Do you use Instagram® stories and Facebook® stories to drive sales? Using social stories is a great way to engage with your customers and drive positive results for your business.
Here are some tips for using social stories in your business.
Tips for using stories on social media
1 | Make your stories interactive.
Ask questions. Post polls. Leave a box for suggestions or tips. The last thing you want is for your audience to get bored. Upload images or videos, use filters, share other relevant content, and record videos to connect with your audience. If you’re constantly posting the same messages, your followers will get bored quickly. They like variety to keep them interested. If you post a video one day, then an interactive poll another, your audience will keep coming back to view your stories to see what’s next.
While this won’t necessarily create direct profits, it will boost engagement. The more frequently your audience views your stories, the stronger the relationship you’ll develop with them, building trust.
2 | Respond to replies.
When you post stories, your audience can reply to them directly. These replies are kept private between you and the poster, appearing in your message inbox. It may be tempting to ignore responses sent to your stories, given that nobody else sees them, and it may feel like one more thing to do. However, this can prove damaging to your brand. After all, if your followers are making an effort to contact you and don’t receive a response, how likely will it be that they’ll continue to follow your stories?
Even if the replies are complaints, it’s still important to respond. Your responses also show your followers that you are genuine.
3 | Create stories that stand out.
Social stories continue to become more popular, with millions posted every day. Your followers can watch many different stories, so if you want them to view yours, it’s going to need to stand out.
How? Creating videos tends to be much more effective than simply posting images. Take advantage of using filters and polls and the question box. The more creative you are, the more compelling the story will be in building an engaged audience and driving sales.
4 | Create time-sensitive offers.
A time-sensitive offer can make your audience act. Unless saved, stories will disappear in 24 hours, which means the offer will generate a sense of urgency, causing customers to buy now to take advantage of the offer before it’s gone.
5 | Give your brand a voice.
Nothing can boost sales quite like brand personality. The stories feature enables you to develop your brand voice. As your followers and customers become more familiar with your brand, it builds up trust and authenticity. When people trust you, they are more apt to buy from you. Use stories to build your reputation and expertise.
Results from social media strategies don’t happen overnight. The key to using any social media platform well is to be consistent. Using stories on social media will help you build your audience and engagement, and therefore sales.
