Last week Instagram announced an update to their platform called “Instagram Stories”, and it’s everyone was talking about it. As usual people were quick to voice opinions and make quick decisions, many saying this would be the death of Snapchat. Why? Because, by their own admission, Instagram stories is a direct replica of Snapchat stories.
I voiced my initial thoughts to a friend of mine about whether I thought it would even take off, and wanted to wait a week or so before I blogged more openly.
Stories sit at the top of your Instagram home feed, and are a series of images or/and videos stitched together over a 24 hour period to create a ‘story’ – this could be about your day, what you’re doing, where you’ve been etc. Most of this content is created in real-time but you can also use pictures and videos you save to your camera roll from else where within that 24 hour period. Then, like on Snapchat, you can overlay a filter, text, emojis, and doodles.
The great thing about Stories for Instagram is that, as a channel, it’s mostly been about sharing a single photo here and there until now (and editing it like crazy so it looks ultra profesh!) but now you can use Stories to give a more authentic look into your life and what you get up to – without flooding the home feed of your followers with seemingly non-important stuff.
Why is that a win for Instagram?
Because they’ve recognised storytelling is the way forward, and they think this will keep people on their platform rather then going anywhere else to storytell (like Snapchat). Does it work? I’m not sure it does. Facebook introduced hashtags and they don’t work…In my experience people like to use platforms in different ways for different things. Millennials especially don’t care if they have 10 different apps, each serves a different purpose and a different need.
I do think Instagram Stories will work well for brands, organisations and individuals who have a massive follower base there already, and I’d be interested to know how their engagement rates on Instagram stories compare to those of Snapchat. I have a feeling they won’t, but in comparison to your standard ‘sticky’ photos/videos that sit on your Instagram profile – you’ll certainly see more engagement by way of views (due to how they’ve positioned the stories feed) – I certainly have.
Another great thing about Instagram introducing Stories is the certainty of it familiarising the notion of story telling and ephemeral content (content that disappears) to those who do not use Snapchat. I really hope that if those users have a go with Instagram Stories, see how others are using it and enjoy it – it will shift their perception of Snapchat. From my experience as a Snapchat trainer, too many people are avoiding the opportunities of Snapchat because they have pre-conceived ideas about what it is or what it can do.
So here’s a quick outline of the differences between what Snapchat offers and what Instagram does:
Each piece of content you create lasts up to ten seconds and all snaps you send (either to your public story or 1:1 with a friend) disappear once it’s seen (your story lasts 24 hours).
There’s much more choice in filters, lenses (that change regularly), stickers, and drawing options that allow users to be more creative when storytelling. The growth rate has been phenomenal in the 5 years since it launched, much larger than any other social network out there, and it boasts 10 billion video views per day. According to some reports, that’s more than Facebook.
It’s definitely not going to stop people using Snapchat who are already using it and having kept an eye on things in my circle of contacts on Instagram, I’ve not been seeing it used much…that may change…we’ll see.
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Just yesterday it was announced they brought the discovery app Vurb – which means a search functionality. That’s exactly the right answer. Although don’t get me wrong…I’m more than ok with the lack of search function on Snapchat…there’s a ton of alternative ways you can build your follower base.
I polled my Twitter followers a couple of days after the new feature appeared on Instagram, and I’ve also been asking my Snapchat followers what they think too. Interestingly the majority of people are giving it a thumbs down. Unless, it’s been someone who has a huge following on Instagram already – in which case they’re simply leveraging this element of Instagram and seeing good interaction levels, understandably.
No…as with all social media, it’s about evaluating who your customers are, where they hang out, and then going there…if there’s potential in Snapchat and not Instagram, then work hard at getting your customers to join Snapchat, or vice versa. Instagram Stories is just another tool on Instagram to help you communicate and connect with your community in real-time.
For some, that isn’t what they want from it, for others it will be precisely what’s been missing.
What it does do is highlight a shift in digital communications and social media marketing that Snapchat can take credit for – storytelling is huge right now. People want to connect with people, and they want it to be personable. Whether those people represent a large business or a one-man band. The evolution of social media as a comms method in business has always been gate crashed by marketing – adverts, scripts and well produced pieces of content. That’s disconnecting you from your audience. I said it some months back but channels like Snapchat, Facebook Live and Periscope are stripping all that back and are putting authenticity first, and that’s why they’re so popular. Because people connect with genuine moments and that’s all you can be when it’s live.
Don’t ignore it!
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