Although TikTok is quickly catching up on popularity, with the insertion of Reels, Instagram has succeeded once more in stealing the spotlight, being able to remain the number one platform towards which brands orient their marketing efforts these days.
Which is understandable, given its high engagement rates.
And with the introduction of two features that gained major popularity - Reels and Stories - at the time of the launch, it is only natural to be a player that it’s hard to compete with.
Speaking of Instagram Stories, one of the most used Instagram features within the social media platform, due to its immediate spread in usage among the platform’s users, brands as well have adapted their marketing strategies and started to use them.
But considering digital trends change faster than seasons, it would be very interesting to see what changed in Instagram Story’s Performance lately and how can brands adapt to these changes, wouldn’t it?
Compared to 2020, in 2021 small to middle-sized accounts, with a following up to 10,000, have increased their average number of Instagram Stories per month only by one.
While brands with 10,000 - 50,000 have an average increase of three more Instagram Stories posted per month (from 13 to 16), Instagram profiles with a fanbase between 50,000 - 100,000 followers have increased their average number of Instagram Stories posted monthly from 20 to 29.
However, more significant changes were seen especially in the case of brands with a great number of followers (over 100K), who in 2021 have doubled their Instagram Stories usage, reaching up to 50 stories per month on average, while in 2020 this number reached only 24.
This big gap is, without doubt, based on the major budget differences that exist between small and larger brands, the latest ones having more financial resources to invest in the creation of social media materials.
Social media analytics tools are of great help in seeing your competitor’s strategy for Instagram and not only.
By checking how many Instagram stories they post, when they post most, or what type of content they use for their Instagram stories will offer you precious insights into how you can optimize your social media strategy.
Important to remember is that - if you’re a brand with a significant following and you’re not that much into using Instagram Stories you should understand this leaves room for gaining a competitive advantage.
That’s why it’s better to fill in the gap yourself instead of letting your competitors do it.
If your target audience loves Instagram Stories, you should use this feature as well to reach the people you want to reach and state the messages you want to deliver. In the way, your audience is most likely to be receptive to them.
The messages brands try to deliver to their communities are stories they tell to trigger different behaviors.
And as expected, depending on the nature of the message, some stories are better to be told through images, while others will have a greater impact if told as videos.
According to the same study mentioned earlier, in the matter of viewer’s retention in a story, regardless of the brand’s size, video Instagram stories are more successful in keeping people watching more of a brand’s story.
Although they represent half of the content usually posted in Instagram Stories, image stories are more likely to make people tap-forward faster than video stories.
But all in all, this incentive aligns with the overall trends in digital marketing, which indicated video content is the next wave that will take over the communication processes more and more.
And there’s no wonder people love it, since it facilitates conversations and helps people and brands connect easier.
Although we saw how important are Instagram Stories for a brand’s Instagram presence, given the major increase in the feature’s usage, by analyzing the average reach rate of Instagram Stories vs. posts in the feed it becomes clear that brands should not forsake their feed.
A noteworthy discovery highlighted by Instagram Story’s performance study was that in terms of reach, Instagram Stories reach only half of the people that regular posts in the feed do.
Although higher reach rates for in-feed posts were also visible for 2020, the differences between these two types of content are way more pronounced in 2021.
Given Instagram Story’s ephemeral nature, being available only for 24 hours, the need for more content for this type of post is understandable, but businesses that are doing Instagram marketing should be very careful when allocating their resources.
Seeing these numbers, we can only conclude that having a well-thought strategy for creating in-feed content is of primary importance.
To identify the best strategies for using Instagram stories in 2022, the team from Socialinsider analyzed 96K+ stories and 148,328,654 Instagram in-feed posts for making the average reach rate comparison.
Among these discoveries regarding what changed in the Instagram Story’s performance in 2021, there were also a couple of other helpful insights, including, posting more than 5 stories per day can increase retention rate up to 70 percent, and, image-based stories perform a little bit better as compare to video stories in terms of reach.
Read next: Are iOS Users Really More Privacy Conscious Than Android Smartphone Users?
Which is understandable, given its high engagement rates.
And with the introduction of two features that gained major popularity - Reels and Stories - at the time of the launch, it is only natural to be a player that it’s hard to compete with.
Speaking of Instagram Stories, one of the most used Instagram features within the social media platform, due to its immediate spread in usage among the platform’s users, brands as well have adapted their marketing strategies and started to use them.
But considering digital trends change faster than seasons, it would be very interesting to see what changed in Instagram Story’s Performance lately and how can brands adapt to these changes, wouldn’t it?
Brands with a large following have doubled their Instagram story's usage in the last year
An Instagram Stories study conducted by Socialinsider has shown that once the following of a brand increases, so is the number of Instagram stories per month a business publishes.Compared to 2020, in 2021 small to middle-sized accounts, with a following up to 10,000, have increased their average number of Instagram Stories per month only by one.
While brands with 10,000 - 50,000 have an average increase of three more Instagram Stories posted per month (from 13 to 16), Instagram profiles with a fanbase between 50,000 - 100,000 followers have increased their average number of Instagram Stories posted monthly from 20 to 29.
However, more significant changes were seen especially in the case of brands with a great number of followers (over 100K), who in 2021 have doubled their Instagram Stories usage, reaching up to 50 stories per month on average, while in 2020 this number reached only 24.
This big gap is, without doubt, based on the major budget differences that exist between small and larger brands, the latest ones having more financial resources to invest in the creation of social media materials.
Social media analytics tools are of great help in seeing your competitor’s strategy for Instagram and not only.
By checking how many Instagram stories they post, when they post most, or what type of content they use for their Instagram stories will offer you precious insights into how you can optimize your social media strategy.
Important to remember is that - if you’re a brand with a significant following and you’re not that much into using Instagram Stories you should understand this leaves room for gaining a competitive advantage.
That’s why it’s better to fill in the gap yourself instead of letting your competitors do it.
If your target audience loves Instagram Stories, you should use this feature as well to reach the people you want to reach and state the messages you want to deliver. In the way, your audience is most likely to be receptive to them.
The tap-forward rate has greater values for image Instagram Stories
When analyzing the performance of Instagram Stories we should not forget the main reason that turned this type of post into such a popular one is its strong storytelling appeal.The messages brands try to deliver to their communities are stories they tell to trigger different behaviors.
And as expected, depending on the nature of the message, some stories are better to be told through images, while others will have a greater impact if told as videos.
According to the same study mentioned earlier, in the matter of viewer’s retention in a story, regardless of the brand’s size, video Instagram stories are more successful in keeping people watching more of a brand’s story.
Although they represent half of the content usually posted in Instagram Stories, image stories are more likely to make people tap-forward faster than video stories.
But all in all, this incentive aligns with the overall trends in digital marketing, which indicated video content is the next wave that will take over the communication processes more and more.
Instagram stories have lower reach rates compared to posts in the feed
For having so many fun and inventive features enabled, from questions to polls, there is no doubt that Instagram Stories are the most interactive type of content available on the platform.And there’s no wonder people love it, since it facilitates conversations and helps people and brands connect easier.
Although we saw how important are Instagram Stories for a brand’s Instagram presence, given the major increase in the feature’s usage, by analyzing the average reach rate of Instagram Stories vs. posts in the feed it becomes clear that brands should not forsake their feed.
A noteworthy discovery highlighted by Instagram Story’s performance study was that in terms of reach, Instagram Stories reach only half of the people that regular posts in the feed do.
Although higher reach rates for in-feed posts were also visible for 2020, the differences between these two types of content are way more pronounced in 2021.
Given Instagram Story’s ephemeral nature, being available only for 24 hours, the need for more content for this type of post is understandable, but businesses that are doing Instagram marketing should be very careful when allocating their resources.
Seeing these numbers, we can only conclude that having a well-thought strategy for creating in-feed content is of primary importance.
Conclusion
For being a great way of gaining brand awareness, more brands have shifted their strategy and started getting more proactive and creative with their Instagram story creation process.To identify the best strategies for using Instagram stories in 2022, the team from Socialinsider analyzed 96K+ stories and 148,328,654 Instagram in-feed posts for making the average reach rate comparison.
Among these discoveries regarding what changed in the Instagram Story’s performance in 2021, there were also a couple of other helpful insights, including, posting more than 5 stories per day can increase retention rate up to 70 percent, and, image-based stories perform a little bit better as compare to video stories in terms of reach.
Read next: Are iOS Users Really More Privacy Conscious Than Android Smartphone Users?