No doubt, Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media networks across the globe. Since its launch in 2010, the popular photo-sharing app brought several features to attract customer’s attention. Most importantly, it became center of attraction for small and big brands looking to expand their presence and the visibility of their products. Businesses today are recognizing the power of Instagram in marketing their business and several top mobile app development companies are in the race to develop an app like Instagram. Are you running a brick-and-mortar business? An e-commerce domain? Or maybe you’re a solo business trying to connect with more audience?
Good! There is an audience on Instagram that’s waiting for you.
More than 25 million companies globally are already using Instagram for business purpose, and more than 200 million users visit at least one business profile every day. If we talk about the features, then it has been analyzed that Instagram Stories has been one of the most successful social media features so far. Instagram Stories offers a great opportunity to reach a higher number of people by taking advantage of one of the fastest-growing social networks. If you are not aware of the facts that how stories can be beneficial for your business, then you have landed at the right place! I am going to discuss some amazing benefits of using Instagram stories for your brand.
Evolution of Instagram Stories
Once Instagram launched Stories in August 2016, the feature spread like wildfire and mobile app developers has also started using this feature when developing a social media app. Instagram Stories introduced 20 new features within Instagram Stories in the base year, together with stickers and Boomerang. Moreover, with Stories ads, businesses are able to insert full-screen promotions, sandwiched between the Stories of the people a user follows.
Also Read: Major Hacks to Boost Your Organic Social Media Reach
Let’s take a dig into the Instagram stories facts and statistics that show it’s impressive growth worldwide-
As of November 2017, Instagram Stories topped 300 million daily users. As of June 2018, it has become one of Instagram’s most popular updates.
In Q3 2018, Snapchat reported 188 million daily active users across the globe, while Instagram reported 400 million daily active global users. This signifies that Instagram surpassed Snapchat by total active users, but also Snapchat’s total active users do not even make up half of the number of users posting Instagram Stories.
Recently, Instagram announced that approx one-third of the most-viewed Instagram Stories come from business accounts. In November 2017, the company also announced that there were over 25 Mn business profiles existed on the platform.
The above points clearly describe how Instagram stories have evolved among the users and even for the marketers. Now, your business can use Instagram Stories in their marketing to improve their engagement, visibility, and content. In this brief guide, check out the best ways of using Instagram stories for your brand-
How to Use Instagram Stories for Your Business Growth
Take Advantage of Polls
In October 2018, Instagram launched a feature, which allows users to add interactive polls to their Stories. These polls are a fun, frictionless way to get your audience engaged and know their thoughts on any and all topics. For example- if you are going to hire the best app developers for an e-commerce app, then you can ask about their opinions on new products, how often they’d like to receive brand emails, their favorite kinds of sales, what kind of content they would like to see from your brand on social media, and so on.
Use Links in Your Stories
One of the best things about Instagram Stories for business, which sets them apart from Snapchat, is the capability to tag and story link. If your business is not capitalizing on the attention it gets from the Stories, then the connection is wasted. The easiest and smartest way to do is through direct links. You have heard about the ‘swipe up’ feature, in which you can link out to your own-hosted content resources or, if you are a retail marketer, to product pages.
Try Digital Storytelling
Storytelling is one of the best ways to connect with the audiences right now. It is all about telling stories related to your product and services. It creates brand loyalty, which increases the chances of purchase and referrals. Some of the perfect examples of digital storytelling include restaurants showing how dishes are prepared, sports teams share training sessions and fitness tips with their fans, an android and iOS app development company
describing their services, fashion icons putting up tutorials etc.
Use Stories Ads
Putting ads in your stories is also one of the useful features available on this platform. Whether small or big, business needs to hire graphic designers, who can create attractive ads, whether it could be photo ad and video ad. A photo ad exists only for 10 seconds, while video ads last for 15 seconds. If you choose to try a photo ad, make sure that you use a bright, bold photo with clear branding and simple messaging. The user should know about your brand, what you do and how you can help them quickly before the ad fade away.
Read More : Awesome UX Design Tips and Tricks For 2019
CTA’s in Stories
When you create your Stories, make sure you choose the appropriate CTA button that you want to appear. Your choice of words, color of the text and the size of the letters matter a lot and it can have a big impact on whether viewers actually visit your website or mobile app, sign up or convert. Apart from that, hashtags in stories is also a better way to enhance your business reach.
Final Thoughts
It would not be wrong to say that Instagram Stories can definitely change your business scenario in today’s digital world. This can help you convert potential customers into actual ones. So, if you haven’t made Instagram Stories a part of your marketing strategy yet, it’s the right time to use it! Besides, another way to amplify your business growth is possible via iOS and Android app development You can hire Fluper, a top-rated app development company with the team of 150+ app developer experts at different domains.
