An Introduction to Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories

Launched in Australia in August 2015, as a new bar at the top of the news feed that offers slideshows of the days events from your favourite Instagram accounts. The potential of this new feature for tourism businesses is only limited by one’s imagination.

Instagram addicts may have noticed it immediately when they updated their app – a new bar showcasing their favourite accounts in little circles at the top of their news feed. What on earth is this, they may have thought. Once you tapped on an account it launched into a slideshow of photos and video from that person or brand. The really interesting part was that there was no avenue to like or comment on the post, but rather you could use Instagram Direct to send a message.

On a similar vein to Snapchat, Instagram Stories only remain for 24 hours then they disappear, never to be seen again, not even in the account’s profile. This 24 hours offers tourism business enormous opportunity.

How on earth can tourism businesses use this you may ask?

Visit Brisbane offer a great example, using it last week to promote the Ekka, the annual city’s show. Throughout the day they filmed a staff member taking in the Ekka, eating and talking about the famous strawberry ice-cream and other Ekka favourites. It brought the event alive and made it real and, to be honest, made you want to go there right now.

Instagram Stories offer an opportunity to give your audience a taster of your product, make it real and make them want to be a part of it. You can even promote your Instagram Story in a regular post, by showing a segment of it on your profile.

It seems a lot of brands have jumped on board straight away, with individuals a little slower to follow suit. Let us know how you’ve been using Instagram Stories for your tourism business.