Using Social Media Stories Effectively
Using Social Media Stories Effectively
If you ask any teenager or someone in their early 20's how they like to receive their social media content, a lot of them will probably say stories. Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, Snapchat Stories, and even YouTube already released their own version of stories. Telling a good story on social media seems simple, but it's a lot more complicated than it might seem. There are a million questions going through your head; what do I put out? How do I get people to stay connected to my story? How do I grab attention? All of these questions are very valid and are not easy to answer because most of it relates to where you are in your business and your industry. However, the good news is, when creating stories, none of it really matters.
What's a Good Story?
A good story, tells your background (sharing a story about how your company got started), a great story can tell it in five seconds! This is where you can let your creativity go wild. Stories are meant to capture people's attention, and these days it's so important to do it in a matter of seconds, so make sure the first three seconds can tell a good story! Example: A skincare company came out with a new cherry scented hand lotion. What's the story? I would put cherries everywhere saying "Got cherries? Check out our new Red Lip Cherry lotion!" Make the font, red (cherry colored) and pop. The next image would be a poll, what's your favorite scent from us so far? The next part of the story would say either "available in stores now!" or take a picture of the associates with the bottles and trying it out on consumers. Saying "She (or he) LOVES it!"
How Do I Go About This?
Telling a good story on social media can be a time-consuming task, and it's an extra task to an already time consuming social media management tasks. However, it's well worth it! You have to already have pre-made videos and pictures ready (most stories now have camera roll options), just as you would posting regularly on social media. There's a great tutorial on how to create a Facebook Story on Buffer (my own guide is coming soon!). You can choose from videos, pictures or if you are on Instagram you can use Boomerang, which is the auto-looping app inside Instagram Stories, where you can essentially create your own GIFs in real time! Pretty cool huh?
I Have No Idea Where to Start! Give me some Ideas.
Want some ideas on what to post for your social media stories? Here are some great ones:
BTS - No not the K-pop band! Behind the Scenes look at your company. What are you working on? What are you excited about? Do you have an event coming up that you want people to know about? Give them a sneak peek! What about a new product launch like the one I mentioned above about cherry scented lotion? Give them insight into how it's made? Let people know interesting facts about it! Or maybe you have an artist that you want to launch on your record label? If you record an interview (I highly recommend it for YouTube) give them snippets of it on your stories and your regular posts!
Audience Insight - Crowdsourcing product lines have become a HUGE thing now. Most companies that crowdsource (or even crowdfund) use social media stories to gain insight into what they want from the company. A lot of big companies tend to do this, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't do this with your audience either! You might think you need a big social media following for this, nope! All you need is an email list, a good marketing funnel, and just great content. If you are the type of business that sees customers face-to-face on a daily basis, then just talking to them about what they want to see from you next would be awesome as well. Create a video of that and put it on your social media stories.
Remember social media is simply a by-product of all of these things you already have in place.
Personal Stories/Testimonials - Video testimonials are the best, but written testimonials are great too. If a customer has an amazing story of their progress with your service or really loves your product, ask them to make a video and send it to you! When putting these testimonials into social media stories, you need to make them short and sweet. If the video is five minutes, for example, cut it down to 10-30 seconds. No one is going to watch a five-minute testimonial on stories.
Know Your Audience!
Social media stories work for many audiences, but not every single one of them will be looking at your stories. Some of them don't even know they exist, so before you figure an Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat story strategy, make sure your audience is watching stories! Don't target a baby boomer crowd, with a Snapchat audience. You will get zero to no ROI on your strategy and all of that work will go to waste.
Need Digital Marketing Help?
Social media stories are just another task that's been handed to many business owners that are handling their own social media. As a business owner, you have enough to worry about! Let SPB Productions handle the brunt of targeting your audience, and growing your online presence! Need more than just social media? We handle a lot of different areas of digital marketing as well; from online reputation management to copywriting, we got it covered! Interested? Schedule your FREE call today to learn more!