Marketers everywhere are already coming up with great content and ideas on using the new Instagram Story feature. Wait, isn’t that Snapchat? Well no, and yes, sort of. Instagram CEO Kevin System fully admitted that it was inspiration from Snapchat to include this new feature. What is the Instagram Story feature and how can you use it for your business.
Instagram stories is a way for anyone (personal accounts and business accounts) to record short, 10 second video clips and post them to a different Instagram timeline. This new timeline appears at the top of your instagram feed (assuming you have done the recent update). These stories last for 24 hours only and then, poof they disappear. You can add text and markup the videos as well. Additionally you can add to the “story”. So for instance, you can take a video of your chef plating that delicious burger for lunch, and then later at dinner showcase your packed restaurant. It just adds it to the story but they all expire 24 hours later regardless.
It comes down to numbers and comfort. If you’re already using Snapchat as a marketing tool and you’re finding a measurable ROI from it, you know what, why fix what’s not broken. Consider this however, recent numbers show that Snapchat has roughly 150 million users and Instagram has 300 million users. Instagram also has the backing of Facebook behind them, with that comes a really easy to use Ad platform and new analytics with Instagram for Business.
Where are your customers most likely found to be engaging? Is it snapchat? If your customer demographic matches with the demographic that Snapchat uses, that’s a good place to be. Instagram continues to grow in numbers and continues to grow in engagement. Considering that more businesses are already using Instagram and probably haven’t signed up with Snapchat, Instagram Stories would be a great addition.
Instagram is also more welcoming to brands where snapchat is more of your “best friend”. Most of that is seen from its 300 million users, many coming from business accounts. For instance, according to AdAge, Nike recently launched a campaign which received 800,000 views in just the 24 hours when Instagram first rolled out Stories. On Snapchat, the BEST Nike ever saw was 66,000 views.
Check out some of the largest brands that already use Instagram well. Some that I appreciate are Harpoon Brewery (for very obvious reasons), Nike, General Electric - They post the most creative photos for a technology company.
Also, follow us on Instagram as well: @breezedigitalmedia or just search for Breeze Digital Media. We'll be posting stories, but you have to be quicker than a pokemon catcher because they expire in 24 hours.
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