Instagram vs. Snapchat Stories Part 2

Several months ago, when Instagram first introduced its Stories feature, a copycat of Snapchat Stories, I wrote a blog post about it.
Now, many months later, people are finally able to understand the impact of Instagram Stories vs. Snapchat Stories as a marketing tool. I still stand by my thoughts from my previous blog post. Instagram Stories will not end Snapchat, as Snapchat is still used primarily for sharing from person to person. But Instagram Stories has definitely proven itself to be an extremely useful platform for brands.
I came across this post from Ragan that shares an infographic about the similarities and differences between Snapchat and Instagram when it comes to brand marketing, which is what prompted this follow-up blog post.
The biggest difference between Snapchat and Instagram still, I think, is the geofilters and lenses (like the dog filter you can put on your face), but for brands, I don’t think that’s a major setback. And supposedly, this feature may be coming sooner than we think to Instagram, according to the infographic. And let’s talk about all the new things Instagram Stories has added in the last few months, while I think Snapchat has remained a bit stagnant:

• Live videos – I didn’t really understand this appeal until I was at a TV segment for a client and one of the cohosts did a live Instagram Story prior to the show to give a sneak peek at what was to come. I thought this was brilliant! I can totally see live videos being useful for any news organization on Instagram for this purpose or for covering a live event. Or for any reporter or influencer really.
• Link to other content – yep, you can link to other content from an Instagram Story, the viewer just has to swipe up to visit the webpage. This is a game changer in my opinion for online stores. I do want to note that if you pay for an ad on Snapchat, you have this capability, but if it’s just a personal story you don’t. On Instagram Stories you can link to something else regardless.
• You can mention people in your story – this may seem small, but this could really grow your brand’s reach if another brand sees that you mentioned them and shares it with their audience.

With that, I’ll stick by what I said in my previous blog post. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]@Snapchat Stories is for the individual user, @instagram Stories is for the brand.[/inlinetweet]