Stories are THE trend of the moment on social networks. If you don't know this concept yet, it's simple: they are ephemeral posts that automatically disappear after 24 hours, unlike the posts that remain on your profile once published.
Known for already 7 years on Snapchat, which is the first network to have had them, then Instagram in 2016, the story system also arrived on Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp several months ago and very recently on LinkedIn and Twitter which acquired this function last June and November.
Every day, several million or even billions of stories are shared on different social networks. Whether it's spontaneous moments from your daily life, photos for a special event (e.g. a birthday) or sharing publications from other accounts, the goal is to share great moments!
THE DIFFERENT FUNCTIONALITIES OFFERED BY EACH SOCIAL NETWORK
The stories have various features to make them more "fun" and catch the eye, which differ according to the social networks. Each network struggles to distinguish itself from the others. All have basic features such as the ability to write a text with the choice of font and color, identify friends, as well as the ability to add gifs, stickers & filters. Twitter, which is the network that added the story feature (named "fleet") to its most recent application, and WhatsApp, don't have any other features at the moment, but they will soon. Facebook comes next with a few additional features such as boomerangs; adding music; drawings; and a built-in survey that followers who see the story can answer.
Instagram and Snapchat are the 2 social networks that have the most features to diversify their stories. In addition to the previous functionalities, these two networks offer their subscribers the addition of location; the integration of an internet link; photo collages; different effects (zoom, hands-free, panoramic effect) ...
INSTAGRAM: THE LEADER OF STORIES
Instagram, which began developing the story function by copying Snapchat, has now overtaken its competitor and is the network that has developed this function the most.
Indeed, this leader has developed two new and different versions of the stories: the live stories and the permanent stories. The live stories are videos that are published at the same time as you film them! In addition, the permanent stories allow you to pin your basic stories (normally remaining 24 hours on your profile), so that they are visible indefinitely by your followers (as long as you let them pin them). You can create several permanent stories by making folders by theme for example (travel, work, friends...).
For Staenk's Instagram account for example, the permanent stories are named "quizz"; "team"; "templates" and "backstage" as you can see above.
So well known for its stories, Instagram has, independently of its will, created an expression to qualify the photos with the term "instagramable". From now on, we no longer say that a photo is pretty or not pretty, but that it is instagrammable or not!
NEW EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION FOR BUSINESSES
In addition, the story function has enabled companies to develop a new form of communication with their customers. Indeed, this function allows them to boost exchanges with their current and potential customers by publishing interactive stories, such as quizzes they can answer. This ephemeral mode of sharing thus allows closer contact between a brand or influencer and its followers. This makes it possible, in particular, to create or solidify their loyalty. According to Hootsuite, 1/3 of the most viewed stories have been published by companies.
This function therefore allows brands to broaden their targets and increase their sales.
Brands can also create sponsored ads that appear on your screens between 2 stories of your friends, without you following the brand in question. The interest is to encourage you to follow the brand or even to buy the products it offers with the integration of a link on the story that sends you directly to the brand's website: this is the "swipe up" system.
These stories have therefore made it possible to dynamize and diversify social networks, which are constantly creating new features. In your opinion, what else can they develop to make your stories more and more "instagrammable"?
