Over the last few days people have been freaking out over the new feature from Instagram, their own Instagram Stories. Although it’s early days I wanted to share my initial thoughts on this new feature and how it may be able to help you in your business or blog.
Instagram has been my favourite social media platform for a while now. I love the pretty photos, the inspiration and discovering new people and brands on the platform. Everything is very staged and polished – You only share the good things on there! Until now. The idea of Instagram Stories is to share videos of the behind the scenes of your life, the less perfect aspects you’ve got going on. Each video lasts 24 hours before it is deleted.
Does this sound familiar?
It sure sounds a lot like Snapchat! That’s because it pretty much is Instagram’s version of Snapchat. One of my favourite aspects of Snapchat is the stories, seeing the behind the scenes of life. Many people use it like daily vlogging without the editing it requires to make a YouTube video or they have lots of fun with the different filters.
I’ve been enjoying both Instagram and Snapchat separately, so with this change to Instagram how will it change both platforms?
It’s very early to say as Instagram Stories is only a few days old but already people I follow are struggling to know which to use. Unless they both have clearly different purposes, which at the moment they don’t, it appears one might fall by the wayside.
The Benefits of Instagram Stories
- It’s likely you have a bigger following on Instagram so your stories will get to more people. This is the biggest bonus I can see. It’s a great way for people to discover you and your brand. Over at Voltage Sport we don’t have a Snapchat account so Instagram Stories seems like a great way for people to get to know who’s behind the photos.
- You can still post a pretty picture. Although snapchat has recently allowed you to upload photos from your phone.
- Once you’ve posted a pretty picture you can send people to your Instagram Story to see the behind the scenes action. It’s easy for your audience to watch your video without having to switch platforms, like they’ve have to do to see your Snapchat story.
The Benefits of Snapchat Stories
- You may have already established a loyal Snapchat following. Although it can be harder for people to find you on Snapchat – It involves a lot of cross-platform promoting, the people who watch your videos are more likely to be genuinely interested in what you have to say.
- The Snapchat filters are the best – Who doesn’t love to look like a cute puppy?! I wouldn’t be surprised if Instagram add some filters soon though,
- There’s not as many people to watch on Snapchat. I personally don’t follow too many people on Snapchat where as on Instagram yesterday I followed almost 1000 accounts. When I logged into Instagram and looked at the stories it was very overwhelming to see so many stories. I’ll admit I unfollowed quite a few accounts I was no longer interested in to try and bring my Instagram Stories down. This may change as I think in the first few days everyone is trying it out!
So, what now?
It’s too early to say exactly what will happen but if Instagram Stories takes off I think it will be hard to manage both. I must admit when the algorithm on Instagram changed recently it did lose a bit of it’s fun for me as I was missing lots of posts and seeing the same ones all the time. I hope it doesn’t mean the photo feature will diminish even more now. I have noticed a few glitches with Instagram too such as videos playing out of order and mine took a while to upload but if they fix these and add some filters it will be some stiff competition. I can see Instagram Stories being the go to for behind the scenes action – Unless Snapchat come out with something even better!
To see how I use them both, you can follow me on Instagram at @carolinetowersbiz and snapchat @carolinetowers
What are your initial thoughts on Instagram Stories v Snapchat? I’d love to know, so comment below.
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