Why Instagram Stories are great for marketing your business

Instagram Stories was introduced last year to rival the stories element of Snapchat. Unlike a regular Instagram post which stays on your page forever, Instagram stories only stick around for 24 hours and they do not appear on your feed.

Why use Instagram Stories?

• There are around 300 million active users on Instagram Stories and this figure is growing fast. It encourages people to hang around on Instagram longer than they did just looking at feeds.

• Your Instagram stories are not placed on your feed. They can, therefore, be seen by anyone.

• You can add hashtags to increase the chance of people finding your Stories.

• If you have more than 10,000 followers you can add a link to a web page. Currently, on your Instagram posts, this is not possible.

• The Instagram algorithm changes have affected the reach and therefore engagement. With Instagram Stories you are continuously engaging and therefore there is no best time to post as the Stories are there for 24 hours.

If you do not have the time to add Stories as well as your regular posts, you can now share your posts to Stories. Simply click on the image you want to share from your Instagram feed then underneath you will see a heart (to click like) a speech bubble (to comment) and a paper airplane (to share to Stories). Click on the paper airplane icon then add post to your Story.

What you choose to post on Instagram Stories does not affect your algorithm for your Instagram account. It gives you the opportunity, therefore, to think outside the box, give people a sneak preview of behind the scenes at your office, create polls to help with your market research, launch a new product, create offers.

It's easy to use and it has some fantastic editing tools to allow you to get creative. Give it a go!