The key to narrating a story is to reel the audience’s attention and convey your point engagingly. What started as a goofy trend with filters and sharing stories has grown to be the most easily digestible content format in social media.
Snapchat brought in the story feature back in 2013 (seems so long ago), propagated to the world by Instagram, and consumed by users worldwide. The concept of story has been a part of social media evolution and grown along with it. Stories are more than just concise pieces of narration. They are medium to hold a lasting impression on the audience.
As marketers are nailing the stories game, the content format is a popular asset for them. Let’s dig in further to understand why.
The Slow & Steady Story Line
Did you know that users spend an average time of 25 to 35 minutes every day tapping through Instagram Stories?
The growth of stories in the past eight years has been worth keeping track of. Whether it is polling, QnA, snapshots of various segments of the day, or interesting clippings, the concept’s versatility and attention-seeking nature of highlight bands allow brands to put on their creative hat and find new ways to entertain and engage with their audience.
Stories are the disappearing status that will expire after 24 hours. They are published in the vertical format and are typically best used in mobile devices. As it started with Snapchat and hit homerun with Instagram, other social media applications followed in their footsteps to replicate the feature. Stories are now available on Facebook, WhatsApp, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Why is this Story Specifically Interesting?
We have established the fact that Stories pique the interest of the audience with the highlighted enticing presentation. The bite-sized information conveys messages and communicates effectively with them.
If you are under the impression that stories are much easier to curate than any other form of content, you are wrong. The content format is just as laborious as the others, and probably more, as it is essential to not bombard the audience with too much information. If you try to do that, you will fall prey to their tap dance. They hardly ever look back at the tapped stories, so it is vital to put a lot of thought into it.
How to write the best story for your brand?
Keep the boundaries in mind
While we want your creativity to run wild and not be bound by any limits, it is essential to stick to the recommended portrait dimensions of the story to communicate aesthetically. It is also quite popular to go for live-action videos rather than static images.
Try your hand at new things
Social media appreciates and rewards creativity much more than any other medium. Explore the countless resources available on the internet and tap into your bold and creative ideas to produce unique and distinctive content.
Don’t forget to track the trail
There are dedicated UTMs, Urchin Tracking Modules, used to track the effectiveness of the stories that made your break your sweat. It will allow you to easily track how the users interact with your stories, enlightening you further about the hits and misses. The swipe-up feature is another great medium to drive them to complete the desired action.
Add Layers to the stories
As the world is transforming into an immersive experience, give your story that extra oomph by trying AR or custom GIFs to your content.
It is arduous to understand your audience. It is vital to keep exploring the various available options and leverage several mediums to communicate with them effectively.
What about you? Does your brand indulge in storytelling with highlighted circles? Let us know how a story has provided you massive engagement/results for your brand. We, for one, love great stories, short ones especially!
