In my opinion, Facebook stories are going to be HUGE for businesses in the next twelve months, and I am gobsmacked that no-one is utilising this feature.

What is Facebook Stories?

When you log into Facebook on your computer you will see a string of profile picture with blue rings around the outside.  These are Facebook stories.  A story will only last for 24 hours and then it will vanish.   Once you have viewed a story, the blue rim will vanish and be replaced with a grey rim.

Why did Facebook Introduce Stories?

Let me take you back a few years when Facebook dominated the social networking scene.  In 2010 a small company called Instagram decided to launch, and many of the younger Facebook audience morphed over to this new and exciting platform.  Facebook tried many things to get this young audience back onto their platform without any success so they did the next best thing…. in 2012 they bought the company!

By December 2012 Facebook came up against another competitor who was once again stealing the younger audience away from them.  SnapChat was growing each day, and by 2016 Facebook/Instagram were seeing a significant drop in users for their younger demographic.  Facebook played the game and offered to purchase SnapChat for a meagre $3bn… but guess what?  SnapChat made a very bold decision and turned down the offer.  This added fuel to the fire and Facebook were determined to get this audience back onto its platform no matter how they did it… if they can’t purchase it, they will simply build it!

The Instagram stories feature was introduced in August 2016 (which works in exactly the same way as SnapChat), and their war is working.  In early January 2018, it was reported that there were now more “stories” watched on Instagram than on SnapChat, and the younger audience were back in the Facebook ecosystem.  To put even more fuel in the fire, Facebook introduced the same feature into their other products, so we are seeing Stories in FB Messenger and the main Facebook platform.  Is this the death of SnapChat?  Time will tell.  Anyway, I digress…

Why Should You Use Facebook Stories for Your Business?

Look at the stories available to watch right now.  When I look at my story feed I only see four businesses that are posting stories.  There are two Green Umbrella clients, one random business that I must have followed ages ago that I had forgotten about, and Mari Smith (Facebook Guru).

What does that tell you?

a) There is no algorithm (yet) on Facebook stories.  If you want to get in front of the people who have liked your page then this is an easy way to do it.

b) It is a great way to add humour to your business.  You can tell the story of your day which will vanish in 24 hours.  What a great way to show the culture of your business.

Facebook and Instagram Stories work together

There are more benefits from using stories.  You can add a story to your business Instagram account and without doing anything else it can appear in your Facebook story.  Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!

Below is a quick video showing you how to add stories to your Facebook Business Page.

Summary

With new stickers and functionality arriving in the stories software, it will only go from strength to strength.  Facebook is on a mission to sweep SnapChat under the carpet, so I urge you to consider a “story” strategy for your business.  We are certainly embracing the change here at Green Umbrella!