What do Instagram Stories mean for your business?

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Our Instagram Stories likes and dislikes:

✔️ The ability to easily choose whose Story we watch

✔️Moves the game on for Instagram – video content is the future

✔️You can pause and restart videos

✔️Vidoes recorded in the last 24 hours can be uploaded

✖️Limited (current) video editing

✖️Self-recorded live video content can be poorer quality

✖️No way of scheduling content

Yesterday saw Instagram release Instagram Stories – their blatant copy of Snapchat Stories. Whilst some have embraced the new feature – and it works well – many are left pulling their hair out as yet another task is added to their social media strategy. Or has it? We feel that the addition of Stories has moved Instagram closer to Snapchat – a ‘live’ platform aimed at a younger demographic. For this purpose we have added a third audience to b2b (business to business) and b2c (business to consumer) – f2f. In this instance, ‘f’ stands for friends and/or family. Snapchat and Instagram work well for informing contacts what you are doing RIGHT NOW. Whilst this may work well for marketing celebrities or small creative companies, this form of advertising is not viable long term for the majority of businesses.

There are some businesses out there who have a young target demographic (teens – mid 20’s) and for them, Snapchat and Instagram are very effective tools. These guys are going to be very busy creating live content! We are very big on quality when it comes to content and often posting live has a negative effect on this. Most businesses benefit from taking a planned approach from their social media.

 

 

 

Do you own a business in the Scottish Highlands? Get online now!

The Scottish Highlands have an average population density of 9 people per square km. Areas of London have as many as 14,517 people per square km.

Recent significant advances in technology have however meant that these areas are now better connected than ever with 4G now available in Inverness and High-Speed Broadband also in place in an increasing number of towns.

Why is this important? On a personal level, it is now possible to keep in almost constant contact with friends and family (this can be a good or bad thing depending on your point of view!). On a business level, this presents huge opportunities to reach potential new customers (plus continuing to engage with existing customers), and not only customers in northern Scotland but throughout the UK, and even around the world. Seasonal/tourism based businesses such as hotels, B&B’s and restaurants are now able to reach their customers year-round, thus presenting new opportunities to promote and sell their products/services.

This leads me to the reason for this post and something which, coming from working primarily in the central belt, I find a little frustrating… why are there so many late adopters? The need for a strong online presence (up to date website, relevant social media channels etc) is greater than ever yet many businesses in the north are still stuck in the dark ages. The time is NOW! It takes time to becomes established online and the longer you leave it, the longer it will take as more and more businesses adopt before you do. This form of marketing is the future – it is here to stay!

We are a bespoke social media agency focussed on helping the businesses of Northern Scotland stand out online. We can provide you with a fantastic social media presence and work with Scotland’s top social media training provider – we have you covered.