Different aspects of social media platforms can quickly result in confusion for a beginner user. What are Instagram stories? How do you provide quick links to your website? What are tags and hashtags, and why are they important to use?
In this series, Social Media Specific, we will be diving into specific aspects of social media and how to use those aspects to your advantage. This post’s topic: Instagram stories.
First off: what are Instagram stories?
Instagram stories are short video clips or images that appear as part of a user’s Instagram account for 24 hours. This limited time frame means that these stories usually display information about a current event or situation. Those who are on Instagram for personal use might use their stories to display a video of a night out, a photo of their friend to wish them a happy birthday, or a general update of their lives.
Instagram stories are unique because they disappear after 24 hours and can only be rewatched if the user has saved them to a highlight reel that is displayed on their profile underneath their basic profile information. Stories are also special because of the customization options that Instagram offers. A user can add a survey, a poll, a location, a hashtag, a GIF, and more to their stories, which add personalization and reach to this short-lived update.
So, why are Instagram stories important for businesses/organizations?
While a lot of these features may seem more suited for personal Instagram usage, Instagram stories can be extremely beneficial for businesses and organizations who have Instagram profiles. Below are a few of the pros that stories offer to businesses or groups on Instagram.
- Instagram stories keep your Instagram account current
In this day and age of Instagram usage, multiple posts per day for an Instagram account can be considered spamming of the followers of that account. As a business or organization, you want to be present on social media, but not overbearing on your followers. Typically, your followers are going to be your customers, and if they become annoyed at your social media strategies, it could affect how they view your business and brand.
Instagram stories help to bridge this gap. Save your actual posts on Instagram for professional photos or important, lengthy updates, and use your stories to share customer reviews, short updates, and current images. Not only can you get away with posting a lot more on your stories, but a regularly updated Instagram story shows your followers that you are invested in them, and it demonstrates that your business is keeping up with the times.
- Instagram stories provide an easy way to get feedback.
Getting feedback is important for any business or organization. Knowing what your customers or members want is the first step in making successful changes. However, getting honest feedback isn’t always easy. While steps like online surveys can be helpful, they can also be a bit time-consuming to put together, and, if you only need the answer to one or two questions, they may also be unnessecary.
Enter the features of an Instagram story. Instagram stories have several features that allow for easy questioning of viewers. These features include Polls, Questions, and Quizzes. Polls allow for users to choose between two answers to a question, Quizzes allow for users to choose between more than two answers, and Questions allow for written responses to more open-ended questions.
By selecting one of these options for an Instagram story, you can pose questions to your users and provide them with an easy, instant method of giving you feedback. This is a good time to request feedback on your products, poll your users on a favorite color or style, or to ask what they might want to see next.
- You can save relevant information to your Instagram highlights.
Say you have a really great Instagram story that provides a lot of information in just one slide. Or say you answer a question that a customer posed via your Instagram stories, and you think that your answer might help other customers. Instagram stories disappear after a day, but there is a way to make your stories stick on your Instagram profile for future users to reference.
‘Highlights’ are different categories that you can create on your Instagram profile. To do so using previous stories, head over to your profile, tap on ‘New,’ and add stories, a title, and image for your new highlight category. Good categories to have include Q&A (where you provide answers to questions), About Us (where you provide a short series of stories about your business or organization), Products/Services (where you show pictures, videos, and reviews of the products or services that you provide), and Events (where you show images or videos of events that your business or organization is a part of). These are all just ideas, and you can certainly have even more highlights if you’d like!
Once you have these categories created, you can assign an Instagram story to a highlight by viewing it and selecting the ‘Highlight’ button in the bottom right corner. Once you have a series of highlights built up, you can reference them when replying to customer questions, or direct users to a specific highlight category to help them see more about your business or organization! The major bonus here is that highlighted stories don’t disappear from your profile, so users should be able to keep viewing that story over and over.
Do you have any more questions about Instagram stories, or about Instagram in general? Head over to our Instagram profile (@wreathwritingandmarketing) and click on our profile picture to view our story and leave any questions there! Or, if you’re reading this later, feel free to leave your questions in the comments below!
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