You shouldn’t underestimate the power of using Stories to engage your social audience. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat—every major platform has a Stories function that brands can tap into to boost reach with thoughtful, engaging visual content. With every feature update, Stories is quickly becoming an effective tool for marketers to weave a bit of authenticity into their marketing efforts.
In this week’s #SproutChat, our community discussed how they implement Stories in their engagement strategy to create entertaining content that brings their brand to life.
Different Social Platforms Generate Different Results
What’s your audience like? Research the qualities of your customer base across different social channels. While your following may be the same or similar, the way they interact with your content on each platform will vary. Track resonates and set goals. Take advantage of the built-in libraries of emojis, graphics and text overlays that amp up your posts.
A1 Identical cross posts on different platforms are a quick way for audiences to turn you off altogether. #SproutChat
— Jim Katzaman (@JKatzaman) June 14, 2017
A1b: Tweak your content according to platform demographics while staying brand focused #SproutChat
— Jeff Higgins (@ItsJeffHiggins) June 14, 2017
A1: It’s easier to get larger results on IG because your followers automatically have access to your stories. #sproutchat
— Jacqui Liberman (@GossipGenie) June 14, 2017
A1: You really want to tweak and optimize your story for the platform you’re posting it on. #SproutChat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) June 14, 2017
Add Some Interest to Your Brand’s Social Presence
Our #SproutChat community tackles each medium with a different Story approach to effectively build on their presence. Check out their tactics for inspiration and see what you could apply to your own branding strategy.
We’ve also used stories to “tease” something bigger we’re going to do. (Also, we literally just started using IG) #sproutchat
— Jessie (@JessieAtAC) June 14, 2017
A2: We use #Instagram stories as a raw look behind the curtain. It’s still branded but not polished like a regular post.#SproutChat
— Dave Macdonald 🇨🇦 (@rdavemacdonald) June 14, 2017
A2 Stories can give brands depth beyond the obvious, such as Mastercard allows parents to pay for a daughter’s dream wedding. #SproutChat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) June 14, 2017
A2: Stories is a great place for brands to have fun and experiment! Here’s a good intro blog: https://t.co/GEPOjjEhPw #sproutchat
— PublicCommunications (@pcipr) June 14, 2017
A2: Spices up a brands personality. Adds to the human media aspect. #SproutChat https://t.co/sbO8MMxsxW
— Jessie Simms (@JSimmsSocial) June 14, 2017
Using Metrics to Measure the Value of Your Stories
As with any other type of content, gauging success means tracking your metrics. Keep an eye on the number of views, action taken after viewing, exit rates—anything that indicates a user engaged with your Story and was motivated to take action.
A3: Engagement’s too broad now With Snap Ad Manager & IG story CTA’s/location/hashtags, you have tons of choices based on goals! #SproutChat
— Jeff Higgins (@ItsJeffHiggins) June 14, 2017
A3 #sproutchat # of views, messages.
— Bruce Deschamps (@brucedesch) June 14, 2017
A3b: You might look for viewers (how many people tuned in/how many watched the whole thing). And you might look for link clicks. #SproutChat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) June 14, 2017
A3c: Another great metric to track is engagement. Did your story get people talking? #SproutChat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) June 14, 2017
A3 Metrics like impressions, engagement rates< likes are first indicators of story success. Best: Comments, leads and business. #SproutChat
— Jim Katzaman (@JKatzaman) June 14, 2017
A3: You can also track exits from your story to see what’s not working/resonating with your audience #sproutchat
— Mary Becker (@marylizbecker) June 14, 2017
A4 Include links & hashtags to track the various forms of content as they spread around the Internet #sproutchat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) June 14, 2017
Stay Informed As Stories Continues to Evolve
It’s important for social media managers to stay on top of new updates across each channel. Don’t be afraid to explore new Story capabilities and play with different ways to captivate your users. Remember to keep track of what content resonates with your audience and moves the needle on engagement.
A6: It won’t be called stories, it will be your feed. #SproutChat
— Jeff Higgins (@ItsJeffHiggins) June 14, 2017
A6 content without charisma is a #fail #SproutChat
— David Pepper (@thedavepepper) June 14, 2017
A6 stories features are fads unless they have intention #SproutChat
— David Pepper (@thedavepepper) June 14, 2017
A6 #sproutchat, I think they will develop the analytic parts of stories too. As it feels quite basic in terms of available data.
— Bruce Deschamps (@brucedesch) June 14, 2017
Join us for #SproutChat next week as we discuss how to build an audience from the ground up! See you Wednesday, June 21, at 2 p.m. CDT.