We saw it first with Snapchat and the Snapchat Story in 2013, but since then, every major social media platform has created their version of the 24 hour story. While you could post the same content to each platform for the same 24 hour time period, this method may not be the most effective strategy for your business.
So, which platforms should you be using these features on, and how do you differentiate content?
LinkedIn Stories
Launched late summer 2020, LinkedIn Stories should be utilized for your most professional and company-related content, including webinars, special events, awards, article mentions, and culture. This content makes the most sense to post as it happens or recently after it has happened (think: a behind-the-scenes look from your office this morning highlighting culture or a screenshot of an online article that mentioned you that went live yesterday).
Instagram Stories
Perhaps the platform that perfected the Story, Instagram Stories still offer the most options when it comes to creativity, editing, and format.
Many businesses find the most value in this space by turning important Stories into highlights that will permanently live on your profile. Great things for your business’ Instagram Stories are reposting user-generated content from when users tag your business, engagement Stories with polls or questions, and new content when it is posted to your feed (posting it on the feed and on Stories can drive engagement to the feed post).
Facebook Stories
Since Facebook owns Instagram, you will often see that users post the same thing to their Instagram Story and Facebook Story. In fact, when you go to post your Instagram Story, if your Instagram and Facebook accounts are linked, there will be an option to automatically post this to your Facebook Story at the same time.
Creating content specifically for Facebook Stories may be more time-intensive than it is worth in terms of reach and ROI, so if your business is on Instagram, marrying these two when possible allows you to kill two birds with one stone. Facebook Stories are great to show off user-generated content submissions and company news.
An important note: establishing a business page on a social media platform solely to utilize Stories doesn’t make sense – always treat Stories as an extra layer for platforms you are already active on based on your social media strategy.
Snapchat Stories
Popularized back in 2013, Snapchat Stories have seen a recent comeback of sorts, especially for sponsored Stories. This space makes the most sense if you offer a B2C product or service that skews to younger audiences. Snapchat still boasts the youngest user base of all social media platforms with 69 percent of their US-based users being 13-17 years old. Of all the Stories, Snapchat Stories content should be the most fun, casual, and youthful (think: showing off an office social outing or the behind-the-scenes from a product launch photoshoot).
Twitter Fleets
The newest 24-hour “story,” Twitter Fleets, had its full-scale launch last month, meaning the feature is now available to every user on the social media site.
Of the bunch, this has been described as the most “bare bones” 24 hour story. Users can choose to repopulate their posted tweets in this space, post a photo and add text, or upload a short video clip and add text.
This new space can best be utilized by businesses to get extra exposure for important tweets (i.e. new hours, expanded services, limited time offers) right after the important tweet has been posted. Older Tweets can also be re-populated in this space as a natural way to bring them back into the conversation.
No matter which social media platforms you choose to utilize for your business’ Stories, make sure you are creating valuable content that resonates with your target audiences to engage, entertain, and inform.
Over 60 percent of daily social media users are spending time engaging with Stories.
Do you need to start marketing your company on social media, but aren’t sure how to get started? Or maybe you’ve been posting content, but can’t seem to get the results you want.
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