care when it comes to peeking behind a curtain. In an age when consumers question traditional marketing, there is honesty about peeling your layers and getting your audience out behind the scenes. This could be a glimpse of your office gym, a look at the nuts and bolts of your production line or a view of the interval of your platform as you climb up at an industrial event. You make your followers feel on the inside when you use Instagram stories for business.
Think of stories as a kind of secondary and exclusive feed of content for your most dedicated followers. Creative touches like unique comments and overlays make the stories very different from traditional posts. Story content is also prioritized in the sense that Instagram highlights updated stories up front in your feed. The purple circle around your profile picture lets your followers know that you recently added to your story.
This creates a sense of urgency and scarcity regarding your stories, making them the kind of content that is indispensable to the eyes only and is exclusive to knowledgeable followers. However, you can save the stories to your home page to convert them into static content in the form of “profiles”.
How do you use Instagram to promote your business?
Instagram is a useful tool for small business owners. The free app is an excellent resource for showcasing products and making customers feel included in the “behind the scenes” aspects of your business. And now you can shop through Stories, thanks to the partnership with Shopify. Merchants simply tag products in a post that allows users to click to buy without leaving the app.
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Larger companies have many more loops that you can skip when it comes to creating a strategy for the platform and general content, so use your business volume as a way to try out new tools. Business owners should bear in mind that this does not mean the end of the primary Instagram “feed”. Ultimately, this means identifying content that deserves the urgency of the stories and the continuity of the traditional conclusion.
How to Use Instagram Stories for Your Business
· Announcements 📢
Due to the instant nature of Instagram stories, it’s a great way to share company announcements like new products, new employees, and general updates!
These moments represent a great opportunity to post behind-the-scenes shots of the company that won’t necessarily earn a spot on your main profile. Your followers will feel aware of the latest information, as well as get to know you and the business.
These personal ideas can be anything from new product packaging to playing a joke on a colleague. They will help convey the human side of your company, thus enhancing brand awareness and engagement!
· Cooperation 👥
Instagram stories offer a great way for brands and influencers to collaborate! You could collaborate with a related company that you think your followers could benefit from getting to know it, or perhaps an influencer customer.
· Story highlights ⭐
Instagram Story Highlights have been a game changer since they were released in December 2017. For casual users, it acts as a personal display reel for “the best pieces”. But for brands, the ability to pin Stories at the top of your profile basically works as an extension to your resume.
As a business, you can take advantage of the highlights to tell the people who land on your page who you are, what you do and why you do it, as well as showcasing your product or service! Create Featured Stories, with an eye-catching cover, you’ll turn your Instagram page into a brochure!
· Questions ❓
The Question Poster allowed brands to invite their audience to ask any pressing questions of them, as well as ask questions of their own audience! This is a great feature for building a community and encouraging customer interaction. By showing they care about their customers’ opinion, as well as being present to answer questions, they position the brand as reliable, human, and kind – which, in turn, generates customer loyalty!
· Countdown ⏱
A recent addition to Instagram Stories, the Countdown Poster is a great branding feature for promoting contests, sales and ads. Users can set reminders for the countdown time, and brands receive this data so they know exactly how many (and which) their audience is most engaged!
This data is another great feature to help build the community, and we can see Instagram continue to develop these types of features in 2019.
