George Kao Courses

⭐️ Authentic Instagram Mastery (IG)

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IG Stories disappear after 24 hours, so why create them at all? + Story Highlights

7:51 Video (18 MB) HD Video (39 MB) Audio (7 MB)
A natural question is why are stories important to create since they disappear after 24 hours? It just feels like is it wasted effort? And I'll tell you why it's not. There's a couple of reasons why. One is think about the psychology of stories.
This is why it's so popular on Instagram and other platforms that have stories because Instagram knew, well, if fans know that it's gonna disappear in 24 hours, they're much more likely to make sure that they click on it and and look at it. So for example, you can see it and okay. So so one is that the more someone is a fan of your content, the the more likely they're gonna make sure they look at your stories when it's available. And secondly, stories are quite visible for your fans. Look at the top of the screen here on my phone.
There's the love drive, Sean, of course. There's Tranquil Being, that's Sharon. There's Shweta. These are all stories from people I may be recently engaged with. And so when I click on to you know, these circles are pretty obvious.
And, also, when someone goes to your profile so let's say right now, I'm gonna go to Sage Levine's profile. Sage Sage's pictures are on here. So I'm gonna go to Sage Levine's profile. She doesn't have any stories right now. On the top left, It's just her profile photo.
Right? But if I go to let me just scroll to okay. Nick's. Let's go to Nick's profile. See, Nick's profile has stories on the top left because it's a colorful circle.
So if I'm a fan of Nick's, I I would likely go, oh, what's what's new with Nick? What's, like, what's going on that, you know, things he probably wants to especially his fans know. So I click on Nick's stories, and, you know, there's there's interesting well, there's only one thing here. Let let's let's go back to Sean's stories. Okay?
Let's take a look at Sean. Look how many stories Sean has. Look look at the top and how many, like, little lines there are. Look. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, dah dah dah.
And we're not even a quarter of the way or maybe we are a quarter of the way through his stories for the last 24 hours. So and and then the so another reason why stories are important is because people, your your consumers of Instagram, people who who use Instagram expect that the creator can post a lot more in stories and be okay with not like, it's not considered overposting. In fact, fans love it when you post lots of stories because then there's more stuff for them to they're a fan. They like your energy. They like your content.
There's more for them to engage with, and Sean knows that, which is why there's so many Sean does so many stories. Okay? And, also, because stories are more likely to be viewed by fans, because we're see, at the top of the screen, there's only 4 circles. 1 is my own story that I can create. That that your own circle always shows up on the top left, so it's encouraging to create a story.
But there's only 3 other circles. You have to keep scrolling to see others. Let's see Mark's Mark's stories here. Mark, Mark has 2 stories. Right?
So, like, the more you engage with someone's stories and content, the more their circles are gonna show up as one of your first couple of stories. So, it's interesting because I don't really engage much with with, Tranquil Being and Shweta, but I think maybe they have actually, this is a good example. I haven't engaged with Sharon and Shweta in a while, but their stories are showing up so prominently because they just made something and maybe Instagram is, like, always encouraging people who just who's showing up back. I I'm I'm I'm pretty sure Shweta and Sharon are just recently showing back up again after a break, so Instagram is encouraging that and and showing me their their circles first, but I can scroll through, you know, Mark and Benoit, I I have interacted with recently, Heather, I have, etcetera. So the ephemeral nature encourages consumption, and you can post as much as you want in your stories and not feel like you're overdoing it.
Another important reason is that stories means you can give links to your website. They can easily click through. Remember well, not remember. I'm gonna give you a link to one of the segments Sean did about which stickers does he use. Because when you I'm gonna go and create a story right now.
Like, I'm gonna click plus plus story. I'm gonna create a whatever, camera. Okay. I'm just going to create a a a a blank one, I guess. How the heck do we we do a blank?
And then Sean Sean does a blank one. A black one here. I think we just do AA. Sorry. There we go.
Just click on AA on on the let me try that again. On the to a camera and on the left hand side, click AA, and then you could choose the color, and you could choose the color on the bottom right. You could choose whatever color you I mean, I think you you can just keep screw you know, tapping on it, and this is the this is the for the the dark gray, one. But, anyway, you can click on the stickers on the top, and you can put a link to your website to say, you know, georgecauw.com, and you can't do that with regular posts. Only stories and reels can you put stickers that people click out to your website.
On a regular post, you can't. As you know, you can't put a link on a regular post. Right? And it's like, visit my website for the most amazing thing. Whatever.
You know? I'm just making a joke here. Like, that one, you know, you can you can you can click and drag and make it look kinda fun. You obviously, you can put other things. You can write other things or blah blah blah blah.
You can take a picture of yourself. You could take a picture of your dog, whatever. Right? They when they see the story, they can click on the link, go to your website. Can't do that with a regular post.
That's huge. Now another another reason to do stories is that it doesn't have to go away after 24 hours. That's a misconception. Stories can last forever. You know how?
Well, when they go to your profile or they I'm here on my profile, you notice in my profile, there are these circles. Above my post, there are these circles. These circles are eternal stories forever. These are called highlights. You can click on you can start a highlight by clicking the new button, and that starts a highlight, or you can continue adding to your highlights.
For example, this one this one called flow. I'm gonna click on the one that says flow. Right? Flow, this is a this was an old story. This is another, let's see.
This is another story. I tap on it. Right? Wait. Let me I might have to update these because the swipe up no longer works.
There's another story. That's another story, and people can click through to these to watch the full anyway, I shared a post as a story, and then I added the story as a highlight. And highlights, you know, I can edit the highlight by clicking on the highlight and clicking on the bottom. I can click more, and I can click edit the highlight, and this is where I can add more stories by clicking on these are the ones that are selected. See the ones with the blue check marks?
Those are all current stories within this highlight. The highlight can have multiple stories. Okay? And if I click the stories tab on the top right, I can add more to this highlight. I can add this one to my highlight.
I can add these 2 to my highlight, whatever I want. So stories stay forever. They're just hidden until you add them to a highlight. And a lot of people don't add all stories to their highlights because highlights are highlights. Okay?
So I hope this is helpful, and, thank you for asking.

Why stories?

  • Very visible to fans, the more they follow the more they’ll see it

  • Can click through to website easily, or do polls etc… stickers.

  • Can be used as a Highlight.

  • People are used to seeing many stories.

  • Because of the ephemeral nature, fans want to see it before disappears.
Last updated 6 May 2024.