Last month Instagram introduced their Instagram Stories, a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story.
Sounds familiar? Yes it is quite similar to Snapchat stories and many people raised their eyebrows when seeing this option on Instagram also.
There are a few differences, for example Instagram is utilizing the power of its Explore tab to help users discover Stories and follow the accounts that post them.
Instagram’s Explore tab is curated by an algorithm, which allows for greater personalization.
You can share as much as you want throughout the day and bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.
You’ll see stories from people you follow in a bar at the top of your feed — from your best friends to your favorite popular accounts.
There is also a privacy catch. Your story follows the privacy settings of your account. If you set your account to private, your story is visible only to your followers. However, you can also easily hide your entire story from anyone you don’t want to see it, even if they follow you. When watching your own story, swipe up to check out who’s seen each photo and video.
How can business and brands use this new Instagram feature for their own promotion?
This is an excellent tool to connect more with your customers by showing “behind the scenes” aspects of your business. Share your strategy with your potential customers and let them feel included in the process of creativity and production.
Your main goal should be developing a community through engagement and ongoing dialogue.
Thinking more ahead, we conclude that by encouraging users to post more frequently and more candidly about their lives, Instagram could fundamentally change the nature of an app that has 300 million daily users.