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A Marketer’s Guide to Instagram Stories for Business

Since its launch in 2016, Instagram Stories has connected millions of users to the brands they love and follow in eye-catching and finger-tapping ways.

Instagram Stories, a feature of the Instagram platform, boasts more than 300 million active accounts. Instagram Stories put videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours in front of your target audience, and are a powerful business tool to engage with your fans and nurture lasting brand-consumer relationships. Here’s how you can best leverage Instagram Stories for your brand.

Popularity of Instagram Stories for Business

Instagram said 1 in 3 of its most-viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses. Brands are constantly updating their Instagram Stories with short videos, behind-the-scenes pictures, and more.

Instagram Stories showcase the voice and personality of brands in quick bursts, holding the attention of busy mobile phone users who are regularly scrolling through content and consuming mobile videos.

According to an Instagram study from 2017, the time users spent watching Instagram videos was up more than 80 percent compared to the previous year. Additionally, 60 percent of the platform’s users said they viewed more mobile videos on Instagram than in the previous two years.

How to Use Instagram Stories for Business

After opening the Instagram app that contains your business profile, users can either swipe to the right or click on the camera icon located on the top left of the screen to see options for Instagram Stories formats.

For brands who want to buy ads, there are three ways advertisers can create ads in Instagram Stories:

• Ads Create Tool
• Power Editor
• API

For more information on using these tools and the design requirements for Instagram Storiesphotos and videos–including aspect ratio, resolution, and length–go to Facebook Blueprint.

When stories are updated, a ring appears around the profile picture to notify users of new content.

Brands often take advantage of the Stories Highlights feature to display stories at the top of their profiles. This helps categorize products or services together so consumers can quickly find content they’re interested in.

For example, Target’s Instagram account groups together seasonal items with its Spring Break and Easter stories. This also allows brands to organize and track the progress of their marketing campaigns.

After posting a story, you can see view counts and other relevant key performance metrics via Instagram Stories analytics. See how Simply Measured and Sprout Social allow you track, analyze, and benchmark your most important Instagram data.

As for the ring that appears around profile images, this highlights when users search for accounts or hashtags using brand names. You can see that, when typing in “Starbucks” in the Instagram app, Starbucks Turkey has recently updated its Stories content because the ring draws users’ eyes to this account.

Users can interact with stories by messaging brands directly, sharing stories with their followers, or tapping on the screen to fast-forward content.

Instagram Stories Options for Content

Since its launch, Instagram Stories has added new features that make interacting and communicating with followers more fun and cost-effective. These features prove you don’t need a big ad budget or dozens of staff on a sound stage to create viral content.

This gives even the smallest businesses the ability to get a ton of views when armed with creativity and a smartphone. There are several ways to engage with users using Instagram Stories for business, including:

• Type. Choose between different fonts to create text-only posts or add text to photos for captions or hashtags.
• Live. Stream live video to your followers that will disappear from your feed in 24 hours. Or, if you want to replay or share videos for later, click Save after ending the video stream.
• Boomerang. Record video that plays forward and then backward in a loop, similar to GIFs.

The other Instagram Stories options to explore are:

• Normal
• Superzoom
• Rewind
• Hands-Free
• Stop-Motion

All of these options allow you personalize your content to fit into users’ feeds more organically. Plenty of users see these in action, and if your brand wants to get creative, you could use this to blend into a feed.

Display Full-Screen Ads

Instagram recently announced that it will support Instagram Stories ads in full-screen format. This allows businesses to go into Ads Manager and upload a photo or video on Instagram Stories. The ad will take up more screen space on cell phones, making more of an impression for mobile device users who are constantly scrolling through content.

Mobile-friendly features like full-screen Instagram Stories ads allow brands to take advantage of the growth of on-the-go social media users. With ads in full-screen format, businesses also have the option to include links that users can view by swiping up on their phones.

Play Video Stories

Videos on Instagram are versatile and can display short ads, customer testimonials, how-tos and tips, and other visuals. There are numerous ways to use videos of different lengths to highlight your brand, but videos that work with Stories are capped at 15 seconds.

When brands use Ads Manager to upload full-screen Instagram Stories video ads, they have 15 seconds or less to capture the attention of their followers. Add music or audio to the video to make more of an impact.

You can also share video ads on your Instagram profile that are in landscape or square format, and up to 60 seconds in length.

Stream Live Videos

Unlike videos uploaded to Ads Manager for Stories, live videos are not limited to a max of 15 seconds, allowing brands to stream product demonstrations, tutorials, Q&A sessions, and other long-form content.

Make a Stronger Call-to-Action

With the new ways brands are using Instagram Stories, they have to adapt their overall messaging to suit their audience, including their call-to-action. Since Instagram Stories caters to the mobile user crowd, there are CTAs that are made specifically for these devices to entice followers and hold their attention.

Calls-to-Action options for Instagram Stories ads include:

• Apply Now
• Book Now
• Buy Now
• Buy Tickets
• Contact Us
• Download
• Shop Now
• Watch More

You can include CTAs within the text of the video itself, including:

• Swipe Up. Use the call-to-action “Swipe Up” to let users know there is a link to learn more about products or services.
• Tap. Say “Tap” so users can tap the screen to speed up the story and get to the content they really want.
• Share. Tell users to share the story by tapping on the paper airplane icon on the bottom right of the screen.

Ikea’s Instagram account encourages users to tap the screen to view images related to seasonal content. Mobile-driven calls-to-action bring to mind the more interactive features of Instagram, giving users reason to act now rather than later.

Another example of a brand employing creative Instagram Stories is J.Crew, which uses calls-to-action to convey a sense of urgency with its ads for “limited-time-only” sales, and they curate feedback from customers based on their own playful prompts.

Share Fan Photos & Videos

Starbucks frequently uses Instagram Stories to share follower images of its Instagram-worthy drinks.

Show your followers that you’re listening by sharing the photos tagged with or depicting your brand. Including follower photos in your feed or ads could encourage more followers to engage with you through likes and comments, or to share their own images.

If your brand works with influencers, ask these partners to record videos featuring or mentioning your brand in their Instagram Stories. These influencer videos can show the influencer using a product or service and giving a review. You can also highlight your brand’s relationship with influencers by interviewing the influencer on your brand’s Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories & Analytics

With videos and photos widely viewed and shared on Instagram Stories for business every day, brands need to pinpoint which posts are actually success stories. Instagram has built-in analytics tools to get more insight on the number of impressions, reach, views, and other metrics connected to your posts.

Using analytics is crucial to understanding which posts are popular among your followers, how your audience is most likely to engage with your photos and videos, and if you are achieving your desired return on investment.

Whether it is for a single post or an entire marketing campaign, knowing the numbers behind engagement will help create more content with effective branding.

Cosmetics company CoverGirl used Instagram and Facebook to rebrand its image and tagline, reaching more than 30.1 million people combined on these platforms, according to Instagram’s Success Stories. CoverGirl found that it had five times higher message association compared with industry norms, and had 15 million video views.

The company created video ads for their target audiences, such as Hispanic and African-American women. This campaign includes a 15-second full-screen video ad in Instagram Stories that features a diverse group of women.

Shingle-style colonial sells for $1.1M in Barrington

BARRINGTON – A shingle-style colonial at 61 Appian Way has sold for $1.1 million, the third sale in the town topping the million-dollar mark this year.

The house is set on Narragansett Bay, and has a landscaped lot reaching down to the beach. The property includes a wood-burning fireplace in the living room and panoramic views, according to a description provided by Residential Properties Ltd., which represented both the seller and buyer.

The listing agent was Lisa Schryver, a Barrington resident. The buyer’s agent was Kerri Payne, an East Bay resident, as well.

The sale was announced April 5.

CharterCARE offers to invest $10M in Memorial, plans revival starting with ER, CNE downplays plan

PAWTUCKET — CharterCare Health Partners CEO John J. Holiver and Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien announced Thursday that the hospital system plans to buy the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island building and has committed $10 million for capital improvements, returning medical services there in stages, starting with emergency care.

A spokesman for CharterCare said the company’s total offer to Care New England, which shut down Memorial Nov. 11, has not been sent to CNE yet.

Holiver said the $10 million would cover both outfitting the emergency center as well as the anticipated medical staff. He said he couldn’t estimate the company’s possible offer on the entire former Memorial Hospital campus.

“It’s too early to tell,” Holiver said.

Eventually, CharterCare plans to restore all medical services at the building. Efforts to draft the plan to restore services at the Memorial Hospital building began at the request of Grebien.

CharterCare jointly owns Roger Williams Medical Center, Fatima Hospital, St. Joseph Health Center and Elmhurst Extended Care with Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. of California through a joint venture, Prospect CharterCARE LLC.

In January, Prospect and Brown University announced their competing bid to purchase Care New England as an alternative to the absorption of the health care system by Boston-based Partners HealthCare of Massachusetts. CNE and Partners have a standing exclusive agreement to pursue a merger, but the deal hinges on state approval.

Thursday morning, Holiver said their plan for Memorial Hospital is a separate issue from the Brown University-Prospect proposal.

Originally CNE planned to sell off Memorial to Prime Healthcare as part of the Partners deal, but continuing losses at the Pawtucket institution led the local hospital system to close it. The closure affected approximately 700 employees, limited access to hospital care in the Blackstone Valley and caused an emergency room crisis when other local hospital emergency rooms were inundated with an overflow of patients during the winter flu season, one that was described by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “intense.”

Care New England had a quick reaction to the news. Jim Beardsworth, spokesman for the health care system said in a statement: “We made the difficult decision more than six months ago to close Memorial Hospital and begin transitioning the facility into an outpatient center. In the process, we preserved 200 local jobs and positioned community-based health care for a solid future. Today’s announcement by Prospect Health/CharterCare certainly comes as a surprise, as there has been no previous discussion or formal proposal submitted to Care New England.

“Any plan to reopen the closed facility, as suggested today, is simply unfeasible, especially since we previously had conversations with CharterCare about buying Memorial and those proved fruitless. Today’s announcement represents nothing more than an opportunity to muddy the health care landscape with an ill-conceived plan with no true thought for serving the community need.”

When the R.I. Department of Health approved Care New England’s reverse certificate of need application to close Memorial Hospital’s emergency department in December 2017, it set a number of conditions related to the loss of emergency room services:

• CNE will provide $300,000 to Pawtucket and $200,000 to Central Falls each year for two years to offset emergency medical services costs associated with transporting patients to other hospitals
• CNE will establish a transportation plan for patients and patients’ families so that individuals with nonemergency chronic conditions won’t have to incur additional costs associated with traveling to receive services that are only offered at another hospital
• CNE must maintain Memorial Hospital’s Family Care and Internal Medicine Centers in Pawtucket at their current hours and staffing levels
• CNE will invest $100,000 annually in the Pawtucket and Central Falls Health Equity Zones. Rhode Island’s HEZs are nine distinct areas throughout the state where organizations are coming together to put health programs and policies in place to prevent chronic diseases, improve birth outcomes, and improve the socioeconomic and environmental conditions of their neighborhoods

Senate marks Equal Pay Day by passing bills to address wage gaps

STATE HOUSE – Today is Equal Pay Day — the day symbolizing how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to make as much money as a man made the previous year.

The Senate marked the occasion by passing two measures sponsored by Sen. Gayle L. Goldin and Sen. Maryellen Goodwin to help address pay gaps affecting women and members of minority groups.

“Today we are honoring the spirit of Equal Pay Day in the most appropriate manner possible: by taking concrete steps to equalize wages in Rhode Island. The bills we passed today provide workers a more effective, realistic set of tools for addressing unfair pay practices, and they help our state identify unequal pay where it occurs. Today we are doing more than raising awareness; We are making real progress toward fixing the problem of pay inequality,” said Senator Goldin (D-Dist. 3, Providence).

In Rhode Island, a woman working full-time still makes only 82 cents to the dollar that her male counterpart makes. Women of color are even more deeply affected. Black women in Rhode Island make 59 percent of what their white male counterparts make; for Latinas, the number is even lower—50 percent. On average, Rhode Island working women lose $9,859 per year to the wage gap—money desperately needed by working families.

“These bills are two important first steps in closing wage gaps. This is a complex problem with lots of causes, including societal biases and expectations that need to change. By identifying where wage gaps exist and how wide they are, and better enabling workers to advocate for themselves, we are pointing our state in the right direction on this issue, moving toward a future where all Rhode Islanders, regardless of gender, race or any other factor, have fair opportunities to support themselves and their families,” said Senate Majority Whip Goodwin (D-Dist. 1, Providence).

Senator Goldin’s bill (2018-S 2475Aaa) would provide protections and transparency in the workplace to help women and people of color demand equal pay for equal work. Titled the Fair Pay Act, the bill would make it illegal to pay workers less than their white, male colleagues without a clearly documented difference in skills. It clarifies “comparable work,” making it clear that workers need to be paid equally for “substantially similar” work even if every detail is not the same. It bans policies that prevent workers from discussing their pay with each other and removes past salary history as a consideration since discrimination is perpetuated over time by employers relying on past salaries, rather than skills and value, to determine current pay.  It also requires the employer to disclose the salary range for the position. Last year, Massachusetts passed a similar Fair Pay Act, joining cities and companies across the country that are enacting these policies. Amendments made to the bill in committee allow reduced penalties for companies that take steps such as conducting an equal-pay analysis or making progress toward wage gap elimination.

The bill will now be sent to the House, where Rep. Susan R. Donovan (D-Dist. 69, Bristol, Portsmouth) is sponsoring companion legislation (2018-H 7427). Cosponsors include Senator Goodwin, Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (D-Dist. 4, North Providence, Providence), Sen. Erin Lynch Prata (D-Dist. 31, Warwick, Cranston) and Senate Majority Leader Michael J. McCaffrey (D-Dist. 29, Warwick).

Senator Goodwin’s bill (2018-S 2638A), which will also now go to the House and is cosponsored by Senator Goldin, would collect data from employers of 100 or more people in Rhode Island to help determine industries and areas where pay gaps occur, and their extent. The Department of Labor and Training would be responsible for developing a form by which companies would report information on the compensation and hours worked by employees by age, gender, race, ethnicity, job category and occupation or title. DLT would publish aggregate data compiled from the reports, including state, regional, and industry pay disparities by occupational category.

Both bills would take effect Jan. 1.

For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923