Using Instagram Stories to grow your brand

Instagram Stories was launched a few months ago, as most social media enthusiasts will agree, as a response to Snapchat’s increasingly popular Stories. Even Instagram CEO made no pretence about the similarity to Snapchat’s Stories when asked,

“Just like when Facebook invented the (News) Feed, and every social product was like ‘That is an innovation, how do we adapt that to our network?’ You are going to see stories pop up in over time, because it is one of the best ways to show visual information in chronological order,” he said.

Instagram Stories presents a new and unique way for individuals and brands to share content on the platform, enabling them to showcase another side of their personality or add additional context to better connect with their Instagram followers. The feature is accessible via a set of circular icons representing people you follow on the platform; it comes on top of your Instagram feed anytime they put up a new Story. Once you click on the icon, it takes you to the user’s story – a collection of photos and videos (up to 10 seconds) that they have uploaded in the last day, presented in slideshow format. The stories disappear after 24 hours.

It should be noted, that given its popularity, wider audience appeal, and haven been around much longer, Instagram can clearly boast of more exciting audience than Snapchat particularly among the youth demographics in Nigeria and anywhere. That makes using Istagram Stories a more appealing proposition for brands. We should also add, that a few days ago Instagram announced it now has over 600 million active users around the globe.

In a blog post, Instagram shared insights on how brands were using Stories to engage and gain more followers. Do not forget that the more audience you have the more potential buyers you get. Some of the examples the post cited can help your brand as well.

First, was the sale promotion campaign by J.Crew staff that leveraged Stories to experiment with a limited-time sale. By using Stories, wrote Andrew Hutchinson of Socia MediaToday, J.Crew was extending the interactive and engaging elements of their Instagram presemce in  a way that will help draw their audience in, as they will be alerted to the Story either in their home feeds or when they come to visit their profile, giving J.Crew another way to boost the awareness of their event.

Second, most brands that have become successful on Instagram are famous for posting great photos and images. Mercedez-Benz for instance has used Stories to extend its appeal of their content by providing behind the scenes glimpse of how they created the great images and photos on their timeline were created. The Stories connect easily with the audience. In the case of Mercedez the audience had the opportunity to connect with the brands key messages on attention to detail and spirit of adventure.

Since Instagram Stories also offers drawing tools, a brand can create memorable images for the audience by creatively using the tools like food chain venture, Taco Bell did in its inaugural story. In the first story, the employees of the firm asked customers to direct message them what they will like to see most – food, games or behind the scenes, on its Instagram Stories feed. After the initial story ran, the company was able to tailor its content based on its community’s participation.

 

FRANK ELEANYA