By Nikita Geldenhuys

On 2 August, Instagram introduced Stories, describing it as a “feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile”. Similar to Snapchat, photos and videos disappear after 24 hours and don’t appear on users’ profile grids or feeds. 

A week after the Instagram Stories announcement, Twitter said that its Moments function will be made available to more people, such as influencers, partners, and brands. The feature is a curation of tweets, made into a story. Launched in a selection of countries, Twitter plans to introduce Moments to a wider user base in the coming months.

The introduction of these capabilities enables users to tell one-off stories of everyday life or share longer, more complex narratives. Meagan Elston, Rogerwilco’s social media strategist, notes that Instagram Stories is catching on in South Africa for precisely this reason: the in-the-moment format. “It gives users an opportunity to display content in a story format which does not display in their feed or distract from their theme,” she explains. 

She believes that what makes the platform’s Stories feature useful is that it supplements the user’s feed. Viewers can use the function when they’ve already looked through a brand or individual’s feed, but want more content. “If you go onto Instagram right now, you are bound to scroll through your feed and stop at a video. It may be from one of your favourite Instagrammers. You laugh and want to see more, so you search through Instagram Stories and sigh with relief when you see the Instagrammer has posted more content.”

“The truth is that we are so drawn in by content which visually tells us a story that we need to return the next day to watch the next chapter unfold.”

Our fascination with a beginning, middle, and end

Kgabo Legora, creative director of Black Smoke Agency, suspects the emergence of storytelling formats on social media is not so much a trend, as it is a new way of structuring content. “The psychology behind this behaviour, I believe, is just the desire to be connected with the people and brands you love. Stories on social media have been documented in different ways across various platforms, from behind-the-scenes content to blog posts.” 

He believes applications such as Snapchat and Instagram have merely found a way to structure this behaviour in a manner that is easily consumable, and more importantly, visually attractive.

The new narrative functions are also a step away from the quick bursts of information typical of networks such as Twitter. It is a format that might resonate not only with individuals, but also with brands. 

Steve Banhegyi, a facilitator at Storytelling.co.za, which crafts stories for organisations and has created the ebook, Storytelling in the Digital Age, indicates stories offer a greater depth of audience engagement and participation, than do data or facts. “It has the ability to weave complex concepts together while stimulating awareness, interest, choice, and purchasing behaviour,” he says. 

Banhegyi explains stories can be more memorable and interesting than data. Narratives provide familiar characters, problems, quandaries, and paradoxes, which can stimulate the audience – if told well. “The stories, the characters, and the situations can trigger an emotional response, which is then connected to the brand.”

A breakthrough for brands

South African brands have taken very well to image-based social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat to promote themselves, according to Legora. He says this wasn’t the case a couple of years ago though when these platforms were regarded as fads. “It was only a matter of time until brands realised that their markets had shifted to these platforms and that they needed to follow suit.”

“Most people don’t read as much as they watch or view content anymore and this, I believe, provides them with a great opportunity to showcase themselves through new mediums,” he adds. 

Storytelling might be the next breakthrough for advertisers on social media, as Banhegyi explains: “Advertising has long known the power of repetition to drive the message home. Social media that uses a storytelling approach has the ability to carry and evolve relationships with both prospective and existing customers.” 

With Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter’s new narrative format, an evolution of your relationship with your audience is within reach.

Will you be using Instagram Stories to build better relationships with your followers and fans? Tell us in the comments below.