How to Use Facebook Stories to Market Your Business

With Facebook recently rolling out its new Stories feature for brand Pages, businesses have a unique opportunity to learn how to use Facebook Stories and take advantage of this feature as a marketing tool while it’s still relatively new.

Facebook Stories are undoubtedly modeled after and launched because of the popularity of other video-based, creative social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram Stories (also owned by Facebook). And it makes sense! As of last summer, over 250 million people were using Instagram Stories every day and Snapchat has about 166 million users.

Clearly, users love creating and sharing their own “stories”—but they’re engaging well with brands, too. According to Facebook's global head of sales Carolyn Everson, “a third (of the most viewed stories) are businesses using Instagram Stories”.

And while Facebook Stories hasn’t yet taken off like the other applications have, there’s still significant potential to market and grow a community devoted to your business through this fun new feature.

Here’s how to use Facebook Stories—in three fun ways—to do just that:

Go Behind-the-Scenes

People love seeing behind-the-scenes of businesses! These views humanize your company and help followers feel connected to you, your team and your mission. Behind-the-scenes content also makes viewers feels special because they get a sneak-peek “behind the curtain”. Use Facebook Stories to share scenes from your office, company parties, conferences, product lines and more. Your business is a big part of your life; when you use Facebook’s new feature to give fans access to that, you’ll make them feel like it’s a big part of theirs, too.

Show Up as a Thought Leader

Facebook Stories gives you a direct connection to your customers—current and future—and offers you an opportunity to educate and share your expertise! And because Stories is such a creative and fun feature, you don’t need to worry about scripts or incredible production or a big budget. You just need to show up and offer value. The best part is you can have fun with your stories—play with filters, effects and even Live Stories to gain your audience’s attention and stand out amidst the sea of Facebook content! Wondering how to use Facebook Stories to become a thought leader? Try holding Q&A sessions, offering quick tips or sharing your thoughts on trending topics in the news.

Share Exclusive Content

People tend to respond well to exclusivity—it’s nice to feel like an “insider”; as someone with special access. And your community would love that, too! If you want to find viewers and build more Facebook engagement using Stories, try using the feature to share exclusive access to new content, special offers or discounts and more. Need more ideas? We’ve previously shared more about what to share on your business social media profiles. All you really need to remember to get people excited to view your stories when they pop up at the top of their profiles is to make sure they know you’ll have something exclusive to share.

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As you can see, using Facebook Stories to market your business can be simple and fun!

There are a few important things to keep in mind if you plan to add Facebook Stories to your marketing strategy:

First, you can only create a Facebook Story from your brand’s Facebook Business page on the mobile application. You can’t create or share content from the desktop version of Facebook.

Secondly, you can now link your Instagram Stories to your Facebook page. If you’re already using Instagram’s (far more popular) Stories feature, then there’s no need to recreate the wheel. Simply connect your Instagram account to your Facebook page—this is a smart move, whether or not you use Stories—and share your Instagram Stories on your Facebook page, too!

Third, much like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, your brand’s stories on Facebook will disappear after 24 hours. If you want to hold onto or re-use the content that you create on the platform, make sure you save your Stories before they “expire”.

Finally, remember that this feature is another fun and creative way to connect with your audience. Keep your community at the center of your communication—on Facebook Stories and anywhere else you market your brand—and you’ll always come out on top!

Have you thought about how to use Facebook Stories to market your brand? What content will you share to attract and engage your audience? Share your ideas with us in the comments below!