Instagram is one channel that’s been exploding like no other. Instagram stories are the social media giant’s latest attempt to drive more engagement from the platform, and it seems to be working. Instagram has 800 million monthly active users 500 million of who visit the site daily. Of that 300 million engage with Instagram stories. Do you realize how big a platform Stories is now?
But for business, the good news doesn’t lie in the fact the over half of Instagram’s daily active users are engaging with stories. The good news likes in the fact that one in five Instagram stories leads to an inbox interaction.
When you create a story odds are a follower is going to engage with you. Considering the fact that marketers are ready to give an arm and a leg to get people to engage with their emails, the fact that people are going to message you is pretty good. In other words 20% of the time you will get your followers messaging you. You don’t even have to do any selling for this happen. It’s in the nature of the platform.
The habit of Instagram users has now changed from scrolling through the feed mindlessly to watching stories. If you’re not creating content on a regular basis, people are going to forget about your business. That shouldn’t happen, and by creating stories, you make sure that people engage with that and stay engaged. That way your business stays on top of their mind.
But first, let’s understand what powers this technology.
How does Instagram stories work Instagram Stories Algorithm
No social network or popular platform is going to let you see under the hood to understand the inner workings of the platform. What we have learnt so far is Instagram tries to create a unique personalized experience for each user on the platform.
Here are the factors that determine what kind of content you will be seeing. You will see more of the content that you engage with most. Depending on which apps you spend the time most
with the content changes.
It also varies depending on how many minutes or hours of usage the person does on the platform. If you spend more hours, you will see fresh content off the bat. If you visit just once or twice a day spending 2 to 3 minutes you get to see the top content of that day and nothing more.
User engagement also plays a crucial role. If you watch someone’s story, engage on their profile or visit their profile, or engage with the person behind the profile with messages you’re likely to see more of their content.
Again, Instagram stories refresh whenever you open the app. So if the content has been updated from a channel, you normally engage with it’s likely that you will see the updated content.
But how to manage your time effectively for all these platforms?
If you are equally active on many social media platforms, you will find that Instagram tends to take a lot more time. How to effectively create stories and ensure that you still have time for other things. Repurposing is the key. When you bring content from other platforms to Instagram, you’re not only saving time, but you’re getting new followers, much more engagement with proven pieces of content. Depending on how well a given content has performed on any platform it’s likely to capture attention on Instagram too.
Even blog posts can be repurposed. Instead of text summarize the main points in a video that’s 1 to 2 minute long.
Have Someone Take-Over Your Account for One Day
Instagram takeovers are pretty popular these days with allowing other popular celebs to take over your account for a day and see the magic it does. Especially with them using the stories feature takeovers can bring your audience face to face with a celebrity and is bound to up engagement levels. You also get to learn a thing or two.
Use User-Generated Content
User-generated content is another popular facet of Instagram. This allows you to leverage content generated by others to feature on your Instagram account. It doesn’t take a lot of time for them, and it frees up your time. If someone tags your account in a story, you’re able to add that story to your own stories section.
With Instagram encouraging sharing of user-generated content, you can spare some time during your schedule and start posting great content from what you find in the feed. User-generated content additionally increases customer trust on an account.
Also, post more types of content to keep things interesting. If its video stories every day sooner or later people are going to get bored. Many different types of content can be used like photos, on-screen text, GIFs and emojis. In fact, Instagram recently added to its library of emojis. Using location tagging, you can create hyper-relevant content, run polls and use hashtags on the content.
Hashtags can help increase number of views on the post by providing relevant context.
For example, this popular user takes photos of all the 3d pen art he’s created and posts on his Instagram account. Often with some hashtag related to the 3d pen or 3d printing.
Concluding thoughts
What do you think of the potential of Instagram stories? Is it something you will actively use in your marketing efforts?
Do let us know in the comments below.
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