The ultimate guide to Instagram posts vs stories.
Instagram is a powerful social media platform for businesses of all sizes. With over 2 billion active users, it offers a huge potential audience for your products or services.
But with so many different features and options available, it can be tough to know how to use Instagram effectively. Two of the most popular features are posts and stories.
In this blog post, we’ll take a comprehensive look at Instagram story vs post and help you decide which one is best for your business.
Instagram Story vs Post
In the following sections, we’ll explain the basic differences between Instagram story vs post, including what they look like and how you can use them.
However, we recommend creating engaging content for both Instagram stories and feeds to see what works best for your industry, products, and audience.
What are Instagram Posts?
Post is an Instagram feature that allows you to reach a large audience, promote your products or services, and build relationships with customers. Instagram posts can be in the form of static images, videos, or carousels.
What you see in the image above are Instagram posts that appear on your followers’ feeds. You can add filters, tags, and locations to your posts.
Types of Instagram Posts
There are three main types of Instagram posts:
1. Image posts
These are single-image Instagram posts that can be either portrait or landscape orientation. Image posts are the most common type of Instagram post.
2. Carousel posts
Carousel posts let you share up to 10 images or videos in a single post. Carousel posts are a great way to tell a story or showcase a product or service from multiple angles.
3. Video posts
Video posts can be up to 90 seconds in length and can be either portrait or landscape orientation. Video posts are a great way to engage your audience and tell stories in a more dynamic way.
Also Read: Social Media Marketing Experiments: Instagram Carousels Vs Reels
How to Create Effective Instagram Posts for your Business?
To help your Instagram posts be successful and reach the right audience, here are some things to consider:
1. Use High Quality Images
Instagram is a visual platform, so it’s important to use high-quality images and videos in your posts. Your pictures should be eye-catching and relevant to your target audience.
2. Write Engaging Captions
Your caption is more than just a description of your photo or video. They should tell a story, engage your audience, and encourage them to take action.
3. Use Appropriate Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to get your posts seen by more people. When you use relevant hashtags, your posts will appear in search results for those hashtags.
4. Post Regularly
The more often you post, the more likely you are to reach your target audience. Try to post at least three times a week. And make sure you’re consistent with your posting schedule.
5. Engage with your Audience
Instagram is a social platform, so it’s important that you interact with your audience. Respond to user comments and questions and participate in conversations.
Moving next to our Instagram posts vs Instagram stories discussion, let’s understand different ways in which you can leverage them for your business.
Different Use Cases of Instagram Posts for your Business
You can use Instagram posts in a variety of ways to achieve your marketing goals. Here are some different use cases with examples:
1. Increase Brand Awareness
Instagram is a great platform to showcase your brand’s personality and values and connect with potential customers. By publishing high-quality, engaging content, you can reach a wide audience and build brand recognition.
2. Generate Leads
Once you get people’s attention, you can use Instagram posts to drive traffic to your website or landing page. You can do this by including a call to action in your post, such as “Buy now” or “Sign up for our newsletter.”
3. Boost Sales
Instagram posts can also be used to promote your products or services. You can use shoppable posts to let people buy products directly from Instagram. You can also use posts to announce new products and discounts or host contests and giveaways.
4. Educate and Entertain your Audience
Besides promoting your products and services, you can also use Instagram posts to educate and entertain your audience. This could involve sharing tips and advice, behind-the-scenes content, or customer testimonials.
Brands That Create Winning Instagram Posts
Instagram posts, when used properly, can change the face of marketing. Here are some examples of brands that use it best:
1. Casper
Casper is a mattress company that has become a household name. The brand’s posts are often humorous and relatable, and often feature real people talking about their experiences with Casper mattresses.
For example, to promote their Labor Day sale, the brand shared a single image post that highlighted the fact that their mattresses can help you fall asleep faster and get a good night’s sleep.
2. Glossier
Glossier is a beauty brand famous for its minimalist makeup style and emphasis on natural beauty. The brand’s Instagram posts are often simple and elegant, featuring close-ups of Glossier products on models, giveaways, skincare tips, and other related content.
For example, Glossier recently created an Instagram carousel post to announce a giveaway at its You Look Good Tour. The brand mentioned the details of the giveaway in the caption.
3. Warby Parker
Warby Parker is an eyewear brand that has disrupted the traditional eyewear industry with its affordable prices and stylish designs. The brand’s Instagram posts are often playful and engaging and often feature people trying on Warby Parker glasses in a variety of settings.
For example, the brand knows that a common concern among people is the flexibility of eyewear. Hence, they created an Instagram video post to demonstrate the flexibility of their product.
Now it’s time to move to the next feature — Instagram stories!
Learn how to craft Stories that will keep your audience engaged from start to finish.
What are Instagram Stories?
Instagram Stories are short, vertical videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours. They are a fun and engaging way to share behind-the-scenes content, connect with your audience, and promote your business. But with so much competition, it’s important to know how to create and promote Stories that are effective.
That’s where Instagram stories research comes in. By understanding the latest trends and best practices, you can create Stories that are more likely to be seen, engaged with, and shared.
How to Create Effective Instagram Stories for Your Business?
The below tips will help you create effective Instagram Stories to grow your business and connect with your audience.
1. Use High-quality Visuals
Instagram Stories are all about visuals, so make sure your content is visually appealing. Use high-resolution photos and videos and edit them to make them look their best.
2. Be Creative and Engaging
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of Stories and features. Use stickers, text overlays, and filters to make your content more interesting and engaging.
3. Use Interactive Features
Instagram Stories offers a variety of interactive features, such as polls, quizzes, and questions. Use these features to engage your audience and get their feedback.
4. Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to get your Stories seen by more people. Use relevant hashtags in your Stories so that people who are interested in what you have to offer can find you.
5. Tag Other Users
Tag other users in your Stories to mention them or to collaborate with them. This is a great way to get your Stories seen by more people and to build relationships with other businesses.
6. Be Consistent With Stories
Upload Stories on a regular basis to keep your audience engaged. Keeping up with a consistency of at least one story a day will keep your audience engaged with your brand.
Pro tip: Add trending audio to your Stories to make them more engaging and reach a wider audience.
To help you gain a better understanding of Instagram posts vs stories it’s important to learn different ways in which they are going to help your business.
Different Use Cases of Instagram Stories for your Business
Here are some different ways that your business can use Instagram Stories:
1. Showcase behind-the-scenes content
People love to see behind the scenes of their favorite brands. You can use Stories to share photos and videos of your team, office, and product development. It’s a great way to connect with your audience on a more personal level and build relationships with them.
Take for example the above story in which Glossier has shared behind-the-scenes of their event in New York.
2. Promote new products or services
Instagram Stories are a great way to announce new products or services and generate excitement around them. You can use Stories to share videos, photos, and other content that highlights the features and benefits of your new offerings.
Take a look at the above image where Glossier introduced its Swiss Miss Balm on their Instagram story. You can also use this strategy for your brand and include a link saying “Buy Now”.
3. Highlight customer reviews and testimonials
Sharing positive customer reviews and testimonials on stories is a great way to build trust and credibility with your potential customers. You can share screenshots of customer reviews or record videos of customers talking about their experiences with your products. You can also use the “Questions” sticker to ask your followers for their comments and opinions.
4. Drive traffic to your website or landing pages
You can use Instagram Stories to drive traffic to your website or landing pages by adding links to your Stories. You can share a link to a blog post, product page, or landing page for a special offer.
Casper, for instance, has shared blog links on stories to help boost website traffic and increase blog views.
5. Engage with your audience
Instagram Stories are a great way to engage with your audience and build relationships. You can use Stories to ask questions, run polls, and host Q&A sessions.
Dollar Shave Club, for instance, ran a poll series on Instagram stories to engage with users by asking them questions relevant to their brand.
Now that you have a clear understanding of Instagram stories and posts, let’s address the elephant in the room: Instagram Story vs Post.
Instagram Story vs Post: Which One Is Right for Your Business?
Before we talk about Instagram stories vs feed remember that both are powerful for businesses to share content, but they have different strengths and weaknesses.
If you want to share evergreen content that a wide audience can see, posts are the way to go. If you want to share more intimate, ephemeral content designed to engage your audience in a more meaningful way, Stories are a good choice.
Instagram posts give you the opportunity to tell deeper stories about your products or services. Instagram Stories can be used to create a more personal connection with your audience.
Stories also offer a variety of interactive features, such as polls, questions, and stickers, that can be used to engage your audience in more meaningful ways. However, creating posts can take longer than creating stories and has few interactive features.
To dig deeper into the Instagram Story vs Post debate, understand that the average reach of your Instagram Stories is 5-7% of followers, compared to posts with a reach of 8-10% of followers.
However, the average engagement rate for Instagram Stories is 1.95%, while the average engagement rate for posts is 0.54%. This means that, on average, Stories generate more engagement than Posts. More importantly, Instagram Stories can be used to drive audiences to your website, but you can’t add this option to Posts.
So, which format should you use: Instagram story vs post? It depends on your goals and the type of content you want to share.
You can also use posts and stories together to create a more engaging experience for your followers. For example, you can share a teaser of a new feature in your story and encourage followers to swipe up to read the full caption. You can also share a behind-the-scenes video of a new product to your story, then share a post with more information about the product.
No Matter What You Choose, Do it With an Audience-First Approach!
Instagram Story vs Post is a never-ending debate. But whatever format you choose, make sure your audience is always at the forefront of your mind.
That’s why creating the right content, choosing the right format, and understanding your audience is essential. Social listening, monitoring, and analytics tools can be useful here as they can provide insights into your audience’s likes, dislikes, and interests. This information can then be used to create more engaging content and most important aid in Instagram stories research.
Looking to fine-tune your Instagram marketing strategy to reach the right audience? Get started with Radarr.
