Read time: 2 mins
Written by Josh Westerman
Social media giant Instagram has launched a new feature on the platform, Story likes, which enables users to like any Story they see on their feed, without having to direct message (DM) an account.
The latest feature allows users to see more clearly the amount of engagement on a Story. Creators will able to view the number of Story likes in their Story insights, with a small heart icon appearing next to the viewers’ name who have liked the Story in the view list.
With 500 million accounts using Instagram Stories daily and 58 per cent of users saying they’re more interested in a brand after seeing it in a Story, it’s a no-brainer for brands to utilise the Story feature as much as possible.
Instead of having an influx of DMs being sent to their inboxes, accounts can quickly view Story engagement levels to assess which Stories resonate better with their audience.
Although Story likes will only be seen by the creator, it’s still a useful tool to enhance engagement and brand awareness. It may add another signal for how Instagram rank users’ Stories on their feed, prioritising those most likely to engage with. This further direct insight aims to enable Instagram to provide users with content which is of interest.
Simplifying the way feedback is provided on the platform may mean that for your business, engagement will be higher as users are able to interact more easily with your Story content. Filtering out unwanted noise on users’ story feeds also means that they could give more attention to your social media content.
Despite it only being a small update, the impact of Story likes may be huge for your business as it could help bolster engagement with your Instagram content. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how Instagram itself uses the insights data from the Story likes functionality to provide users with relevant content.
Looking to up your game on Instagram Stories? Contact us today to find out how we can help boost user engagement and brand awareness through your social content.