The Story You Should Know About The New Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories: Instagram’s Snapchat Clone?
Instagram just launched Instagram Stories in its latest update. It is a new way of sharing photos and videos with your followers that disappear after 24 hours. With new text and drawing tools at your disposal, you can now share all the little moments from your day with a customised group of friends and don’t have to worry about over-posting, because drawing laser beams coming out of your cat’s eyes or placing an oversized baby bottle emoji in your hand are just some of the cool ways to explore your creativity.
When the CEO of Instagram Kevin Systrom introduced Instagram Stories, he wasn’t shy away from giving Snapchat all the credits for inventing the new way of sharing photos and videos in a slideshow format:
“Facebook invented feed, LinkedIn took on feed, Twitter took on feed, Instagram took on feed, and they all feel very different now and they serve very different purposes. But no one looks down at someone for adopting something that is so obviously great for presenting a certain type of information.
This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.”
— Kevin Systrom, co‑founder and CEO of Instagram
I updated my Instagram app on Wednesday night, but did not get the latest Stories feature immediately. Thus I couldn’t contain my excitement when I got to try it out first-hand the next morning:
The Instagram VS Snapchat Breakdown:
Similarities
- Collection of snaps/stories that will expire in 24 hours
- Instagram and Snapchat went in reverse of each other (Ephemeral VS Lasting content). Instagram started as a photo editing app where the content you share is polished and curated (Lasting), whereas Snapchat started as a self-destruct photo sharing app where the content you share is raw, unfiltered and “live” (Ephemeral); Instagram introduced 24-hour stories (Ephemeral), whereas Snapchat introduced Memories (Lasting).
Differences
Audience
Instagram: 53% of 18–29 year-olds. Facebook has the advantage of Messenger is still the leader of instant messaging app among millennial teens.
Snapchat: On any given day, Snapchat reaches 41% of all 18-34 year-olds in the United States, compared to TV’s daily reach of 6%.
Profile
Instagram: Static profile picture with a short bio (one link allocated to the personal website) so you know what people are about and if you would enjoy following them.
Snapchat: Fun, looping GIF of your selfie similar to Boomerang.
Discoverability
Instagram: Via search, hashtags, location, tagging, suggested videos and photos.
Snapchat: Does not have “discover” snaps feature at the moment, only via curated local events such as college football or music festivals (Third party app Ghostcodes fills the void nicely). “Add Nearby” or “Add by Snapcode” features allow you to add new friends.
Disappearing Messages
Instagram: None at the moment.
Snapchat: Yes, available.
Advertising
Instagram: Has the advantage of enabling both big and small businesses to share their stories to drive website clicks, video views and mobile app downloads with a highly engaged community of more than 500 million.
Snapchat: Partners with premium brands such as PEOPLE Magazine, CNN, Mashable and National Geographic to create highly curated and engaging content as part of the Stories feature using creative storytelling. (To be fair, Facebook has Instant Articles as well)
Business Analytics & Tracking
Instagram: Businesses can easily set up, run and track ads themselves through the Instagram ads API and Facebook ad buying interfaces.
Snapchat: None at the moment. Only via third party analytics tool such as snaplytics.io.
Geofilter
Instagram: None at the moment. But it’s entirely possible when version two of Stories are coming.
Snapchat: Artists and designers are encouraged to create and submit a free Community Geofilter for their city, university, a local landmark, or another public location. Businesses and individuals alike can purchase Branded, On-Demand Geofilters for their event, business, or a specific location.
Augmented-reality Selfies
Instagram: None at the moment. But Facebook acquires Face Swap App MSQRD, a company which made similar facial filters as the company Snapchat bought (Checkout Mark Zuckerberg transforms into Iron Man video here).
Snapchat: The ever popular Snapchat Lenses, especially the hidden dalmatian dog selfie lens suggested by Kim Kardashian.
My Thoughts on Instagram Stories
I personally think that Instagram Stories is bridging the gap of allowing designers, creatives and influencers to show their best, curated work and also posting more frequent “low touch” ephemeral/“behind the scenes” content. This feature removes the need for them to use another platform such as Snapchat while reaching their already existing huge audience base and share with more people. While Snapchat will probably still survive because your parents are probably on Instagram but not Snapchat (Grace Baldridge couldn’t summarise it all better), it will be interesting to see how the competition plays out in the long run as it is Facebook’s sixth attempt in replacing Snapchat. Hopefully the “Instagram Stories VS Snapchat” story is not the new “Periscope VS Meerkat”?
“Isn’t it funny that’s it’s a trend that as soon as your parents can figure out whatever social media platform is all the rage, then the kids move on. You never want to be on the same platform with your parents.”
— Grace Baldridge, Pop Trigger
Are you excited to test out Instagram Stories? How’s your experience of using Stories so far?
Let me know by commenting below ⇣ or sending me a tweet on Twitter 🐦 and I’d be excited to join the conversation. Thanks for hitting the 💚 if you enjoyed this article!
Credits:
https://www.snapchat.com/ads
http://snapchat-blog.com/post/146998839575/introducing-memories
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-vs-snapchat/
https://www.snapchat.com/geofilters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjjDF6Zd-6g
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/02/silicon-copy/
http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2016/08/03/everyone-says-instagram-stories-copied-snapchat-but-its-got-a-killer-feature/#gref
https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/22/facebook-slingshot-snapchat-patents/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/poke-for-mobile-facebooks-snapchat-clone/
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/02/instagram-stories
Special thanks to Erica Blair for reading the draft of this post. Kickstart your Instagram Stories adventure by reading her article “7 Strategies for Growing Your Business with Instagram Stories” here.
Chip Dong Lim is a designer currently working at KFit. (What is KFit?)
View more of his past design work at madebychip.com.
