And you’re doing yourself a major disservice, because when you’re asked why you are spending so much time on a new channel, you will need to be able to explain your reasoning, what you’re working towards, and what your results are.
Benefit: Constantly evolving and expanding features.
From Instagram Live (and, now, being able to broadcast live along with another user) to opening up Stories to any photos and videos in your photo library, to introducing polls in Instagram Stories, it seems like not a week goes by without a game-changing addition or modification to the Instagram Stories ecosystem.
This gives you a lot of opportunity to interact with your Instagram audience in new and exciting ways, spreading awareness about marketing initiatives and partnerships, and directing your audience towards key offers outside the Instagram platform.
Risk: Being overwhelmed by the warp speed developments, getting left behind, or making the “jack-of-all-trades” mistake.
With these perpetual new feature layers, it’s easy to make one of three mistakes:
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Think you have to use every new feature immediately. And, in doing so, lose sight of your goals in a sea of tactics.
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Fail to stay up-to-date on new features. And, in doing so, miss out on serious positive impact to your social marketing strategy.
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Try to do it all. Jack of all trades, master of none.
It’s a balancing act here, and there is no easy answer, but there are a couple ways to avoid swinging too far towards one extreme or another.
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Choose your goals, and check in regularly. For instance, I want my engagement rate to be 80% by the end of 2018. What do I need to do to get there? Constantly coming back to this intention will make sure you don’t grasp at a new, shiny thing just because it’s there.
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Set up a Google Alert, sign up for industry newsletters, and spend time on Twitter. Do these things and you won’t skip a beat.
Benefit: The users are there.
Instagram Stories, as of November 1, 2017, has 300 million daily active users—that’s up from 250 million active users in June. Half a year, 50 million more daily active users. You can expect this growth to continue.
Risk: Instagram Stories is no longer a test or experiment. The users are there, and you’re risking a serious lack of market exposure, growth, and goal-crushing if you’re not.