Using Instagram Stories for Marketing

What Is Instagram Stories and Why Should You Care?

Stories is Instagram's version of Snapchat. Not to be outdone, this Facebook owned company wasn't about to let the new and upcoming Snapchat take over its social media traffic. Instead, they worked hard to implement their own design, and have it integrated seamlessly into their massively popular platform. It was launched in August of 2016, and already boasts impressive numbers. In fact, over 250 million Instagram fans are already sharing content via Instagram Stories. It's been very successful, and has helped boost the average time each user spends using the phone app, from 24 to 32 minutes. This is great news for businesses who use Instagram as a marketing tool. Rather than passing over your post with a two second glance, users are drawn in and remain engaged through the entire video. Live action captures attention more effectively than still images. This allows companies to maximize their call to action and provides additional opportunities to convert idle scrollers into paying customers. 

How to Integrate Instagram Stories into Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Create Mini Episodes Every Week - Stories are only 15 seconds long, and their meant to be spontaneous not perfect. This makes it relatively easy to pull out your phone and create engaging content without the stress or fuss of creating a full-length YouTube video or Facebook live cast. Be consistent by creating a fun weekly theme, answering customer's questions or giving a short behind the scenes sneak peek.

Save Videos and Use Them for Other Content - Instagram gives you the option to let the video disappear, to let it stick around for 24 hours or to save it. If you make a habit of downloading your best Stories, you can create a compilation for YouTube, embed it into your blog or post on your Twitter account or Facebook feed. Boomerangs are photo compilations used to create a video, when replayed they have a GIF like quality that can be used for other promotions. 

Utilize the Link Feature to Increase Traffic - If you have a verified Instagram account, you can add a link to your video.  When your audience "swipes up" on their phone screen, they'll be directed to your website, other social media account, featured product or a landing page. 

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