by Want to start using Facebook Stories more in your marketing? Wondering how to incorporate them into your existing content strategy?
In this article, you’ll discover how to get the most out of planning, publishing, and analyzing your Facebook Stories content.
#1: 6 Reasons Your Business Should Publish Facebook Stories
Whether your company aims to boost brand awareness, increase engagement, or drive sales, Facebook stories are key. Here are six ways stories can help your team achieve Facebook marketing goals.
Increase Organic Reach
For the better part of a decade, Facebook pages have experienced declining organic reach. Publishing Facebook stories can help increase the chance of your content reaching more of your target audience.
Because stories appear at the top of the feed, they're among the first content your audience sees when they open the app. As your followers watch and engage with your stories, the algorithm is more likely to prioritize your page's content in the feed.
Inspire Engagement
Some stories are designed for passive viewing such as keeping your business top of mind or providing much-needed entertainment. But Facebook stories also offer tons of opportunities for generating engagement.
From reactions to shares to direct messages, stories allow all standard types of Facebook engagement. They also support several types of interactive stickers that let your team ask questions, get customer feedback, assess opinions, and inspire creativity.
For example, the @CRUNCH Facebook story above features a series of this-or-that questions for International Women's Day. Each story in the sequence asks followers to weigh in on things like workout preferences and exercise gear, giving the fitness brand a dozen different ways to encourage engagement and get to know customers better.
Share News and Announcements
Because stories get a prominent spot at the top of the Facebook feed, they're ideal for sharing your company's latest news and announcements that are too exciting to miss. They're also great for teasing upcoming products, launching new lines, and promoting sales and specials.
For example, the @vegancuts Facebook story below shows one of the items in the brand's monthly subscription box. The story includes a link sticker that customers can tap to shop and purchase. Since the featured item is available for a limited time, highlighting it in a story is a great way to capture attention and drive sales.
Create an Authentic Connection
Facebook stories last for 24 hours before disappearing so they offer a great opportunity to create content that's more candid than a typical feed post. Since stories are often less polished, they can make your brand appear more authentic, which can help you create genuine connections with followers.
To leverage the authentic appeal of stories, think about how you can take your audience behind the scenes. Content showing a day in the life of a team member or the process of launching a new product can be especially powerful in story format.
Drive Website Traffic
From publishing link posts to adding links in comments, Facebook offers no shortage of opportunities to direct traffic to external content. But if you've found that link posts have decreased your page's organic reach, you need other options for driving traffic. Facebook Stories supports swipe-up prompts and link stickers, giving you more ways to link to your site.
For example, the @modernbreadandbagel Facebook story below uses a link sticker to promote a seasonal offering. Customers can tap to open the link, where they can place orders for holiday gift boxes.
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Sell Products From Your Facebook Shop
When driving revenue is a key goal, Facebook stories don't necessarily have to drive traffic off-platform. With shoppable stickers, you can point customers to your Facebook shop, where they can browse your products and make a purchase.
For example, the @bixbychocolate Facebook story below uses a lifestyle photo to highlight one of the chocolate brand's products. The story includes a shoppable sticker that customers can tap to open the product page in the brand's Facebook shop. The story also links back to a shoppable Instagram post that followers can visit for more details.
#2: How to Publish Facebook Stories
Whether you want to cross-post Instagram Stories or you'd prefer to create new content, there are several ways to publish Facebook stories. Let's walk through the main options for desktop and mobile publishing.
Create Facebook Stories With the Business Suite App
When you want to create a new story exclusively for Facebook, the Meta Business Suite mobile app is the easiest place to start. In the mobile app, select your business' Facebook page and tap Story to begin creating content. Upload the image or video you want to publish or tap the camera icon to start filming new content.
Then add effects and interactive elements to your Facebook story. Although Business Suite doesn't offer as many options as Instagram does, you can still choose from a range of stickers or add links and text. Using Facebook story stickers, you can encourage users to:
- Weigh in on your poll.
- Check out your campaign hashtag.
- Explore your location.
Note that all professional accounts can add links to Facebook stories—even if your page isn't verified or has fewer than 10,000 followers. But links appear as swipe-up prompts rather than as stickers so there's no option to add an embedded call to action (CTA).
When you're ready to publish your Facebook story, tap the Share On button. Choose whether you want to publish to Facebook only or if you'd rather post to Instagram at the same time. In Business Suite, you can also schedule Facebook stories in advance, making it easy to publish at the ideal time for your audience. Tap the Share button to finish publishing or scheduling.
Publish Facebook Stories With Creator Studio
Stories are mobile-first content, but you can create and publish them from a desktop device. If you've already created and exported a story layout from a design or photo editing app, uploading and publishing with Creator Studio is a convenient option.
To start creating, open Creator Studio, click the Create New button, and select Add Story. Then choose between a photo story and a text story. If you create a text story, you can choose from an expanded array of background options. But you can't add links, stickers, or anything other than text.
If you opt for a photo story, you can add text overlays and link buttons (including an expanded range of CTA options) before publishing. When you're ready to publish, click the Share to Story button. Creator Studio doesn't allow story scheduling so you'll have to publish immediately.
Cross-Post Instagram Stories to Your Facebook Page
To share content across apps, start by creating a new story from the Instagram mobile app. Upload or record new media and then add effects and interactive elements. When you create a Facebook story using the Instagram app, you get full access to all available interactive and animated stickers. That means you can:
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GET THE DETAILS- Create polls to survey your audience.
- Invite people to ask you questions.
- Share scheduled live video and online events.
- Generate buzz with countdowns.
Note that many Instagram story stickers work on Facebook too—but some don't. For example, Facebook users can tap to visit your link or respond to your poll. But they can't tap countdown or reminder stickers to get notifications about your upcoming events.
When you're ready to publish, tap the right arrow button. Double-check that you've enabled sharing to Facebook. Then tap the blue Share button to publish to both platforms.
#3: Where to Find Facebook Story Analytics
You can access Facebook Stories analytics on mobile or desktop. Unlike Instagram Stories analytics, however, native tools provide relatively limited insights for Facebook Stories.
Business Suite Analytics
In the Business Suite mobile app, tap to open the Tools menu and select Insights. Tap the Content tab and then filter the results as necessary. You can tap the Filter icon to view Facebook Stories only.
Using the drop-down menu, you can sort by the metrics that are most important to your team. For example, you can sort by sticker taps, comments, link clicks, and other key metrics.
By analyzing these metrics, you can identify the stories that were most successful for your page. Then you can incorporate the winning elements into future Facebook stories.
Creator Studio Analytics
Creator Studio also provides Facebook Stories analytics but they're even more limited. You can see the number of people who viewed your story and the number of engagements.
To view more details, click any published or expired story. For example, you can view sticker interactions and link clicks.
#4: How to Optimize Facebook Stories
From streamlining your workflow to creating better content, these tips can help you optimize your business' Facebook stories.
Guide Your Strategy With Instagram Story Insights
Not sure where to start with Facebook Stories? If you already post Instagram stories regularly, sharing them to Facebook is an easy way to begin. That way, you can test the aesthetic, topics, and timing of your Instagram stories on Facebook.
It's tempting to expect comparable results from stories on Facebook and Instagram but it's important to establish separate benchmarks for each channel. Differences in audience size, follower demographics, and channel capabilities will naturally result in distinct outcomes.
Review Your Facebook Marketing Goals
Sharing Instagram stories to Facebook is a convenient way to get started with this type of content, and occasional cross-posting can help you streamline your workflow. But a strategy that focuses solely on cross-posting isn't effective for most businesses. After all, your team likely has different marketing goals for each social media channel.
That's why it's important to create at least some unique content for Facebook Stories. For example, you may use Facebook to drive website traffic and Instagram to encourage shopping. In that case, you may need to design Facebook stories around swipe-up prompts and leave shoppable product tags for Instagram stories.
Make Facebook Stories More Interactive
One of the main reasons not to share every Instagram story is that some stickers don't translate to Facebook. For example, countdown and scheduled stickers don't allow people to set reminders on Facebook. Similarly, the Add Yours sticker doesn't let people contribute Facebook stories; instead, it prompts people to navigate to Instagram.
To get more mileage from your Facebook stories—and avoid confusing followers—take care to use elements designed to work on Facebook. That may mean removing or replacing some elements from an Instagram story before posting on Facebook.
Or it may mean completely redesigning content for Facebook. You may need to change CTA wording or placement to get the results you want from Facebook stories.
For example, the @GetRocketbook Facebook story below features an interactive poll comparing two productivity methods. The next two stories in the series focus on the different methods and include link stickers that lead to relevant productivity resources.
Repurpose Your Video Content
An easy way to create story content efficiently without sharing from Instagram is to repurpose your page's existing video content. Thanks to a new feature that Creator Studio launched in January 2022, turning video content into snippets that work as stories is simple.
In Creator Studio, navigate to the Published tab and select Videos. Find a video you want to repurpose and click the Create Clip button. Creator Studio automatically suggests a 20-second clip to share but you can also drag the slider to select the clip you prefer.
Once you've decided on a clip, click the Next button to see the preview. Creator Studio automatically adds a See More button to your story to direct people to view the original video in full. You can't add other effects, buttons, or stickers, so this story workflow is best when your main goal is driving engagement to the original post.
For example, the @CrossFitGames story below highlights a Facebook video clip. The story snippet hooks viewers and then prompts them to tap the See More button to view the full video on Facebook Watch.
Share Facebook Content to Stories
Not all of the content you publish on Facebook Stories has to be totally unique. Stories are also a great outlet for promoting content published elsewhere on Facebook. For example, you can share stories, photo posts, or video posts to your page's stories. That means you can share user-generated content or brand mentions while giving full credit to the creator.
To share content, open the Facebook app and find a post or story you want to publish to a story. Tap the arrow icon below the content and select Share to a Page's Story. From there, you can add effects and interactive stickers to add context or give the story your brand's distinctive touch. When you're ready to publish, tap the Share Now button.
Conclusion
From keeping your company top of mind to driving more revenue, Facebook Stories can help you reach goals at every stage of the funnel. With these tips, you can create high-performing stories more efficiently while providing tons of value to your followers.
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