Making high quality Facebook stories takes effort but is worth it. With over 1 billion daily active users on Facebook, creating stories that engage your audience is key to growing your following and driving traffic.
A high quality Facebook story has compelling visuals, an interesting perspective, clear messaging, and encourages interaction.
Focus on providing value to your audience with useful information or entertainment. Tell a story that elicits an emotional response. And optimize your content for mobile since that’s how most people view stories.
Follow these tips to create effective, high quality Facebook stories that captivate viewers.
Use eye-catching visuals
The key to a great Facebook story is engaging visual content. Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text, so eye-catching visuals are essential.
Use high quality photos and videos that look crisp and vibrant on the small story interface. Make sure any text overlays are easy to read.
Some types of visual content that works well:
– Product videos or demos
– Behind the scenes footage
– Photos of customers using your product
– Infographics and quotes
– Employee spotlights
– Tutorials or how-tos
Creative visuals will stop the endless scroll and capture attention.
Tell an interesting story
Along with compelling visuals, your story needs an intriguing narrative. Tell a story that elicits an emotional reaction from viewers.
Some ideas for captivating stories:
– Show a day in the life of an employee
– Share your company values through stories
– Spotlight a charitable initiative
– Document a special event or milestone
– Feature customer testimonials and reviews
– Highlight company culture with fun team activities
– Share company history and achievements
– Showcase your product development and testing process
The story should feel authentic and humanize your brand. Use compelling copy and text overlays to shape the narrative.
Have a clear focus
With Facebook stories, you only have seconds to grab attention and communicate your key message clearly.
Each story should highlight one idea, product, promotion or event – don’t try to squeeze too much in.
Some ways to keep your focus tight:
– Spotlight one product or service
– Feature one employee or customer
– Showcase one event, idea or initiative
– Promote one offer or sale
– Give one useful tip or tutorial
– Share one inspirational quote
A tight focus will make your story more memorable and impactful.
Encourage interaction
Facebook stories allow viewers to interact and respond directly to your content. Take advantage of this by prompting your audience to take action.
Ways to encourage engagement:
– Ask a question in your caption
– Run a contest or giveaway
– Include a clickable link to drive traffic
– Have viewers vote on something
– Request that viewers “like” or comment
– Use stickers and interactive elements
This gives viewers a reason to respond and creates a two-way conversation. You can also gain valuable insights into what resonates most with your audience based on reactions.
Optimize for mobile
Since Facebook stories are designed first and foremost for mobile, it’s crucial to optimize for small screens.
Keep these mobile best practices in mind:
– Use large, readable text for any captions and overlays
– Ensure visuals look clear and sharp on mobile
– Film vertical videos that take up the whole screen
– Add text overlays near the middle so they’re easy to read
– Include a clickable link for viewers to tap
– Use the front-facing camera and get up close for engaging selfie videos
– Add interactive stickers and elements
Creating content specifically for mobile will lead to higher engagement and completion rates.
Use relevant hashtags
Strategically using hashtags in your Facebook stories makes it easy for people to discover your content.
Do some keyword research to find relevant hashtags based on your industry, location, products, etc. Avoid using too many hashtags – 1 to 3 is ideal.
Some examples:
– #ProductLaunch
– #BehindTheScenes
– #TutorialTuesday
– #FoodieFriday
– #ContestAlert
Hashtags help expand your reach beyond just your current followers. Place them at the bottom of your caption so they’re visible but don’t distract.
Post consistently
While you don’t need to share Facebook stories multiple times a day, aim for regular posting.
Consistency helps:
– Build anticipation and loyalty with your audience
– Establish your brand as an authority
– Increase brand awareness
– Grow your following over time
Figure out a manageable posting cadence for your business, such as:
– 2 stories per day
– 1 story on weekdays
– Stories every Tuesday and Thursday
Posting consistently shows followers you will provide a steady stream of valuable, engaging content.
Use insights to improve
Pay attention to the Facebook stories insights for your Page to see what content resonates best with your audience.
Key metrics to review:
– Reach and impressions
– Completion rate – what % of viewers watch the whole story
– Clicks and taps – interactions with your content
– Traffic referred to your website
– Followers gained
– Shares and reshares
You can also see the specific stories that performed well. Use these insights to fine-tune your strategy and produce more of what works.
Repurpose content
Creating fresh content daily takes time. Repurposing existing content into stories is an easy shortcut.
Some ways to repurpose:
– Turn a blog post into a series of stories summarizing key points
– Repost your best performing stories
– Clip a short video from a live stream to share as a story
– Cross-promote your Instagram story
– Feature a customer review from Google or Yelp
– Show part of an online class or webinar
– Share an inspirational audio clip or podcast moment
Repurposed content should still feel timely and relevant for your audience. Add new text, graphics, effects and editing to give it a fresh spin.
Use creative tools and features
Facebook offers a range of creative tools to make your stories stand out. Use stickers, text drawing, interactive polls and emoji slider questions to encourage engagement.
The GIFs feature lets you search for and share animated GIFs. Camera effects like Timewarp distort time to produce dramatic speed effects.
You can also easily import content from your camera roll and add text, stickers, drawings, and mood filters like black and white or retro.
Explore all the options to find relevant features that fit your brand style and industry. Mix it up to keep viewers interested in your future stories.
Collaborate with others
Partner with relevant brands, influencers and team members to create collaborative Facebook stories and cross-promote.
Examples of potential collaborations:
– Co-create a behind the scenes story with another brand
– Have an influencer take over your account for a story
– Work with brand ambassadors to promote your product
– Repost user-generated content of customers engaging with your brand
– Feature a story of a vendor, supplier or partner
– Show team members using your product or service
Collaborations create fresh content for your audience and expand your reach.
Promote on other channels
Don’t keep your Facebook stories siloed on one channel. Cross-promote on other social platforms like Instagram and Twitter to maximize reach.
Ways to repurpose stories:
– Share a preview video or image on Instagram and Facebook feed
– Post story highlights on an Instagram profile or within a grid post
– Turn a vertical video into square format to share on Instagram
– Compile an Instagram Reels video using clips from stories
– Tweet out story images, videos and key messages
– Embed a Facebook story on a LinkedIn Company Page
Promoting your stories amplifies the time invested in creating them.
Create an engaging cover image
Your Facebook Page’s story cover photo makes a first impression on visitors. Use it to capture attention and convey what they can expect from your stories.
Follow cover image best practices:
– Choose an eye-catching, high quality image
– Show faces and make it feel personal
– Align with your brand style and industry
– Include intriguing text such as “Watch Our Story”
– Change it frequently to reflect new content
– Keep critical elements near the middle since sides get cut off on mobile
– Use Canva’s templates to easily create covers
An enticing cover photo acts like an invitation encouraging people to view your stories.
Check stories performance
Keep tapping into the Facebook stories insights to see what’s resonating most with your audience. Pay extra attention to completion rate since it reveals the stories that captive viewers from start to finish.
Analyze the data to shape an effective posting strategy:
– When are my viewers most active? Post at those high traffic times.
– Do my audience prefer videos or photos? Create more of that content.
– Which hashtags and interactive elements got engagement? Use them repeatedly.
– Are stories with product demos popular? Feature the product more.
– Do “day in the life” stories see high completion rates? Share more employee spotlights.
Let data guide your decisions to maximize results.
Conclusion
Facebook stories represent a powerful way to engage your target audience and strengthen relationships with customers. While creating compelling stories requires an investment of time and creativity, the payoff can be huge in terms of brand awareness and loyalty.
Focus on providing value through useful or entertaining content. Optimizing stories for mobile, using visual media, and encouraging interaction are key. Promote top stories across channels and analyze performance to improve over time.
With strategic, high quality stories that capture attention in the cluttered social media space, you can shape positive brand perceptions and drive growth.