Stories Surpassing Feed Sharing: How to Create Engaging Digital Stories

Everybody loves the new 'Stories' feature on Instagram and they’re using it across platforms. For consumers, stories are a gateway to what they’re doing right now, and posts are simple additions to what they share regularly. Regular users consider a post to be something that they desire engagement on, and stories to be something more personal and casual.

It’s a different approach and mindset when using either one, and it’s a rapidly evolving space with multiple players. There are brands, influencers, everyday consumers and small businesses that are promoting themselves through stories. Stories are also a great way to share exclusives based on Instagram’s algorithm, and an unobtrusive way of promoting your content.

Stories creation and consumption has risen by 840% in the last two years, and nearly 1 Billion accounts across all major platforms watch these stories. They’ve become ubiquitous in terms of features and processes. Everybody wakes up, checks their feed and instantly checks out the latest stories from the hashtags they love. Whether that’s #paleo or #coffeepreneurs, they can’t get enough.

Trailers vs. Content

Brands are creating content around stories in two distinct ways. One, they are treating it as a platform to share trailers and teasers for launches, products, and quizzes from their community. The other way that they’re using it is the actual content base. They’re creating content specifically designed for the stories platform and they’re not stopping anytime soon.

Stories have become a key attention point, and setting a goal is key to creating engaging digital stories. What do you want to accomplish with stories and how much are you willing to invest in it? Since they’re voluntary actions from the community you’ve created, you want to focus deeper in this platform.

You want to develop the best form of content possible and figure out what works for you and the niche you’re in. Whether that’s launching new products or having a conversation with the community, you need to have a straightforward goal in mind.

Investing More on Stories

Quite often the budget on creatives goes more towards the traditional advertising mechanisms. People tend to forget about Instagram and stories. They then start to talk about how much they’re investing in digital, when in reality they’re doing a small percentage of that.

Instagram stories require high-quality editing, production value, and a marketing-first approach. That’s why a marketer’s job is so hectic these days. They need to be involved in all forms of marketing approach, and that involves Instagram stories as well.

As a matter of simple economics, the more you invest in stories the more you get out of it. People don’t want to see corporate speak on a screen. They want to see beautiful experiences and rich emotional narratives every time they check your feed. They also want to have anticipation as to when you’ll be releasing a new story.

That’s real ‘buzz’ that you can generate by investing a lot more in stories and the marketing practices on social media stories.

Think About the Consumer

Stories is not an advertising platform. It’s a brand building one. You’re building narratives, emotions and story arches around certain product lines. That’s why you need to leave the advertising side of the brain at home and focus on how you can create the best memorable experiences.

Consumers want to feel connected to your brand and you need to give them a good reason why. WhatsApp stories have over 450 Million daily users, Instagram with 300 Million, and Snapchat at 191 Million. There are billions of consumers out there scrolling through feeds and accessing stories on a regular basis.

Even Netflix is piloting a stories format for their own app, releasing short trailers for shows that they think people might enjoy. All of this activity is developed by thinking about the consumers first. By understanding what they want from the stories platform, you can give them more memorable experiences.

Consumers that understand the investment you’ve taken in building a relationship with them, are the ones that don’t churn out every time there’s a price increase.

Cultural Shifts for Marketing

Stories have their own culture behind them. They’re supposed to be fun, casual and informative. Stories are a more personal peek into the brand or influencers consumers follow. That’s why its such a shift in culture that everyone Is interested in what’s happening with everyone else. We’re always learning more about people through their stories.

That’s why it’s important for marketing to be able to adapt to that shift and focus on what cultural impacts stories are having. Is it working for your brand? Does your brand have to evolve? Can your brand learn from others? Do you need a dedicated Instagram stories team? All of these questions can have an immense impact on the way that you’re doing business.

Marketing is all about being able to understand 'culture' at a deeper level. Since we all want connection in the end, marketing should be focused on building a relationship with its consumers. Selling 24/7 isn’t the right approach in creating engaging stories. You must invest in creating interesting and intriguing content that consumers look forward to on a regular basis.

Conclusion

Based solely on the primary way that people share their interests and content, stories are all set to take over posts from a volume standpoint. There is still immense value in sharing posts, but the real gold is hidden in the engagement garnered from the stories inside the profile.

Consumer check Instagram every hour and they want to know the latest in what they’re interested in. That’s why it’s impolite to spam the feed and better to share stories. Also, the Instagram photo takes up a large amount of space on your feed, which is why people tend not to follow too many pages. However, when it comes to stories they follow an unlimited amount and choose to see the ones they prefer.