Instagram Stories: Five uses for businesses
The Instagram Story feature has been part of Instagram for almost two years now and it's hard to imagine life without it. Brands and companies in particular use it to increase brand awareness in an organic way and show followers completely new facets. The social media marketing platform Socialbakers outlines five application scenarios with which companies can exploit the potential of Stories.
1. address the users emotionally
One way to involve the community and attract new users at the same time is to use content that your followers have created. For example, a brand can call on users to stage its own product in a certain way and share the best results via the story. It is important to note that the content may not be used without the users' consent. Campaign hashtags are an exception, where the user knows the rules.
2. engage in dialog with followers
Instagram provides exciting tools via Stories that make the dialog with followers entertaining and emotional. The tools allow users to involve their own community and find out what's on their minds. In the survey tool, there are two fixed answer options to a question. Do followers like product A or B more? The ask-me-anything tool is relatively new. Here, the community can ask specific questions. Brands can also present their results in a very personal way in the story, for example with video answers.
3. share content for redistribution
Companies and brands can also actively play content via the Story, the purpose of which is the further distribution by the followers. Nice examples are attractive backgrounds or interesting questionnaires that users fill out themselves and share in their stories. In this way, other content, such as interesting facts, can also be shared with followers.
4. use text function and links in stories
In order to share longer text passages with followers, for example on current occasions or from their own articles, Instagram has introduced the text mode this year. Different fonts, backgrounds and text markers are available. This means that even longer articles can be used for a story. A direct link to the respective article in the Stories works with the "Swipe up" feature. However, an account needs at least ten thousand followers to set links.
5. Instagram Story Ads
To increase the reach and success of a campaign via Instagram's Stories feature, the advertising feature comes in handy. This allows ads to be shared within the Stories of other users. It is important to know who the target group is and which time is most suitable for addressing them. In addition, the advertising banner used should be designed in an appealing way.
Socialbakers is a global social media management company.
