Instagram Stories Guides: In the ten years of creating one of the social networks with the largest number of active accounts globally, Instagram; In this article will explain some of the most relevant aspects of one of its most popular tools stories. Knowing them will be very useful to improve your marketing and communication strategy in this social network. I invite you to continue reading.
10 YEARS OF INSTAGRAM. THE MOST RELEVANT MILESTONES.
First of all, I want to take a tour of these 10 years, and see how it has evolved. Yes, 10 years, and it seems like yesterday. Time passes very quickly, and more so in the world of social media.
- On July 16, Instagram was created. Kevin Systrom, the co-founder of Instagram with Mike Krieger, posted the first person to upload a photo. But it was not until October 6 of that same year when it was available for Android and Windows.
- It already has a million accounts.
- Facebook decides to buy it for 1 billion dollars.
- Until July of this year, it was only possible to publish images. It is from this date when it is possible to publish videos. Of course, no more than 59 seconds. And at the end of this year, direct messages between users appear.
- It is already beginning to be one of the fastest-growing social networks. The year ends with 300 million active users.
- The Boomerang appears. A functionality that at first could have its grace, but now it is little used. It was a novelty.
- A year of many changes. Changes in the order of viewing publications, change of logo design, stories appear, and the possibility of live broadcasts.
- 2017. In March, when stories go one step further, it is possible to locate them, add hashtags to them, and create augmented reality effects using filters.
- Instagram offers the possibility to upload longer videos with IGTV and to include music in stories. It was even said that this new functionality is intended to compete with YouTube.
- Instagram Shopping has arrived. A tool that I already explained in this blog.
- And this year, the most critical novelty has been the reels. A format that offers users the ability to create and discover short videos of up to 15 seconds. Something very similar to Tik Tok. It has also removed the ability to see the number of interactions on third-party posts.
2021? What novelties will you present next year? No idea, but surely it won’t take long to get the option to repost a publication without using third-party applications. And if you let me ask, add the option to program the stories soon. It will be appreciated.
WHAT ARE INSTAGRAM STORIES?
Instagram stories are publications in image or video format. It is possible to add different interaction elements, such as surveys, open questions, questionnaires, or other such as animated gifs, texts, mention to other accounts, links to Instagram Shopping products, and filters.
Its main characteristics are its duration: 24 hours. Although today it is possible to save them as “featured.” This way, they will always be visible in the profile.
The interactions made by users, unlike posts, are notified to the account through a private message.
WHAT ARE STORIES FOR?
Humanize the brand or company:
The content published in the stories must be spontaneous, transparent, and human. That is, don’t just limit yourself to showing products. Show how it is produced, introduce your team, record videos showing small anecdotes or day-to-day situations, and share your clients’ impressions. Give visibility to your company’s backup!
Generate traffic to the website:
From Instagram, it is challenging to generate traffic to a web page. As you know, in the descriptions of the posts, you cannot add a link. In the stories, yes, but only if you add more than 10,000 followers. If you have not reached that figure yet, comment below, and we will make an article on “How to gain followers on Instagram.” It will be beneficial to you.
Know the opinion of the followers:
Thanks to the options to create surveys, open questions, or private messages, we can find out what our followers think about a topic related to our company, our products, or services. For example, we can show two different clothing pieces and ask our community to survey which one they like best.
Improve engagement with your publications:
In the article ” Instagram algorithm: How to achieve greater reach in magazines, “generating interactions in the shortest possible time is key to achieving greater reach. And in that sense, the different options offered by stories allow us to encourage interactions and engagement.
Storytelling:
Storytelling is the art of telling stories. And through stories, it is possible to build a creative story around our company or brand that retains our followers’ attention.
Broadcast live events:
Thanks to this functionality of the stories, you can broadcast live events you are doing in your company or broadcast where you present a product, a service, or a customer’s testimony.
HOW TO USE IT FOR A COMPANY OR BRAND ACCOUNT?
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Define your goals:
That is, it answers the question: What do you want to achieve through stories?
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Contents list:
As you do for feed publications, mark an editorial calendar of publications indicating in each publication what the interaction will be (survey, mentions, direct message, question).
Regarding how many stories to publish per day, the frequency must indeed be greater than the posts, but you must not saturate. An excess can “tire” your followers and cause them to stop following you. -
Creative design:
Create images or videos. Remember that they have to be spontaneous, so they don’t have to be perfect. We will leave the ideal photo or video for the feed.
If you have to add an animated element later, try to save enough space in the image. -
Post.
Stories cannot be programmed on Instagram.
I create an extension on my mobile not to forget them and name them with the day’s date to be published to find them quickly in Google Drive. -
Respond to interactions.
Respond as quickly as possible to all the interactions of your followers. And more if you are creating stories where you encourage participation as “open questions” or “private messages.”
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Analyze.
After 24 hours, the story will disappear if you don’t mark it as a featured story. It is time then to analyze the statistics. Check if the number of views in successive stories has been maintained or checked data such as the number of views or interactions they have achieved.
HOW TO MAKE BEAUTIFUL STORIES ON INSTAGRAM?
Amazing stories make a difference. But to create them, you need creativity and a designer or an APP. If you do not have the budget to hire someone, it is best to opt for an APP to make creative stories. I use the PRO version of Mojo. Do you know her?
APP MOJO: THE APPLICATION TO MAKE IMPRESSIVE STORIES
I want to tell you about an APP to create animated stories on Instagram that I like a lot. It’s about MOJO. If you still don’t have it installed on your mobile, I recommend you do it now.
This application offers both its free and premium versions of different and varied animated templates to create impressive stories.
It is effortless to create them. You have to choose one of the incredible variety of templates it offers and edits it as you want.
We can add photos or videos in each template and create the animation we want by adding music, texts, stickers, and the company logo. And share it directly as a story on Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp! If you prefer, you can also save it on your mobile.
MOJO is the APP to create stories that offer more creative possibilities to boost your Instagram account. Do you already have it installed?
It’s hard to stand out from the crowd on social media. The content can look similar and standardized. Mojo breaks those limitations and makes social stories impossible to skip. Also, the pro version offers new templates every month.
This application offers different types of templates. Some of the most prominent are:
- Minimal Ideal for simple presentations.
- Movies. I like them a lot to make presentations on new posts.
- Storytelling. They work very well to create presentation stories for a new product or service.
- News. This template is intended for posting news. If you manage the Instagram profile of a media outlet, I recommend you take a look.
- Marketing. Ideal for presenting an offer, a review, or a promotion.
- In white. This template is fully editable so that you want it.
To verify it, it is best to download it right now and start creating your own animated stories. If you like it, I would like you to tell me in a comment.
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