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3 Ways to Highlight Your Business With Instagram Stories

Posted on: Tuesday, August 30th, 2016

The social media titan Instagram has launched a new feature that is the mirror image of Snapchat. Instagram Stories is a video and picture based reel of what has been going on in your life for the last 24 hours. Like Snapchat, you can use 10-second video clips or pictures with unique filters, added text, and highlighters or markers to add some flare or comedy to your story.

So how can Instagram Stories be valuable to your business and how can you use it to improve your social media marketing? With 500 million monthly users, you won’t want to miss out on Instagram’s new feature that allows you to more deeply connect with your fans and customers.

Stories

1) The Story Between Pictures

One of the best and worst aspects of the old Instagram is that the feed is fairly pretentious, and is solely meant for perfectly doctored, specially curated, and notably filtered pictures. Users and businesses have said that it can be painstaking when deciding if a picture is good enough, or if it will help or hurt their credibility on the platform. Oh yeah, and if you over-post you could easily be considered a feed spammer.

The beauty of Instagram Stories is that it is a transient way to tell your business’s story between pictures. There’s not as much pressure to create something perfect in those pictures and videos, and there shouldn’t be. You get to share something fun, goofy, informative, cool, or personal and within 24 hours it’s gone.

2) The Personality of Your Brand

Frequent and consistent posting of pictures and video in your Instagram Story is a great way to build deeper connections with your followers. Give them insight into the processes and the people involved in the day-to-day operations of your business.

You could…

  • -Show a behind-the-scenes of a project or product you are working on
  • -Engage your fans with a Call-to-Action asking their opinions and reactions to one of your pictures or video clips
  • -Show you and your team goofing off at lunch
  • -Ask them to check out a new blog post or article you have by directing them to a link in their bio

Use your stories to show your fans and customers that you are more than just a business who is churning out products or services for cash. Give them an insight into the personality of your brand, culture, humor, and make them feel like they are part of the family.

3) Events and Special Occasions

Instagram Stories is a killer way to give your fans an inside view of what you are doing. Whether you are having a fun, having a creative meeting or hosting a huge event, Instagram Stories gives your business the ability to make all of your fans part of the experience; not just the ones that can show up in person. Post highlight pictures and video from a conference or event that you are participating in or hosting to make your loyalists feel like they are in it with you.

Instagram Stories is a new tool that is too powerful to ignore. We don’t yet know if this is going to be the end of Snapchat, but Instagram has already improved on a lot of Snapchat’s translucent and confusing functionalities. Since this feature is seamlessly and unobtrusively integrated into an application that you are probably already using, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be using Instagram Stories to connect with your audience.

Even the most tech-savvy entrepreneur needs assistance with their social media marketing every now and then. If you’re looking to improve your online strategies while saving time for the other inner-workings of your business, be sure to check out our Social Media Consulting Services.


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