The Stories feature, introduced by the popular Instagram app in August this year, turned out to be a hit. Although it initially sparked a huge wave of outrage and was labeled a Snapchat copycat, it now has 100 million users. What’s more, it has also proven to be an ideal place for promoting many brands. Why?Instagram’s creators admitted from the very beginning that their new feature was inspired by Snapchat, but in practice, the way it works is almost identical – Instagram users can post short videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours. Differences include, among others, that Instagram Stories can only contain materials created within the last day, the number of available brushes or color palettes, as well as the age groups of users. According to Facebook for Business data, 82% of Snapchat users in Poland are under 24 years old, half of whom are teenagers aged 13-18. In the case of Instagram, as reported by infosocialmedia.pl, 87% of users are aged 18-34. For this reason, if your promotional activities target a slightly older audience than Snapchat’s, it’s worth incorporating this tool into your campaign.Instagram Stories – how to leverage its potential?Instagram’s new feature is especially useful for companies wanting to inform customers about special, limited-time offers. If they choose to post information about a promotion that expires along with the video after 24 hours, they gain the ability to speed up the customer’s purchase decision. Such a video can also direct Instagram users to the company’s or product’s website and even encourage sending – recently introduced to the app – private messages, where customers can ask for offer details. Instagram Stories can also serve to show the company’s creative process or present it from a less formal perspective. A visit to the production department, showing the product creation process, or behind-the-scenes videos – these should be the focus for companies aiming to build customer trust.
Although Instagram Stories has existed for only three months, the app’s creators have already announced plans to introduce further changes – including placing the most popular stories in the Explore tab, where photos and videos are tailored to user preferences. We are eagerly waiting!
Author: Marta
