And what that can teach us

Just as the name describes, Instagram Stories is all about recounting your activities, sharing photos and video about your daily developments or interesting events taking place in your company or your personal life. Instagram Stories also gives you the choice to target the particular audience you want to reach.

Instagram Stories, where the videos and photos last for 24 hours, lets you paste more than a picture, and use different filters and hashtags in order to tell your story better. The service currently has about 250 million users and is far ahead of Snapchat in terms of engagement and user preference.

With its increasing popularity, several brands have started tapping into the reach of Instagram Stories, posting short videos and images of different activities and events. Luxury and fashion brands have been particularly successful and have reached a much broader audience than expected.

Dior and Louis Vuitton are considered the most engaging luxury fashion brands on Instagram Stories, having consistently been amongst the top five luxury fashion brands with the highest percentage share of interactions on Instagram story from 2016 until now.

One big advantage of Instagram Stories over Snapchat is being able to reach targeted demographics via a simple-to-use interface, helping brands to interact with and stay connected to their main audiences.

The constant engagement rate of Dior and Louis Vuitton on Instagram stories since the year 2016 considerably increased their interaction rate with their targeted audience, thereby increasing their number of followers and views on their respective pages Instagram story pages.

By telling their story, they help their audience to better understand their brand history, sources, and motivations. This is the case with Dior, which often tells creative and innovative stories about where their perfume comes from, their latest innovations and “sharing love” on the #DiorLoveChain – a message that reflects their core brand values.

Out of the top ranking of 15 fashion industry brands with the best engagement on Instagram, only four brands (Dior, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and Christian Louboutin) won the prize of fashion brands with the highest engagement rate on the Stories feature.

Amongst those competing for this award, we had powerhouse models and influencers, model-actress Emily Rataikowki, followed by the Instagram influencer Chiara Ferragni as well as the model Candice Swanepoel.

It is very important for brands to map out a list of the various influencers in their respective domains and to engage with them. This helps them come closer to their competitors, firstly in order to be able to better analyse their activities and secondly to be aware of recent changes and innovation in the sector.

Nevertheless, Instagram’s ranking of the most engaging luxury brands on Instagram story was based on the creativity and the extent to which their stories could capture and attract a bigger audience.

The Increasing engagement rate of Dior and Louis Vuitton on Instagram stories has attracted a great number of brands in different sectors to engage into Instagram stories. Instagram’s victory over Snapchat has resulted to a considerable decrease in the percentage of engagement of Snapchat users (82%) which represents a 161 million daily decrease of users.

According to Eva Chen (head of fashion partnerships for Instagram) the key success to a higher number of engagements on Instagram stories lies in the creativity and the innovative mindset with which brands create and present their story to their audience, often through the use of Instagram’s filters and hashtags. The famous Italian Instagram blogger and stylist Chiara Ferragni came up with 10 tips used by several brands in order to reach a larger audience and to have a higher engagement rate on Instagram, irrespective of their sector of activity.

1. Before posting anything, make sure you choose the right audience
2. Update your page with the latest events in your brand
3. Share videos and create banner images to attract audience attention (Banner images are multiple little images posted which form a big image as a whole).
4. Select suitable filters and hashtags which best tell your story
5. Host an Instagram contest (Come up with creative games and award prices which shall keep your audience active and connected to your page and stories)
6. Schedule your post to the time when your audience is most active
7. Add a CTA to all your Instagram posts (requesting comments and engagements from your audience)
8. Join an Instagram pod (These are different groups of 10-15 brands usually in the same domain that has a common interest of increasing their Instagram engagement)
9. Add your company link to your profile and your posts (this encourages your audience to check your company webpage)
10. Lastly, follow other influencers’ stories in your sector of activity to stay competitive

References:

1. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-bites/dior-and-louis-vuitton-are-most-engaged-fashion-brands-on-instagram-stories
2. https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/companies/louis-vuitton
3. https://www.businessoffashion.com/
4. https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/eva-chen
5. https://www.instagram.com/p/BZL_5UVHsCK/?taken-by=diorparfums
6. https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ0bgkbHsSH/?taken-by=diorparfums
7. https://www.google.be/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&q=louis+vuitton+instagram+stories&oq=louis+vuitton+instagram+stories&gs_l=psy-ab.3…65611.71468.0.71648.32.32.0.0.0.0.69.1675.31.32.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..0.24.1290.0..0j0i67k1j0i30k1j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.45.ZN53p8ExZZE#imgrc=Ntln6jPSs9fQNM
8. https://www.techlovesstyle.com/single-post/2017/08/08/Dior-and-Louis-Vuitton-Are-the-Fashion-Brands-with-Best-Instagram-Stories-Engagement-BOF
9. https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-instagram-stories/#whatis
10. https://coschedule.com/blog/instagram-engagement-tips/