On August 2, 2016, Instagram announced a new feature: Instagram Stories. Companies now have the opportunity to get closer to their target audience and get into their tight circle.

Already used daily by 100 million people (about 500 million regular users), this new feature to upload photos that disappear within 24 hours. Thus users can give an overview of their daily life to their subscribers without the picture being on their profile.

While Instagram had become the privileged place to post its most neat and worked clichés, this update makes it possible to render to the social network the notion of instantaneous, present in its name.

But apparently, the similarity with Snapchat did not escape anyone!

Instagram Stories or Snapchat?

Snapchat, for more personalized content

The social network constantly reinvents itself to allow its users to express all their creativity, and create snaps in their image. Added filters, emojis, and more recently Emojis to the image of the user ... As many opportunities to build individual photos. And this, the brands have understood, especially with the Geofilters and effects on selfies. For a product launch or during a particular event, many have been offering filters, which the snap chapters have resumed with fervor.

For his part, Instagram is more rudimentary, proposing only the addition of text, color filter, and the possibility of drawing on his photos (nevertheless with a pen neon effect!).
Also read: How To Use Instagram For Business Marketing Success

Instagram, to reach a larger audience

While Snapchat is mostly used to interact with its close relations, Instagram has always allowed to follow and interact with celebrities, media and brands. The addition of Instagram Stories will enable these high audience accounts to disseminate their ephemeral content to a larger community.

And this seems to be the asset that Instagram wants to put forward in its next update: the addition of Stories in the "Explorer" section. This part is dedicated to the recommendation of photos and videos, which according to Instagram, are selected based on the tastes of the user, the people he follows and publications he loves. 
Revealed by the media Techcrunch, this recommendation Stories would be built on the same criteria as photos and videos. It would allow these ephemeral contents to be seen by people not subscribed to the account but potentially interested in its contents.

So the two social networks each have their differences and benefits, the choice of which depends on your strategy. Instagram Stories being still quite new, new features should come up to improve the experience and customization. To follow closely!
Also read: Five Awesome Ways to Use Instagram to Make Better Career Moves

What uses for businesses?

If you followed our advice to get your business on Instagram and you know how to leverage its algorithm, then you have a real community behind you and who loves you, who is waiting for your Stories! But what to offer them? We have gathered for you some ideas of contents:

Show the life of your company:

Make room for spontaneous content in your stories! If you work in dynamic offices, have a corporate event, or are in a conference, share it with your audience, and give a human face to your brand!

Share the backstage of your publications

You have spent more than an hour on your photo so that it is as beautiful as possible: layout, decoration, lighting, everything is there; You even asked your model to take more than twenty different poses. It would be a shame to summarize all this work in a single photo, why not use the stories to spread the "making-of" of your contents? This is the perfect opportunity to share your Instagrammer skills and a healthy dose of self-mockery!

"Instagram Stories Takeover"

Instagram Takeover is a well-known technique, where a celebrity, blogger, influencer (or even a cute little animal) takes control of a brand's Instagram account, to offer its own content for a particular period of time. The Stories will make it possible to enhance the experience by showing how the person appropriates the account of the brand, its inspirations, its interactions with the community managers.

Make demo videos: 

The Stories allow you to offer longer video content, the videos linking automatically. Take advantage of it to make presentations and demos of your products. Of course, avoid being too down-to-earth, where your audience is likely to make the legs around his neck. 
For example, you can present unique tips to make the best use of your products, or offer off-the-shelf tutorials. It's up to you to see the tone of your brand!