“Storytelling’ has been a key buzzword of the marketing world for decades (see the philosophy espoused by Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men), but the digital realm especially has taken this concept to new heights.
Before you even introduce your product or service, your audience of potential customers want to be captivated and intrigued. Given that we see anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements per day on a variety of platforms (print, billboard, television, internet and smartphone apps), the ads that capture our attention are the ones that truly stand out and act as a natural complement to the content with which we already love to engage.
In August 2016, Instagram launched the Stories component of its photo and video-sharing app. Admittedly copied from Snapchat’s enormously popular Stories feature, Instagram Stories allow users to post full-screen vertical images/videos that disappear within 24 hours. However, while users’ normal posts can be easily lost in the timeline, the Stories feature is located at the top of the home screen, allows for a seamless scrolling with posts often appearing in chronological order and alerts users to any time a profile they follow has posted a story.
According to Instagram, over 500 million accounts use Stories every day whether posting or just scrolling through and that “one-third of the most viewed stories come from businesses, and one in five stories gets a direct message from its viewers.” If you want to truly up your company’s Instagram strategy, read on to discover FIVE ways to best use Instagram Stories.
