Instagram Stories Might Be Changing: How This Could Impact Your Content Strategy
Instagram Stories Might Be Changing: How This Could Impact Your Content Strategy
Has Instagram Stories been a large part of your content strategy? If you said yes, you are going to want to read this. Over the last month, the platform has quietly been testing a new Stories format that hides Stories posts after just three frames.
As spotted on Twitter, the new feature has a tiny “show all” prompt in the top left of the screen. This is concerning, as that button could easily be missed, and even if it is not, will users really go the extra mile to click into someone’s full story? Businesses who regularly utilize Stories will see a significant decrease in both views and reach as a result.
Why would Instagram choose to roll out a feature like this, and will it be rolled out to all users? Social Media Today asked the platform for more insight, and it responded with:
“This feature is in early development and testing with a very small percentage of people.”
While we still do not know much about this potential change, it seems like it is tied into Instagram’s Reels-first strategy. The platform also recently launched a test of a new, full-screen UI, which incorporates feed posts, Reels, and Stories into a single stream. Sound familiar? If this sounds a lot like TikTok, that is because Instagram is ramping up its efforts to compete with the app.
In the full-screen iteration of Instagram, Stories will be visible with the frame count along the bottom with the option to swipe left to see more. From the platform’s point of view, in a full-screen format, perhaps they feel like showing too many frames would be off-putting to users. If this change occurs, you can certainly expect your Stories performance to decline, especially in the Story frames that people would need to manually click through.
While this update is not ideal for brands and marketers, it does make sense considering how hard Instagram is trying to push Reels. Reels is now the biggest contributor to engagement growth on Instagram, so the platform is trying to lean in on that fact. When you think about it, TikTok’s feed is incredibly addicting! As it stands now, Instagram Reels are formatted in the same way, but the platform has not found a way to work the algorithm as effectively as TikTok has. Until now, possibly!
Since this change is just in the testing phase, there is no need to panic! Continue sharing your content as normal. However, our team is here for you, and we are ready to help you shift your content strategy as needed. Get In Touch if you have any questions.
