While researching on social media analytics, I stumbled upon an article that stated “Are Instagram Stories Killing Your Engagement on Traditional Posts?”.
From that point onwards I researched more on this topic. The pointers below will give you a quick reality check… ( as it did, to me) ?
Let’s start with facts first, and then recommendations.
Fact
Over a period of 7 weeks (4 weeks before the launch of Stories and 3 weeks following), Iconosquare inspected the evolution in the engagement of 30 top brands who use Stories, in comparison to the evolution in the engagement of another 30 top brands who use the feature rarely or not at all. Below are the shocking graphs.
Within ONLY 3 weeks there is a global decrease in engagement – dropping from 1.11% to 0.94% – which is a decrease of around 15%. It is anticipated that the level of engagement on traditional posts will only continue to fall as more and more users switch their attention over to Stories.
Recommendations
1. Don’t ‘story’ what you want to upload – I realized that whenever I’d go for the crazy tastings, I’d get a whopping 100+ screenshots only on Snapchat (considering Instagram is not measurable yet). Although this made me happy, I now realize it’s not a good thing.
Why? Snapchat has now come up with a ‘forwarding snaps’ feature – this enables my audience to forward my cray snaps as soon as they see them. On InstaStory they can just screenshot and forward it via WhatsApp, etc. What this does is, builds my audiences excitement at that moment only to share with their friends and when I actually end up POSTING it, I barely get any organic engagement in comparison to my stories ?
2. ‘Story’ the ordinary stuff – … and upload the interesting stuff! E.g. a restaurant. Only show your audience how the interiors look, the menu or a couple of ordinary looking dishes.
3. “Should I snap the fondant or not?” – LOL! I asked myself this question. I would snap myself slicing it for sure, but if the fondant is unique (like it’s oozing out lotus or cheese), I would probably save it for a post in contrary to a story. Additionally, experiences like my tasting at Le Petit Chef needs snapping. Every event you go for (needless to say) requires Snapchat or InstaStory coverage. Thus, for Le Petit Chef I had no choice, as the entire experience was 3D projection ? Just be strategic about what you want to get engagement in.
4. Don’t misuse/overdo click bait on your story every.single.time – *On the story* *guys check what I just uploaded* *guys you have to see the delicious drink I had* *guys just uploaded my #OOTD that’s on fleeek!!!* I often overdo this #guilty ? but don’t be the guy who cried wolf! Your content cannot be phenomenal every single day – your followers eventually will tire of your tactic.
I would like to add, all the recommendations above – I have tried and tested and my engagement has substantially improved.
Source
Click here to read my article on “How to judge the strength of your InstaBlog?”. This includes a formula on how to calculate the Engagement percentage of your InstaStories.