Instagram News: The Platform Tests 60-Second Stories
The stories of Instagram: They are publications visible for 24 hours and with a maximum duration of 15 seconds. Instagram allowed each of these stories to be fully customized with text, emojis, music, or effects, which is why they became a prevalent type of content within this social network.
Now Instagram proposes 60-second stories, which for companies will mean changes within the content marketing strategies.
Why Should You Use Instagram Stories In Your Marketing Strategy?
Instagram stories, which can be both videos and vertical photos, have become one of the best means to inform, as a brand, users of news and offers and interact and create a much closer relationship with the audience. It is also a way to get to know users much better since it allows them to ask questions and surveys. In addition to all this, including Instagram Stories within a content marketing strategy has the following benefits:
- Define and create a much clearer and more powerful brand image.
- Helps generate web traffic.
- It is a way to get the content to reach many people since Instagram can be linked with other social networks.
- Establish a closer relationship with the audience and generate more engagement.
- It can be viewed from any device.
This makes stories one of the most effective communication channels to carry out a marketing campaign.
Instagram Stories: From 15 Seconds To A Minute
Until now, videos exceeding 15 seconds without cuts could not be published on Instagram Stories. Those videos that had a longer duration, Instagram automatically divided them into 15-second stories. This will no longer be the case; since now Instagram has announced that it will allow you to publish stories of up to 60 seconds without cuts.
This novelty will allow, among other things, to upload much more elaborate content by companies and influencers. However, this has also had negative responses from some users, as they consider that long content can be heavier. If this were the case, video marketing campaigns carried out on Instagram could lose effectiveness.
What is clear is that it is not by chance that the stories go from 15 seconds to a minute without cuts. The reason is to participate in the success that TikTok now has, which has seen its popularity grow, especially among young people.
Testing Functionality: When Will It Reach All Users?
This new functionality is in the testing phase, but Instagram has reported that it will be available to everyone in a few weeks and gradually be activated among users.
To publish 60-second stories, it will be necessary to have the latest version of the app. In addition, users will receive a message that they can now post uncut one-minute stories.
When all users have access to this type of longer stories, it will be when companies can begin to assess their effectiveness and the kind of reception by the audience. In addition, as we have mentioned, at the moment, some brands see it as an opportunity to create more quality content, while others believe that the key to success is soon.
Other Instagram News
Instagram is making an effort to keep users interested in it, so in addition to the new one-minute stories, it has brought other new features, such as link labels and “your turn” labels.
Link Tags
Many users who wanted to take their audience to the web page, blog, or any site outside the social network, had to put the famous phrase “link in bio” in the stories. This was because the function of putting links in stories was reserved for accounts with more than 10,000 followers. This will no longer be the case since all users will be able to put links that lead to a website outside the social network in their stories regardless of the number of followers they have.
The option to put links in Instagram stories is found next to those to arrange a survey, questions, music. Select a link and hook the URL of the page to which you want to redirect your followers.
Labels “Your Turn”
Novelties of Instagram are the labels of Your Turn, a sticker that is used to interact with followers.
This sticker is used to create collective content on a specific topic, such as sharing the first photo of the day, a photo of the pet, the photo of a pleasant memory. The sticker will accompany that publication and give followers the option to continue with the chain.
One of the peculiarities of this sticker is that it allows you to know the users who have responded so far.
The news from Instagram has come with the aim that users continue betting on this social network to share their content, especially after other social networks such as TikTok have achieved.
It is clear that now those brands that use Instagram to carry out content strategies will have to reorient their campaigns, especially to create one-minute stories with content that retains the user until the end. Link tags, meanwhile, are an opportunity for small brands to link to your website, while the tags of “Your Turn” can be used to learn a little more about the public and interact with it.
Also Read: Mindful Marketing: The 7 Keys To Connect With Your Audience
