Instagram stories success or failure?

By Amy Dixon

It has been a huge talking piece of the last few days – Instagram’s release of ‘stories’. The photo-sharing app owned by Facebook, has added a new update following the idea of it’s rival, Snapchat. With around 150 million daily users, Snapchat and its unique photo sending, filters, face swapping and more, has grown hugely since it’s release in 2011. It was only time until the two photo sharing giants butted heads.

These platforms have revolutionised how and what we share, and, with such large user bases, have become pivotal parts of businesses social marketing strategy. So what is the new update? Can it rival Snapchat? And what does this mean for social marketing?

The new update
Instagram now allows you to post photos or videos to a ‘story’ which your followers can view for up to 24 hours. Like Snapchat, the new update allows you to draw, filter your photos and videos. It even lets you view who viewed it – sound familiar? However, the interface is arguably much more simple and clear than Snapchat, it focuses on obvious and labelled buttons making it accessible to the millions of Instagram users. It has a quick option to send direct messages which some believe will have a great impact on how we communicate. While Snapchat does have a similar concept, the messaging feature is different typical features and less integrated. But all in all pretty similar….

Will it be successful?
Facebook has become renowned for ‘copying’ competitor’s ideas; the introduction of ‘on this day’ rivalling Timehop, use of hashtags and trending from Twitter and more, but they have been hit or miss. While the features are exactly like Snapchat’s what makes it better? The CEO of Instagram itself explained it well saying ‘it’s about format and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it’. Instagram’s network itself will be what makes this feature stand out even from Snapchat. People’s Instagram network is largely different to the friends they connect with on Snapchat and most importantly, the network is already created. Can it really rival the popularity of Snapchat?

What does it mean for social marketing?
A new way we communicate always means a new way businesses will look to communicate with us; therefore, understandably the new Instagram features will be on the radar of marketers everywhere. Businesses with Instagram accounts can now quickly update followers regularly with no need to acquire them. There is no way to add accounts on Snapchat users without knowing their username, Snapchat’s downfall, so adding the features of Snapchat to the network of Instagram will means access to a larger population. Regularly updated, instant content looks like the future!

Will Instagram stories be success? Will Snapchat disappear?
Time will tell!