15 Aug Use Instagram Stories For Your Business In 5 Practical Ways
The social media industry is exciting as it is unpredictable. This has been the norm, from the expiration of the once foremost MySpace, to the rise of Instagram, then Snapchat. In similar fashion, Facebook seems to be shaking up the industry with its new Instagram feature. This piece seeks to discuss how marketers & entrepreneurs can use Instagram Stories for business.
As most social media users would know by now, Instagram Stories launched almost 2 weeks ago. This feature seemed to singlehandedly encompass the functionalities of its rival Snapchat, known for its solely ephemeral image sharing. Instagram’s launch of this new feature came as a little bit of a surprise to most social media users and definitely to Snapchat as it didn’t seem like the company was gearing up for what was about to happen.
How much of a paradigm shift Instagram’s new feature is going to make to social media marketing is yet to be fully ascertained. But it is certain that the 500 million monthly active user base company’s decision to blend ephemeral image posts with permanent posts in one app, has set off a process that would lead to new social media marketing discoveries.
Instagram’s new and unique posture has led me to write this article detailing some of the ways this combination of transient and permanent sharing could be applied to your business’ social media marketing doings.
So, how do we use Instagram Stories for business.
1. Develop Interrelated Content:
An example is showing your product in its finished state on your feed while showing the formation stages in Stories. For instance, a restaurant might show the delightful picture/video of a meal on the feed while showing videos of the chef putting the meal together in the Stories section; or in the case of a boutique, a high quality picture or video of a model wearing an outfit in the feed, while showing the design process and fun behind the scenes in your stories section.
Remember, the goal is to make the content interesting and fun. For instance, let your followers get to know who the chef is. This is beneficial especially for promotional campaigns as it gives more value to the posts on your feed by making them more relatable to followers.
2. Interact With Your Followers:
Another way of using Instagram Stories for business is to reply followers who message you via the feature. You could use these interactions to endear customers to your business by giving an authentic feel to your brand. For instance, the people featured in the behind the scenes videos could reply to your followers’ queries or compliments. In our previous example, the chef could answer a question; or the designer or model in the case of the boutique.
In cases where you believe a particular answer would benefit a substantial number of your followers, characters featured in Stories could share a video reply. This creates a truly social ambiance around your brand, and an effective way to apply Instagram Stories for business marketing.
3. Utilise Stories for contests & sales promotions:
From reposts, to little rewards for your followers, to huge sales promotions, you can combine Stories with your wide-open feed in a lot of creative ways for contests. Contests could ask users to send answers to questions as replies, send videos or photos. You could be easily combine these with the usual use of specific hashtags, comments, shares and mentions. The nature of Instagram allows you to track the analytics of these contests so you can determine its value.
4. Show Product Previews Before Launch:
Using Stories, you can let your followers get a sneak preview of a product before its official launch. Use this to build excitement and anticipation around the new product and its launch. This makes your audience feel privileged about following your account.
Furthermore, when used in combination with contests and sales promotions, certain users could be selected to get exclusive previews of a product.
5. Simply Have Fun With It:
While it is true that business is serious business (pun intended), and we are discussing Instagram Stories for business marketing; your followers would appreciate the fun, real, human and spontaneous posts that is expected to be seen in Stories. Kindly reserve the polished stuff for the feed.
The Stories section was designed by Instagram as a remedy to the hitch of overposting, as it’s not really tasteful to spam people’s feed with loads of posts. So do feel free to share the little moments that’ll showcase your company culture, members of your team, work ethics etc. You could share laughs with your followers, show off your end of year party, birthdays of team members, the peacock that lives in the company premises… you get my point. This is beneficial because it enhances intimacy with your brand which of course leads to a lot more loyal customers.
Conclusion
Facebook, Instagram’s parent company is known for its monetisation through adverts approach to its management of social networks. Therefore, attempts at integrating adverts into Stories is not ruled out as a possible future move by the company. But, until then, the above are some ideas on how to use the new feature to the advantage of your business.
Are you currently applying Instagram Stories? What have you discovered? Do share your ideas in the comments below. 🙂
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