Given the recent spike in Snapchat popularity, Instagram rolled out their new, strangely-familiar “Stories” feature that operates as you’d expect – it collects a series of photos and videos you post throughout the day, compiles them into a “story,” and makes them disappear after 24 hours. It even takes “filters” one step further by allowing you to edit content with stickers and drawings, which goes against their typically “premium” content tone.
So how does it work? It won’t be hard to learn if you’re a Snapchat user! Stories from people/accounts you follow will appear at the top of your feed, and their profile will be denoted with a coloured ring each time a person updates their Story.
This product also follows suit with Snapchat in that it takes the pressure off garnering “Likes” and “Comments” – the only engagement comes in the form of direct messaging after a view. Bored of someone’s daily dog series? Just swipe to the next Story!
We imagine this will come in handy for major events such as sports, concerts, fashion shows, etc. where brands are gathering an abundance of content without wanting to over share. It also eliminates the issue of the new algorithm, which makes the feature extremely helpful for cohesive, sequential storytelling. Plus, Likes and Comments are irrelevant here, so the public performance pressure and premium content elements are eliminated. No word on sponsored Stories yet, but we’re sure that’s up next. Stay tuned!
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