6 reasons to integrate stories into your content strategy

Up 842% since their inclusion in 2016 on the platform, consumption of stories has grown 15 times more than the conventional formats developed on Instagram.

The scale of the phenomenon confirms that stories have become an essential tool for user engagement, sharing moments of authenticity and thus working to build loyalty. Brands have every interest in integrating stories into their communication content strategy.

Launched in 2013 by Snapchat, the social network preferred by Millennials, stories are characterized by their ephemeral nature. This format, which takes the form of short videos of 15 seconds maximum or photos, is visible only 24 hours by Internet users.          

The phenomenon quickly interested other social networks. Instagram, Facebook, then WhatsApp have seized the trend one after the other by adapting them to their platform. Twitter and LinkedIn also plan to follow suit.

The music service Spotify, too, announced its appropriation of the phenomenon by baptizing them storylines as a part of their content marketing techniques.

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Stories, a success close to that of the video success story

This growing success echoes a second web success story – that of the video format. And for good reason. 81% of consumers state that they have already been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a company’s video. Even more poignant, 85% of them declare that they would like to see more branded videos.

It is certainly from this trend that the stories benefited at first. Video has indeed been for a few years now, the flagship format of social networks. It is on Facebook that it reigns supreme since 81% of its content is audio-visual.

Daily Active Users for Stories – Stats

Source: Sprout Social

Instagram – 500 million

FB – 300 million

Whatsapp status – 500 million users

Snapchat – 229 million daily users

How Stories Feature Can Help In Content Strategy Optimization?

It’s trendy

The stories have existed since 2016. Originally, we found them on Snapchat, another social network. This ephemeral content was put in place to attract a very specific target – adolescents.

Since then, other social networks have embarked on the adventure. Facebook followed suit just like Instagram which has become the undisputed leader with 500 million people who publish and view stories every day. This is more than double of Snapchat and Instagram is also ahead of Facebook.

Why? Well, because the functionality is the most elaborate on Instagram. The contents of a story vary from one social network to another because the options are not identical.

For example, on Instagram, it is possible to create a story with links to an online store. They are powerful Call to action.

Check out our Content Marketing Guide 2020 for building a successful content plan. 

More spontaneous stories humanize a business

If stories have become essential in a content strategy, it is because they offer more transparency. Ephemeral content is created more spontaneously, without filters or preparation.

The stories offer a lot of authenticities, which is not without consequence. Internet users adhere to this transparency and you gain their trust.

Ephemeral content also humanizes a business. It is no longer known only for its activity or its logo. Internet users discover the faces of the team, the premises, the work stations, and even the daily life of the company.

Ephemeral content to create dependence

Stories can play a major role in the behavior of your audience. If they appreciate the content of the stories, they will watch it regularly.

Over the days, they will even wait impatiently for your content strategy. Like a meeting, the stories bring you and your audience together.

Choosing to create stories is beneficial because your audience becomes dependent and no longer misses out on your posts. If your content strategy for stories is well managed, you can gain visibility and generate more and more traffic on your pages.

The stories to reach your target

Thanks to the stories, you will be able to reach your target, especially if the target audience is young and dynamic.

Most of the stories are watched by adolescents, young adults, and the active. Depending on the profile of your target, you can create a suitable content strategy.

One of the current trends is to encourage influencers to use your products or services and then talk about it on social networks, especially in stories. (Read: 7 Influencer Marketing mistakes you must avoid)

These are shared and go viral while you gain popularity.

Ephemeral content takes less time to develop

One of the major advantages of ephemeral content is the saving of time. Unlike conventional content, just share a photo or video right now. Besides, it is not interesting to share old content! The principle of a story is to be very recent.

Since they are spontaneous, stories do not require upstream production work. No need to think for hours about ephemeral content, it must be instinctive. The less preparation there is, the more natural and therefore impact the story will be!

Note that there is also a live story function. So, you can show an event to your audience in real-time for a few minutes.

Stories generate immediate interactions

As it is possible to comment on posts, your audience will be able to react to your stories. The answers are often like ephemeral content – brief and impact.

You have to read them and take them into account because they represent the “instant” reactions of your followers and contain a multitude of information to exploit.

If you are asked questions, answer it! Also, don’t hesitate to encourage users to respond. Several tools exist to make this possible.

To conclude

Stories are a new means of communication created by social networks. This ephemeral content can be used to address the audience differently, in a less formal way, and also to reach and engage them.

If you still lacked a reason to use this format, studies by Social bakers have shown that it is the most economical format for brands. In fact, these are 2 times cheaper at CPC! And what’s more, the investments are 4 times lower in stories than for conventional posts.

All you have to do is take action.

However, the key is to not work too much on this content, let your intuition guide you and maintain the transparency sought by Internet users!

If you need to hear it from the experts, get in touch with us for a FREE consultation on how to build your marketing strategy.