One thing is true for every social media platform: they will evolve. And as a digital marketer, one of your essential duties is to evolve along with them and find out how you can tailor your message to be as effective as possible. The latest evolution? Stories.

Instagram started the stories phenomenon which Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn would all copy to varying degrees of success. Instagram and Tik Tok are at the forefront of short, story-based social media and the trend doesn’t seem to be diminishing. Story features allow for an added layer of audience interactivity with your brand that traditional platforms don’t have like polls and questions stickers, the answers to which you can mine for endless story content.

Ultimately, stories are just another version of the content you put out across your social media channels, but it’s important to go where audiences are going to get the most eyes on your brand. Don’t assume your brand is strong enough to get away with only posting on Facebook every other day.

If you’re entirely new to story features (or better yet, completely new to using Instagram), it’s feasible that you could spend a few hours in your “well what do I do?” period. I promise, though, it isn’t that hard! There are only five types of stories that a professional social media account is expected to release. 

• Tutorials—short, process-based videos are all the rage, incredibly addicting, and have a high sharing potential. 
• Content from your followers—if your followers tag you in posts or videos, don’t be afraid to share that on your stories feed! It provides you content and lets your community know you’re engaging with them.
• Behind-the-scenes—everyone likes to feel like they’re watching something exclusive, so shoot a quick video of everybody hard at work on a “top-secret” project or maybe your office participating in a viral meme!
• Advertise time-sensitive offers or promotions.
• Make special announcements about upcoming products, features, you name it! Whatever your brand has to showcase.

Not every single one of these ideas is going to be applicable to your company, but you can definitely make use of at least three of them. Remember, you want these to look good, but at the end of the day, these two things should hold true: these are promotional, not entertainment and they aren’t a source of revenue, just another way to get your message in front of your audience. What I’m saying is, if you’re sweating it, you shouldn’t be.

Also, adding stories to your regular updates doesn’t need to be a whole production. If you want to shoot video, whip out your cell phone and try to hold it as steady as possible. This isn’t going to be released in theaters, after-all. Being attention-getting and making sure your message is clear are far more important than cinematic quality.

I encourage you to consider story features and videos as the next step in your digital marketing campaign. The future is visual and soon written updates for important announcements or launches are going to be second bananas to quality video and photography. We’re already seeing this with the domination of apps like Tik Tok, a medium so unstoppable that it overcame the ire of the President of the United States!

Of course, if you’re really being thrown for a loop, there’s no better way of ensuring quality content than entrusting your digital strategy with my team at The Go! Agency.