Storytelling has an astonishing history, in fact, stories have actually existed much longer than recorded history. They emerged as a way to preserve raw emotions and far so entertaining sequence of actual event, and yes, the form in which we tell these stories has drastically changed over the decades. That’s if you’d rather take it as far back as a series of cave paintings that date back to sometime between 15,000 and 13,000 B.C from the Lascaux Caves in the Pyrenees Mountains in southern France. But I’m sure you’re ones of those who’d preferably think of it in modern, and more exciting times. Although however, you look at it, we can’t escape the fact that stories have forever fascinated mankind. Our urge to tell and hear stories has to date remained unchanged, and it still significantly influences the way we look at life.
Now, let’s take the Story to a time in 2019; to Social Media, and Facebook’s recent F8conference report in particular. The company has reported more than a billion people using Stories every day across its family of apps, like Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status. The rise in usage is robust, with 56% of the people now using Stories on 3 or more platforms once or so a week, and 57% agreeing that stories make them feel like a part of a broader community.
So why wouldn’t this be the shift your company makes? How would you?
We know how; so follow us as we outline the necessary tips to crafting engaging Instagram Stories:
1# Start and End with Your Brand
Knowing who you are talking to is always of utmost importance, so first and foremost make sure to integrate your brand elements in the first and last few seconds of your message. It influences how your audience relates to you, to introduce a personal element to the engagement and secure the attention of your potentials on this digital marketing platform.
2# Split Your Story
Use the narrative break down antic, in this way you’ll be sharing your stories in a sequence of contrasting smaller, scenes, instead of presenting them with one continuous shot. This way, no one misses it!
3# Refine Your Creative Ingredients
What can we tell you? The quality of creative always matters. So try using high-resolution assets, and producing pixel-perfect visual stories. It’s an easy DIY kind of thing, so let your creative juices run free!
4# Reduce the Use of Stickers
To be frank, it’s the abuse of stickers that are usually frowned upon, and that’s simply because doing so often does more harm than good to the overall level of story engagements. Instead, look at using contextual stickers, that’s the more organic approach.
5# Call to Action
Never hold back. Encourage your audience to take action at every turn. Don’t be shy when it comes to this. We already have a whopping 60% of businesses on Instagram Stories using an interactive element every month, be a part of this significant shift in how we communicate! So go on and invite your viewers to “Swipe Up”.
6# Think Vertical
This is the number one secret to making the most of your screens real estate available to you in Stories. So try crafting your visual content video’s, etc. in portrait orientation from the onset. Because 82.5% of the visitors that are likely to scroll past your content hold their smartphone in portrait orientation.
7# Speed?
For most brands, speed has become one of the critical components for meeting users’ expectations. So offering, powerful, and quick content is one of the most effective ways to sustain viewers’ attention. Users of today prioritise time more than all else.
8# Evaluate, Refine and Repeat
Evaluate your campaigns success and various hypotheses to understand the stimuli your audience responds to at best. And once you’re satisfied you’ve found something that works, then you can start exploring more avenues to the medium, then repeat!
Conclusion:
Follow the buzz! Build a virtual community! Join the shift, get noticed and begin an all-new life for your brand, and its social status. After all, gone are the days when brands would be above the people!