It has been only a couple of years, but Facebook Stories have really taken off in the world of online marketing.
Entrepreneurs are slowly realizing the potential of this feature, and we can expect even more focus on it in the future. But despite the popularity, it seems like stories are still lacking in some regards.
Well, it does come down to what you are trying to accomplish, though there are plenty of rules which are universal.
On the other hand, since a big chunk of businesses are looking to make money from their products or services, this Facebook story guide, unlike the one at Oberlo.com, will focus on the suggestions in which to improve the selling side of things. So without further ado, here is what should be implemented sooner rather than later.
Freedom of Selection
Facebook has merged Messenger Stories with regular stories, and if you have ever chatted with someone using Messenger, he or she will be able to see your story. A similar principle applies to regular stories. It is impossible to ensure that only selected contacts can see it.
The ideal solution would be being able to select groups or individuals who can see the story. There are instances when you want to show it to just family, colleagues, or a particular circle of friends.
Sure, you could argue that there is already something similar in the settings of stories, but that is just a simple option of making everything public or not.
Data to Predict
While this might not be the most beneficial feature, there should be times when it comes in handy.
Whenever a user gets tagged during a specific event, such as vacation, sports game, wedding, etc., you could send a suggestion for a user to create a story.
It is a bit easy to get over the top by pushing too many notifications, but receiving them every now and then should not be that big of a problem. Of course, the biggest obstacle is the difficulty of implementing this, as it would probably require quite a lot of work.
Highlights
Stories are becoming more popular, so it is easy to miss out on them. A weekly roundup, akin to a highlight reel could also encourage more users to use the Stories feature.
Seeing what your friends were up to last week by highlighting the key aspects is definitely one of those things that Stories are missing at the moment.
User Behavior
It is always nice to have more information about those who are willing to participate in creating stories. More information about demographics means that you can plan your next steps easier.
Potential parameters to follow could be age, location, number of followers, how much time a user spends on Facebook, how high is the engagement rate.
Interactive Tutorial
Tech-savvy users should not have too many problems creating a story. However, there are a lot of people who are not that good with technology and would struggle with the simplest of things.
Creating a tutorial that goes through the whole process of creating a story step-by-step would make things a lot easier. Moreover, it would not bring anything negative for those who are already capable of creating one themselves.
Metrics
The core mission of Facebook is to create a place that is full of engaging content and one where people freely share their daily life. For that, even more, data needs to be extracted.
Some of the most important metrics would be:
- Number of users who are creating stories;
- Number of people/followers who are viewing the stories;
- Number of people/followers who are interacting with those stories;
- What is the retention among those who are creating stories? In other words, how many creators continue creating stories, and how many abandon the idea after a few tries.
Grouping Users
Another good way to gather more information is by having a list of different users, and these groups would be based on their behavior. There could be a separate group for:
- Those who know how stories work and actively create them;
- Users who view the stories and are thinking about starting it themselves;
- Users who are following stories but have not thought about creating one themselves;
- Users who never view stories but still participate on Facebook.
To summarize, Facebook Stories is still a relatively new feature, and we should be seeing improvements in the near future. Because of its popularity, there is no way that Facebook would not look to upgrade it. After all, they implemented stories for a reason.
