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Stories have been captivating audiences across social media platforms, allowing brands and users to give their Followers a glimpse into their life-moments for a limited time. While Instagram Stories usage among users is exploding - brands are still looking for ways to get in on the action. And if you’re one of those brands that hasn’t jumped on the Stories train just yet - you may be missing out on some major engagement.
However, when it comes to new formats brands sometimes struggle to keep up with user demand. Many brands understand that Stories are one of the hottest new trends on social, but can’t decide if Stories are worth the number of resources that are invested into creating them. After all, each Story only sticks around for 24 hours.
To find out how Stories stack up against Organic posts we took a look at content from more than 1,100 Instagram Profiles. Our conclusions? These time-sensitive clips have BIG potential.
Brands Post More Stories Than Posts
Interestingly, we found that the largest Instagram Profiles aren’t really making the most of this new format. The relative number of Posts and Stories brands are publishing are nearly even. Considering that Stories are posted countless times a day without any repercussions, we would expect that the overall share of Stories vs. Posts would be more than just an 8% difference. Is it possible that by not embracing this new format brands are missing out on a major opportunity?
Brands Using Stories Get More Visibility
Due to the time-limited nature of Stories, Brands will need to create a specific set of KPIs. Unlike Posts - Likes or Comments shouldn’t be considered for success metrics. Partly because Likes are impossible to leave within a Story and partly because clips are often too short for users to leave a comment.So what should you measure when it comes to Instagram Stories? Well - Reach and Impressions are a huge part of it. Reach is important because it shows you unique views your Story received, compared to Total Impressions, which gives you the overall number of how many times your Story was viewed.
According to our data, it was clear that brands’ Stories had a tremendous impact on their overall Impressions, though it’s true that Posts still predominantly make up most of a brand’s reach. However, we can’t ignore that the lifecycle of a post and Story are quite different, so of course, the comparison isn’t 100% fair.
Here we can see that Posts contribute to a whopping 81% of a brand’s Impressions while Stories account for 19%. Right now you are probably thinking that 19% may not be big enough to encourage you to roll up your sleeves and start posting Stories - but hear us out.
Takeaway
Organic Reach is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve on social media, especially in light of algorithm changes like the recent Facebook News Feed update. More and more brands are expected to put dollars behind their content, in order to ensure that it gets seen. However, adopting new formats could be the loophole that could earn you better visibility. While Reach is still possible on Facebook, marketers are now turning to Instagram to connect with their audiences.Instagram Stories have tons of marketer-friendly features that open up more avenues for creativity, branding, and more so it’s important not to shy away from this new format because of their vanishing act. On the contrary, social media marketers can leverage Instagram Stories to create a stellar storytelling strategy, that has the added advantage of reaching their audiences instantly.
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