By now, you have heard of the wildly popular social media app Instagram (and if you have not, well, where have you been for the past nine years?) but you might not be aware of the features that it has, namely the Stories feature. Launched in 2016, there are now almost 500 million active daily Stories users across the world. This is a significant number, and one that could include your brand. If you are implementing a content marketing strategy staying up-to-date with trends is important, which is why you should look into using Instagram and Instagram Stories as part of your strategy.
Creating content for this channel does not have to be a complex process, it can be fun and easy, allowing you to better engage with your audience and boost your brand awareness. Below we take a deeper dive into why you should be using Instagram Stories to reach your audience.Â
Better Audience Interaction
By using Instagram Stories, you can both interact with your current audience and reach a new one. And, despite the fact that these stories only last for 24 hours, the advantage is that not only can your followers see them but those who do not follow you can find them too.Â
Using the right hashtags and tagging the right brands or people will also allow your brand’s Instagram Story to become more discoverable. This is the perfect opportunity to reach a larger audience and to build your brand’s voice. Once your business account has 10 000 followers, you can add a swipe-up link to the story, taking users to a campaign page or blog, driving website traffic and allowing people to interact with your brand on another level.Â
Unique Data Gathering
One of the most important parts of both a content marketing strategy and digital marketing strategy is data. Data allows marketers to put together a marketing strategy that will resonate with the audience, provide them with relevant and valuable content, as well as ensure that your brand is up-to-date and on-trend.Â
But, how can Instagram Stories help with this? One of the features is that you are able to create polls, ask questions, answer questions, and gain insight into how people view your products, services, and your brand. For example, you could use the “Ask Me Anything” story feature and use this information to create content and to improve your customer services. Or you could post a new product and ask consumers to rank it to see if it would perform well on the market once released.Â
Become Very Visible
The stories of the people or brands that you follow will appear at the very top of your feed with a ring around the profile photo to notify followers of a story. This means that your brand will become a lot more visible to your followers and, if you are using the right hashtags or have tagged any other brands, even those who do not follow you will be able to find your profile.Â
The consumers of today are becoming increasingly more social media focused, which means that if you are not meeting them on the channels they use on a daily basis, your brand might as well be invisible. Instagram Stories are popular, exciting, and fun, and can help to improve the visibility of your brand. However, be sure not to inundate users with content on the stories platform, as this could lead to you being ignored or considered to be “spammy”.Â
All About Ads
In 2017, Instagram released the Instagram Story ads, which allows businesses to target audiences and make your ads relevant to all the people you would like to target. You are able to use Ads Manager, Creative Hub, or the API to run ads on Instagram Stories. You are able to select the reach, video views, conversions, app installs, lead generation or traffic objective for an effective ad.Â
These stories ads appear more natural and less like advertisements, which means that people will be more likely to click on the advertisement and take the desired action. You can also manage these ads using your Facebook account, which can make it easier to keep all content in one place. This way, you can also monitor the click-throughs and engagements in order to see what advertisements are performing better than others.Â
Enhance Your Content Strategy
If you are already using Instagram for your content marketing strategy, then you can enhance it by making use of Instagram Stories. This will help you to better engage with your audience, gather data in unique and exciting ways, grow your brand visibility, and use targeted ads to reach both current and new customers.Â
For those who would like to improve their content marketing strategy, feel free to contact the NetMechanic team today to find out how we can help you. Â
