Facebook stories are short photo or video posts that appear at the top of the Facebook news feed and disappear after 24 hours. They were introduced in 2017 as Facebook’s answer to the hugely popular, ephemeral stories feature on Snapchat.
Since launching, Facebook stories have become an integral part of the Facebook experience for many users. Over 500 million people use stories every day across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
But not everyone is a fan of stories. Some users find them annoying and wish they could remove them entirely from their feeds. Others worry about the privacy implications of having their posts disappear so quickly.
So what’s the deal with Facebook stories? Should you use them or avoid them? Here’s a look at the pros, cons and facts around Facebook’s take on ephemeral social media.
The Pros of Facebook Stories
For fans of the format, Facebook stories offer some benefits:
– They’re fun and casual. The ephemeral nature of stories creates a lightweight, no-pressure environment. You don’t have to worry about over-posting or clogging up your friends’ feeds.
– They’re creative and expressive. Features like drawings, filters, stickers and AR effects allow you to customize and enhance your stories.
– They drive engagement. Followers can react and respond to your stories via private messages. Stories get more replies than regular posts.
– They reach more people. Stories are prominently displayed at the top of the news feed. Friends and followers who miss your post may still see your story.
– They complement other content. Stories are a nice change of pace from the curated, “highlight reel” aesthetic of main Instagram feeds. They offer a behind-the-scenes look.
– They help build community. Watching and engaging with your friends’ stories makes you feel connected to their daily lives. Stories foster intimacy and closeness.
The Cons of Facebook Stories
However, Facebook stories also come with some downsides:
– They’re fleeting. Your story disappears after a day, which can feel pointless if you put effort into creating it. Some people want more permanence.
– They can be distracting. Having stories pop up while you scroll the news feed can disrupt your experience. The autoplay feature also catches some users off guard.
– They may lack focus. With text, drawings and multiple images, some find Facebook stories feel cluttered compared to the simplicity of a single photo or video post.
– They complicate privacy. Even though your story disappears, who exactly is able to view it? Facebook’s privacy settings around stories can be confusing.
– They increase ephemeral content. As more social media becomes temporary rather than permanent, we lose valuable records of our lives and society. Some find this culturally and historically concerning.
– They’re hard to search and re-find. Unlike normal posts which you can search for by keywords or hashtags, expired stories are difficult to retrieve.
– They’re not always fully accessible. Stories lack automatic closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing. The vertical video format isn’t screen reader friendly.
The Key Facts About Facebook Stories
Beyond the pros and cons, here are some key facts about how Facebook stories work:
– Story viewership declines rapidly. Only one-third of your followers will view your Facebook story on average. After 24 hours, almost no one sees it.
– Facebook prioritizes stories over regular posts. Stories are shown at the top of the news feed, so your non-story posts will get buried faster as more friends share stories.
– You can limit story audience. By default stories go to your whole friend list, but you can restrict them to Close Friends or do a custom list. Instagram has even more granular options.
– Stories don’t boost reach dramatically. Having lots of story viewers doesn’t necessarily translate into increased engagement on your other posts. The audiences don’t overlap much.
– Stories drive more direct engagement. Followers will send you 2-3X more messages in response to your stories than normal posts. So they facilitate more one-on-one interaction.
– Viewer lists expire after 24 hours. You can see a list of who exactly has viewed your story, but this list disappears when the story expires. Screenshot it if you want to keep it.
– Facebook collects data on your tap actions. How you interact with stories by tapping and swiping is tracked to improve Facebook’s machine learning algorithms.
– You can share posts to stories. In addition to creating original story content, you can also share existing posts from your timeline as stories.
– Stories are connected across Facebook’s apps. A story you post on Instagram also appears as a Facebook story and vice versa. WhatsApp and Messenger have their own stories as well.
Should You Use Facebook Stories?
Given the pros, cons and facts, should you bother creating stories as part of your social media strategy? Here are some things to consider:
– What are your goals? If you want to drive sales or grow your audience dramatically, stories may not move the needle much. But if you want to connect more with your existing audience, stories can help.
– Who is your audience? Stories tend to be popular with younger demographics who are used to ephemeral social apps like Snapchat. Older audiences may be less interested.
– Do you like the format? Some people simply enjoy expressing themselves creatively through stories. Others find the format limiting. Use stories only if you have fun with them.
– Do you have time to maintain them? You don’t have to post stories every day, but doing so helps build engagement. Consider if you have time to check in frequently.
– How can you maximize reach? Use best practices like optimal timing, engaging captions, strategic tagging and cross-posting to get the most views on your stories.
– How do stories fit into your strategy? Don’t let stories completely replace your normal posting. Maintain a good balance between long-term content and ephemeral stories.
Best Practices for Facebook Stories
If you do want to become a Facebook stories creator, here are some tips and best practices to get the most out of the format:
– Post at optimal times. Post your stories when your audience is most active and engaged. Morning and evenings on weekdays tend to see higher viewership.
– Keep it short. Stories only play for a maximum of 15 seconds per slide. Keep your visuals and captions succinct to hold attention.
– Use text tools creatively. Draw, type and add stickers to customize your story and make it more dynamic. But don’t overdo it.
– Shoot vertically. Hold your phone vertically to take full advantage of the story dimensions and avoid black bars.
– Add relevant hashtags. Include appropriate hashtags in your caption so your stories appear in those tag feeds and get more discovery.
– Tag people and locations. Strategically tagging other accounts or locations helps increase the reach of your stories through tags and re-shares.
– Link to your bio. If you want to drive traffic to your website from a story, tell people to check the link in your bio for more.
– Cross-post strategically. You can re-share feed posts as stories. But don’t overdo cross-posting or you may annoy followers.
– Check insights data. Use Facebook’s built-in analytics to see when your followers are online and optimize your story schedule accordingly.
– Promote great stories as ads. If a story performs really well, you can repurpose it as a paid advertisement to show it to more of your audience.
– Archive favorite stories. You can download your expired stories to save ones you want to keep. Stories remain viewable in your archive.
– Create themed days. Post stories on specific topics on designated days, like #FollowerFeatureFriday or #BehindTheScenesSunday, to build anticipation.
– Collaborate with others. Do joint stories with business partners, influencers or creators with similar audiences to tap into new networks.
The Future of Facebook Stories
Stories took the social media world by storm upon launching on Snapchat in 2013, and clearly they are a format that’s here to stay. What does the future look like for Facebook stories specifically? Here are some possibilities:
– Increased focus on recommendations. Facebook will leverage more artificial intelligence to push highly personalized and click-worthy stories into your feed based on data about your interests.
– Tighter integration with business tools. More advanced options will let businesses promote products, run special offers and accept orders directly within stories. shoppable tags allow this now.
– New interactive features. To compete with other apps, expect more ways for audiences to engage with Stories, like multiplayer AR effects, quizzes, polls and collective videos.
– Enhanced privacy options. Facebook will likely add tools to let you fine-tune exactly who can see your stories after some controversial breaches of supposedly “private” stories being shared publicly.
– A separate stories-only feed. We may see the option to view just Stories content in a vertical feed like on Snapchat, separate from the main news feed displaying permanent posts.
– The rise of stories ads. More brands will sponsor stories and create their own ephemeral story-style ads as the format grows in popularity among advertisers.
– Potential fatigue. If all social apps converge on the same stories format it will start to feel repetitive. Expect upcoming backlash and deterrence from story oversaturation.
Conclusion
Facebook stories represent the company’s effort to stay on the cutting edge of social media formats. They offer fun, ephemeral sharing – but also new challenges around privacy, ephemerality and information overload.
Stories aren’t universally loved or hated. They likely work best for informal community-building among existing connections rather than broadcasting content to the masses.
Understand the pros, cons and strategic possibilities of stories when deciding if and how to use them as part of your social presence. Tap into trends while also knowing when to buck convention if something simply doesn’t suit your needs.
Ultimately there is no one right answer for every brand or personal profile. Experiment thoughtfully with stories as one element of your diverse social media toolkit. Use insights to optimize their role in your overall strategy.
When used purposefully and in moderation, Facebook stories can be a lively new creative outlet for engaging your followers. But they shouldn’t distract from more permanent content that showcases your core value proposition.
The ephemeral story format will keep evolving across apps. Savvy marketers will adapt along with users – while thoughtfully anchoring their presence to connections and substance that endure over time.