If you use social media at all, you would have continued to notice the rise of Social Media Stories and the story format. Especially, on Facebook. But what does it mean for your business?
In this post we look at several platforms;
- Instagram Stories
- Snapchat Stories
- Facebook Stories
- WhatsApp Stories
(we’ll leave TikTok and the beast it’s becoming for another blog soon!)
This may be quite eye opening for you. And, we want to tell you how you can leverage this through visual storytelling.
The Rise of Social Media Stories
It’s difficult to ignore the power–and potential of the Social Media Stories format. According to the research, Stories are growing 15X faster than the traditional newsfeeds.
More than 1 billion users are already hooked on the format. Think about that for a moment — 1Billion active users.
It’s no secret that storytelling and more narrative content marketing go hand in hand (or should). And as a result, social media stories have become one of the most trending storytelling formats out there.
A few benefits stories have over newsfeeds
- Increased brand (you) awareness
- Constant and simple engagement with the followers
- Free or inexpensive (free editing tools are available)
- Increased traffic to your web page possibilities (Instagram specific)
Because social media stories are quick, easy and user friendly for your audience, engagement surpasses other forms of content. Stories whether it be Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. give you an opportunity to;
- get creative
- ask questions through polls
- participate in the ‘ask me anything’
- tell a story, with the stories
- share far more frequently than you would on a newsfeed
- solicit feedback
- share consumer testimonials, product uses, etc.
Additionally, check out these facts from Sensible …
There is plenty of data that proves that social media Stories are the next big thing for marketers. Here is some of it that you should be aware of (late 2019 stats):
- 57% Female, 48% Males and 61% teenagers (18-24) in the US use Snapchat Stories (source: reelnneel.com).
- 52% Male and 43% Female in the US use Instagram Stories.
- There’s an average of 35.5% active users worldwide sharing their Instagram.
- 7% of Facebook’s users share their videos through Facebook Stories.
- There are 450M daily active users on Snapchat, Instagram Stories, and WhatsApp Status combined (source: sociallystorted.com).
- The most popular types of Stories for a brand on Instagram are Merchandise content, stories that give an “Inside Look” involving a Guest Takeover or showcasing an event.
Now, knowing this are you asking yourself why you haven’t dove into any of these social media stories platforms yet?
Another great feature we love about stories is for example, if you create one on Instagram .. save it!
This way, you can repurpose it to other platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp in no time at all.
Although WhatsApp would appear to operate solely as a messenger app, don’t dismiss that anyone in your contacts and has WhatsApp can see your stories. We have heard incredible testimonies of those who reconnected with people who weren’t even on their minds anymore simply because they were in their contact list and the stories on there popped up.
However, they went on to do great business with each other as a result of sharing a story on social media.
