Stories are still popular, but are we going to use them everywhere now?
It all started with Snapchat a few years ago. The short messages that you could post there can be compared to the stories that were subsequently introduced on Instagram. And we all know by now that they have become a success and are still extremely popular. But it didn’t stop there. Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn soon followed and recently there are Fleets on Twitter and Spotify now comes with a stories function. Isn’t that a bit much of a good thing? Perhaps yes, especially if it closely resembles the existing possibilities of other platforms.
Fleets not yet a great success
It is of course understandable that every platform would like to have its ‘own’ stories function. We still do massive sharing of short stories. That Twitter has therefore introduced the function does not surprise us. They are a bit late, now that all social media platforms already have a stories function. Maybe that ‘s why the ‘fleets’ aren’t a great success. In our own timelines we only see a few stories and there is a lot of complaints about them. It would not be original enough and the question is whether this lends itself well to a platform like Twitter.
Spotify Stories
That almost every app has its own stories is evident from the fact that Spotify is now even introducing the short stories. Still, the stories on Spotify work a little differently than we are used to. They are only available with a select number of playlists. And you cannot post them yourself, you can only view them. The stories are made by artists. A good example of this is a Christmas song hit list. In the accompanying stories, celebrities now tell something about their favorite Christmas songs. An original angle that we have not seen before. It also pairs well with the music streaming service.
The future of stories
It is clear that stories will remain popular for the time being. We just love those ‘bite size’ short stories. It also gives you the opportunity to show the whole world, or at least your followers, what you have to offer the world. This is possible on TikTok with videos, on Instagram in all kinds of stories and even Google now has stories that are specifically aimed at entrepreneurs. If you approach it smartly as a platform and the stories are attractively designed, it can still be very successful. For example, the stories of Spotify are very cleverly focused on artists, but the usefulness or added value of it is still missing on Twitter at the fleets. We are not over yet. Like them or not, stories are here to stay.