Your company finally embraced social media as a viable marketing strategy and now you have to repeatedly evolve your strategy to keep up with constantly changing algorithms, completely new platforms, and their features. Like Beauty and the Beast, it’s a story as old as time (or at least as old as digital marketing).
You finally have Instagram down like a boss and then it hits you… filters, stickers, and stories oh my! So, how does one form a solid strategy for an Instagram feature that could really up their engagement? You have come to the right place! As a Marketing company, we have the know how to help you hack Instagram stories.
Play
It is always good to play around with a new feature using your own social pages just to get the hang of it and see how it works. Facebook Live is a great example of a new feature that you really should use on your own page before trying it out on your company pages. Instagram stories have so many fun new features that you should test out on your friends and family before trying it for real on your business’ audience.
Tick Tock
If you live in fear of the Instagram algorithm penalizing you for posting too often, you can stop because…stories! That is to say that while the algorithm won’t penalize you, that doesn’t mean that your audience won’t literally press the mute button on you. Because a story only stays up for 24 hours, you have a little bit of leeway with the frequency that you post. You want to post engaging content often enough that you show up in the story bar, but like anything, not enough that you are annoying the crap outta people.
The When
You know the game, frantically trying to figure out when to post your social media update. People use each platform at different times, so knowing what time people are most on Instagram is a good thing. Knowing the habits of your audience is even more important. What age are they? When are they most insta active? Post then. The double-edged sword of stories is that they only stay up for 24 hours, which means that is 24 hours of being at the very top of your audience’s feed. It doesn’t really matter if you post while they’re at the bar getting crunk or tucked into bed – they’ll probably see it.
The What
So what do you post? Stories don’t live forever, they’re not always going to show up on your feed, so you have a little more leeway to post fun, personal items. For instance, it’s a good place to post “a day in the life of” pictures and videos. Have a super cute or crazy office dog? Post it! Have a slightly ridiculous inside joke that goes through your co-workers? Post it! Instagram stories are really the place to showcase the personalities of your staff.
It’s ok to not be perfect at new social media features right away. If you’re still not feeling super comfortable with getting used to all the new features, you have come to the right place! We have tons of great social media support available with our awesome social team – give us a call and see how we can get you set up to keep your storytelling game strong.