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Maximizing Your IG Stories
Navigating Instagram can be something that feels as if you need an entire college course to digest. There are hashtags, stories, IGTV, live videos, influencers, geo-tagging, alt image text, and so much more! Where to even begin? Stories of course! Most businesses simply are not using this very simple feature on IG to maximize their marketing potential.
How Do IG Stories Work?
We can all remember the news story about Facebook trying to buy out Snapchat right? Remember when Facebook offered millions of dollars and Snapchat declined the offer? Big fail! Later that same year Facebook bought Instagram and implemented Facebook and Instagram stories on both platforms. Even worse for Snapchat, they added fun filters! Ouch!
IG stories function very similar to Snapchat. They are only available for a 24 hour period and then they vanish. Many businesses don’t see the point in content that isn’t evergreen and they couldn’t be more wrong. Stories generate a whole new type of traffic and engagement from your audience.
How to Use Your IG Stories
The way you use your stories is highly dependent upon your industry. E-commerce stores will use their stories in a completely different way than a plumber or general contractor would.
- E-Commerce/Retail: Some great ways to use your IG stories in this industry would be behind the scenes videos of your shipping process or scanning in new inventory in prep for a live sale (a quick peep of the new products to generate excitement for the upcoming live). You can also use your stories to share your outfit of the day (#OOTD) where you can link the story directly to the products in your store so followers can simply swipe up and shop directly from IG.
- General Contractors: If you fall in this industry, use your stories to show your followers behind the scenes at a job! For some reason people love to see major disastrous jobs…if you’re a plumber and you respond to a huge leak, share a short video clip of it in your story. You can share a swipe up link for people needing your services. It keeps you in the forefront of your followers’ minds when they do need a plumber/general contractor.
- Bakery/Chef/Restaurant: Use your story to share a food story! Right around mealtimes or snack times, tempt your followers with delicious looking fresh-made plates/dishes on the scene. Describe the smell, taste, etc. Consider it a short commercial just for that dish! Works like a charm!
Benefits of Using Stories
So whether you have been using stories for a while or you are just learning about them, it’s important to understand there are many benefits employing stories. What do you have to lose?
There are approximately 1 billion users on IG each month and over 500 million of them use stories. Think of the potential you have to reach people with stories. 200 million IG users visit at least one business profile a day and 1/3 of the most viewed stories are business stories. These numbers should be enough to push you over the edge if you’re sitting on the fence! This is a free platform and the viewers are literally there for the taking!
Your stories are also unique to your business. You get to create them. You aren’t restricted to the newsfeed guidelines. The best benefit of all; however, is that you can repurpose your high-performing content. If you used something on your home page that performed really well, you can utilize it in your stories periodically because it only lasts 24 hours. New viewers won’t know its old content! This saves you a lot of time and effort.
Let’s Wrap Things Up!
In summary, you really can’t go wrong with Instagram stories. You can also, share them to your Facebook stories at the same time assuming you have your Instagram business page connected to your Facebook business page! Who doesn’t love a 2 for 1?
If this still seems a bit overwhelming, or social media just isn’t your forte, reach out to our experts here at Mind Yo Business, Inc. and we can get you squared away with a professional social media manager and content creator. Contact Us Today!
