There are many ways to market using social media these days. One feature that has been emerging in the digital marketing world is the “stories” feature. This feature first appeared on Snapchat and is now almost on all social media platforms. Social media stories are on Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube. This provides businesses with more opportunities to market their brand.

What are Social Media Stories?

Social media stories are images or videos that are not part of your regular feed or timeline. They are only viewable for 24 hours, after which they are deleted. You can post various images or videos on your story. Just keep in mind they are automatically deleted.

The enticing thing about these social media stories is that it helps the users stay in the loop about the brand they are following. Because the stories disappear after 24 hours, users can quickly get updates on the trending feeds, which means they can stay updated on your brand’s products and announcements. When more users are available online, it allows marketers to generate more leads. That’s a benefit that marketers get from social media stories.

For instance, if you are an online marketer, you can try to attract as many customers as possible by regularly updating your feed. Once you have gained a consistent following, you can market your products to them with your stories. Social media stories act as an incredible way of engaging viewers, and that’s why it’s an advantage to online marketers because they can directly engage with their loyal customers and prospects.

Different Types of Stories (Facebook, IG, Snapchat)

You may think that all social media platforms should have a story feature, but not all of them do. The platforms with social media stories are Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

Social media platforms have always been looking for new features to implement in their services. In the early months of 2016, Instagram joined Snapchat as one of the platforms to have stories feature. Instagram saw how stories could be used for brand advertising.

Ever since Instagram implemented stories in their platform, many others have followed. Let’s narrow down the social media platforms that have stories and how it works on each of them.

Snapchat

Snapchat is one of the more popular social media platforms used today, especially by younger generations. Teenagers and young adults love this app, which makes it the ideal place to market your brand if your target market is within the ages of 18-24.

Engaging your viewers is vital. The only way to do this is by grasping the attention of your viewers by regularly providing story updates about new products and changes in your company. Snapchat provides many graphics and filters you can use when creating a story. This gives each story a unique identity.

It is an excellent platform for marketing. You can entertain your audience, while also getting your message across.

Instagram

Like Snapchat, Instagram Stories has been transforming the marketplace for both marketers and sellers and making it an ideal platform for entertainment. The platform decided to implement the stories feature after seeing how successful it was on Snapchat.

The audience on Instagram is way higher than the audience on Snapchat, which is evident from the follower counts you see on popular pages.

One thing about Instagram is that people mostly follow you because they like what you do or the content you post. For instance, if you post cooking videos, your followers will mainly be people who love cooking. The stories you will be posting must target your viewers and what they love.

One significant advantage of Instagram’s story feature is that it gives users the ability to have their stories stay on their page for a long time. This is possible through the usage of the “highlights” feature whereby, after you add a story to your feed, you can add it to “highlights,” and it won’t disappear even after twenty-four hours.

Facebook

Through Facebook stories, social media users can easily access and follow their favorite brands. This platform has a newsfeed page just like Instagram, while also sharing similarities with Snapchat.

Many users are on Facebook compared to other social media platforms because it was one of the first to be created. Because of the large number of users on it, Facebook is an ideal digital marketing platform.

If you have many friends and followers following your business on Facebook, you can keep them engaged by posting good quality story content on your feed regularly.

YouTube

Since the emergence of social media stories, people have realized that social media posts do not drive as much traffic as them. Sites like YouTube have been gradually driving more traffic and prospects to brand websites.

Youtube Stories is a useful feature for giving clients a good preview of what you sell. You can post about many products throughout the day and refresh the next day’s story with new stock.

That’s how you keep customers interested in your business. They can start referring you to their friends and colleagues by screenshotting your stories and sending them to them. That’s how you end up growing and thriving in a competitive market.

Purpose of Social Media Stories

• Advertisement
• Engaging your viewers
• Marketing your brand
• Attract broad audiences and get more prospects
• Drive more traffic to your website

Why You Should Incorporate Stories into Your Marketing Strategy?

Social media stories are perfect for online marketing strategies since they allow you to show off your creative side by promoting a product or service, as well as entertaining your viewers. Some reasons you should incorporate stories in your marketing strategy include:

• Drive more prospects to visit your site by attaching links to your social media stories and, for example, attaching a link to the product you are promoting on your story.
• Attract a broader audience to your business, which can lead to more brand recognition.
• Easily engage with your audience, making it great for connecting with clients and showing them a more human side of your company.

These are strong reasons why you should think about using stories in your digital marketing strategy. They can drive more traffic to your website which increases the chances of converting those leads.

Conclusion

Stories are a great feature that many people use throughout the day. This makes it a perfect place to market your business. Stories, when used correctly and creatively, can boost your brand recognition and attract more prospective customers.

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