What are Stories on Facebook?
Facebook Stories is a form of content that lets users across the platform share their everyday moments through pictures and videos in a story-telling format. These stories are present in the top-most part of the feed and can be viewed through a single click on the preview that's visible up-front. They stay on the feed for 24 hours and then disappear automatically. You can also save these stories and categorize them into different highlights, which can appear permanently on your feed.
Stories are another great way of posting content that your audience will find engaging and that remain on your profile without being intrusive.
Research done by Facebook conveys that stories have been a way of pushing people towards taking action. According to this study, more than 500 million people use Facebook Stories every day to let people know what they're up to and to share a variety of content with their audience. A Story is a quick way of registering yourself or your business in the minds of your customers and making them aware of your brand and what you have to offer.
How does posting a Story help your brand?
- Drive traffic to your website
Every time there's some new blog or content on your website, you can link it to your Story and promote it to the audience. This gives you a chance to drive more traffic to your website and eventually lead your followers to take action like subscribing to your newsletter, buying your product or service, or even knowing about your offerings.
- Increase brand awareness
Stories are a quick means to inform people about something, which is a great way of increasing interest among customers and potentials. You can introduce your brand and the team behind it, and reach a wider audience by personalizing the platform based on your brand and its idea and vision.
- Share a variety of content to increase engagement
You can repurpose and share any type of content by sharing it to your Stories, to encourage people to engage with your brand more often.
- Share your posts to reach more people
- Inform your audience about any new features, product launches, or services
- Announce giveaways, sales, and discounts
- Share customer testimonials
- Tips to use your product or to make a smart purchase
Optimizing the usage of this space according to your brand will help you achieve your social media marketing goals easily.
Best practices in creating Stories for Facebook
- Create Stories that are suitable for vertical viewing, as the audience tends to view Stories from their mobile phones.
- Design the Story with just enough additions, such as stickers, GIFs or audio, and avoid adding too much to crowd a frame.
- Optimize the first frame by keeping it attractive to hold the attention of the users until the end, and eventually lead them towards the call-to-action.