Since their launch in August 2016, the interactive, real-time nature of video, image, and music-based Instagram stories has become a mainstay of social media campaigns with staying power, heralding an age where brands can enjoy the benefits of more time-consuming content like video in true low-fi, fly on the wall style. Now, as stories soar onto Facebook as well, brands looking to find any form of success on social media need to think about the stories they’re telling, and the bestsellers that they need to beat, or at least learn from, to find success here.
With 400 million users making Instagram stories even more popular than runaway successes like Snapchat, there are luckily already plenty of brands writing the right narrative to get themselves seen here, and any one of them could prove the perfect role model. Whether you’re new to the world of Instagram or are simply struggling to write a narrative that your followers feel invested in, we’re going to consider some companies that are quite literally taking their stories by storm right now.
1. Converse
Converse has always made its name by appealing to the alternative masses, making the uncool cool, and harvesting a cult following that’s taken it from strength to strength since its launch way back in the early 1900s. Now, these iconic baseball-style trainers are yet again leaning on their iconic cult standing by creating a social media presence worth following. On Instagram especially, the brand is using the media options available to its full advantage by uniquely realizing that stories are no standalone thing. Rather, Converse picked up early on to the fact that real success here means writing an ongoing series that connects feed to story for seamless, free-flowing traffic that goes both ways. This is a strategy that Converse launched with the release of their x Golf Fleur, feeding into the repetition mindset that, most definitely, worked out pretty well in this instance.
2. Glossier
Unsurprisingly for a brand that was literally born out of social media, Glossier is also bossing it on the stories front, and it does so by understanding its following so well that it comes across like a friend giving advice. Instead of 2D story uploads, Glossier takes things to the next level with interactive, audience-focused story uploads that include Q&As, link-offs to interesting articles, and polls to get the audience involved. Taking the full media offerings of modern-day stories by the horns, Glossier also provides a rich media journey by taking the time to add music to Instagram story uploads through their playlists and more. When alternated with the brand’s feature products or information on pop-up shops, these rich stories provide a reliable and comfortable shoulder for customers who are way more likely to buy down the line.
3. Twitter
We all know that the age of competitive advantage is nigh, with every brand now better able to watch and track their competition online without any risk of discovery. This has heralded an age where trends move faster than light as brands always try to one-up each other, but Twitter has boldly taken the competitive bull by the horns where its story uploads are concerned. Far from watching Instagram from the shadows, Twitter has swaggered right into stories by sharing highlights from its main feed in true ‘this is where the ‘real’ stories are,’ style. Bold, perhaps, but swipe-up links attached to each of Twitter’s highlight uploads have seen them converting a fair amount of traffic away from their closest competitor by using the very advantages that competitor puts on the table. It’s bold, it’s cheeky and, more importantly, it’s working out pretty well for them.
4. Everlane
It’s difficult to find a better example of the benefits of social media than is evidenced in Everlane’s story uploads. This digital-first apparel brand made its name on Snapchat, so its skill in the video format should be no surprise, but this expertise is being applied perfectly to Instagram stories that provide a behind-the-scenes insight that makes follower loyalty almost inevitable. With stories detailing product development, back-of-house process Q&As, and a host of brand origin stories, this is social media at its best – pulling people into the heart of a company that they can’t resist buying from.
These are just a few of the brands getting Instagram stories just right, and their lessons are guaranteed to help you to get your tale into gear for increased followers, and the conversions that they can bring, in no time.
