What started as a fad has turned into an integral part of many brands’ social media strategies.
Still skeptical about the benefits of Facebook and Instagram stories?
These benefits explain why stories have gone from an optional experiment to a must for Facebook and Instagram Marketing
They Increase Visibility
The biggest reason for utilizing Facebook and Instagram stories is to increase the visibility of your content.
We all know that Facebook’s organic reach has been declining for some time. As of this year, the average organic reach is a mere 6.4% of page likes, making content alternatives a must.
Why is this?
The fact that Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm prioritizes posts from friends and family is common knowledge at this point. Facebook has actually taken it a step further ever since its mobile users started to eclipse desktop users.
Simply put, mobile users don’t spend large concentrated amounts of time on social media. Spending less time on their platform means there are fewer chances for users to find something interesting and stay online. So rather than showing people everything they follow, Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm prioritizes content that’s most likely to be engaged with, based on past user behavior.
As a result, brands are seeing a dramatic decrease in organic reach, leaving them no choice but to seek alternatives for reaching their customers.
Stories offer an opportunity to circumvent Facebook’s increasingly difficult newsfeed algorithm.
How?
For starters, your page followers are much more likely to see your recent story than they are your organic posts. Plus users that follow your stories regularly are eventually going to be more likely to see your organic posts as well.
Think of stories as an additional avenue for showcasing your content that can bring followers closer to your brand.
They Keep Followers Engaged
Updating your stories will remind customers of your brand and boost overall engagement. Stories tend to be shorter, less polished posts that offer more of an intimate, “behind the scenes” kind of feel.
While your organic strategy might not call for as many posts, stories are less formal and are designed for “now”. Stories self-delete after 24 hours, so much of the content tends to be topical, rather than evergreen posts that are encouraged on newsfeeds.
They Add Context to Your Content
Stories help add personality to your brand. Since your stories will only reach page followers, you can tailor your messaging for closer fans.
This adds more than you might expect.
Paid and organic content is often designed to be “all inclusive” so it appeals to existing followers as well as potential followers. Since stories are exclusively directed at existing followers, you can make more assumptions and adopt more specific topics.
This will not only diversify your existing content strategy but will strengthen brand loyalty throughout your social audience and will give existing fans more reasons to stay tuned and share your content with their friends.
They Can Drive Website Traffic
Pages with 10,000+ followers can easily add links to their Facebook/Instagram stories. This will give viewers the option to click through to an outside piece of content (like a blog post) directly from your story.
For Instagram, simply click the link icon, click “URL” and add the destination link.
If your page is too small, we’ll show you how to increase page followers.
They Offer Valuable Insights
One of the best ways to monitor close engagement is to keep tabs on how many of your followers are viewing each story post. Data from organic reach (and sometimes organic engagement) can be biased and while it’s valuable in itself, the additional data from stories can either challenge or verify existing beliefs.
In addition, you can experiment with the types of story posts. Trying different colors, filters, stickers, and overall themes can provide insight as to what paid or organic content might be successful in the future.
What We Recommend
While these tips are strong, their true potential comes when used together.
Here’s how to make the most from your stories.
Create a Calendar
Just like with organic content, it’s important for your followers to have a steady supply of content to keep them engaged. Planning ahead will not only keep you organized but will also ensure your story content will be working hand-and-hand with your paid and organic content.
Mix It Up
It’s important to constantly experiment with new forms of content. This will keep things fresh for your followers and provide insight as to what they’re more likely to respond to. You can use this info for your paid campaigns.
Follow The 80/20 Rule
Constant self-promotion is a great way to annoy your page followers. The 80/20 rule means that 80% of your content is for your followers’ enjoyment, while the remaining 20% is more sales-oriented. Follow this rule to build strong engagement and viewer retention.
Use Humor
Because of the concise nature of story content, it’s difficult to go into any real detail with your story content.
It’s best to keep things light.
We recommend using humor as a way to add some personality to your content and keep followers coming for more.
Wrapping Up
Facebook and Instagram Stories are here and they’re not going away anytime soon. Rather than ignoring them, your brand will benefit much more by adopting them into your social media strategies.
The social media landscape is always moving and if you’re not ahead, you’re falling behind. Is your brand failing to capitalize on Facebook or Instagram Stories? Free to contact the experts at Active Web Group to get yourself on the right track. Can’t wait? Give us a call at 800-978-3417.
