5 Reasons You Should Make Use of Stories

Snapchat introduced stories in October 2013

Instagram introduced stories in August 2016

Facebook and Facebook Messenger introduced 2017

If you’re not using stories in 2018, you might be behind.

Stories are the new hot feature for brands to engage with their audience. The movement of using stories to market developed with the boom of Instagram stories. While stories do exist on Facebook, it is not the brands’ (or users’) go-to platform for marketing through stories. Have you ever really posted a story on Facebook?

If you have, you’re one of few.

Brands mainly market or communicate with their audience though Snapchat and Instagram stories.   

The stories feature on the two platforms are very similar (mainly because they keep copying each other); but still they serve different demographics and different companies. Snapchat is more popular among younger demographics especially teenagers. Media companies like Buzzfeed, and other magazines, have enjoyed high exposure and engagement with audience through Snapchat’s discovery section. Instagram stories better serve retail, fashion, and fitness pages. Brands on Instagram target an older demographic than that of Snapchat’s.

So why would you want to market through stories?

1. They’re cool.

   Stories grew in popularity last year and it doesn’t look like they’re slowing down. 

2. Wide reach

   And an active user base! Snapchat sees about 178 million users daily. And Instagram sees 300 million.  

3. Stories are discoverable

   This means that people who don’t follow you on Instagram or ‘friends’ with you on Snapchat can still see your stories! Your reach is then expanded beyond your audience and you can create new fans!

4. They can be a testing ground

   Have an idea not sure about? Not sure if your audience will love or hate a certain social post? You can always try it out in a story on either platform. If it gets positive feedback, consider making it a permanent post. If not, well they only last 24 hours!

5. Drive Traffic to your website

   Instagram only allows you to link websites to your stories if you have a large following (more than 10,000 followers). But you can always use the Instagram story to redirect your audience to the link in your bio.

   For a little while, the link feature was exclusive to Instagram, but it is now a feature on Snapchat too introduced with the new update. And there is no follower minimum for it!

6. They’re effortless

   Well, kind of. Unlike other social media posts, posting to your story does not take a lot of planning or designing. But you do have to choose the filter, caption, and maybe a sticker or a hashtag. The more you let users in on the behind the scenes stuff the better. Users enjoy when social media posts seem personalized and relatable even.