As daily active users on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp reach over 500 million, Smart Cow, as a Social Media marketing agency, look at the story function within social media and how this can help your brand extend its reach to your target audience and build brand awareness.

What are social media stories?

Social media stories offer the user the ability to share videos and images in addition to their normal social media posts. On Facebook and Instagram these images last for 24 hours and then disappear.

Instagram allows you to save your highlights so that the images remain on your page in neat little collections. This means people can still view what you have posted well after the 24 hours are up.

These highlights offer a great way to section off different products and services. Or the ability to save information for a product launch as part of creating a social media strategy.

Benefits of using Instagram stories for business

Around 62% of people say they have become interested in a brand having seen it in the story function.

Design features allow the ability to add gifs, tag people and places and type a caption – with lots of lovely colour choices, perfect for keeping on brand.

These are generally known as stickers which can include options such as:

• Donation sticker
• Countdown sticker
• Question sticker
• Poll
• Location

All of these offer a great way to enhance your small business social media marketing strategy, helping to really engage with your audience.

As the stories appear at the top of a social page it’s sometimes more visible on a feed. It’s also a great way to see who is actually seeing your stories which can help with ongoing engagement.  

You can encourage clicks with call to actions such as shop now, swipe up or discover more.

If you are creating a video for stories then do this vertically rather than horizontally as this will enable you to share it correctly on Instagram.

But in its simplest form you can invite people to review your ‘new post’ with a brightly coloured sticker having shared the post from your grid by using the little triangle icon below the image.

Be consistent

As a social media marketing agency, we always recommend that you ensure that your social media channels are consistent so that you reinforce your brand. So, make sure you choose the same font, colour and gifs to bolster the look and feel of your business.  

Can you just use social media for marketing?

Like any other digital marketing tactic, social media marketing needs to be considered within your wider marketing strategy, such as your blog post or Facebook ads to understand what channels you should be on and the type of content you should share.

Avoid thinking of social media as the only way you can reach a target audience. It’s best to think of it in a holistic way. Review other digital marketing options such as Search Engine Optimisation/SEO services, Pay Per Click (PPC) or email marketing.

Social media marketing should always use links that lead back to your website. Link building is another helpful way to help guide Google that a website is reputable and this includes links from a social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. But importantly, ensure that your website is relevant and that you keep it updated with fresh blog content. This will form part of your wider marketing plan.

To be efficient, the best use of your time is to repurpose content from blogs that you have written. While social media is fantastic for live events, launches through to promotions, you need to maintain frequency of social posts which is where a content plan will help you schedule timely and relevant posts for your target audience.

Social media marketing Croydon

We’re a digital marketing agency based in Croydon supporting local businesses with their inbound marketing. As social media consultants, we support you with social media marketing plans and real time reviews of your social media analytics. As one of Croydon’s social media marketing companies, we offer our clients cost effective social media services. Get in touch today for further enquiries.