What Are Web Stories & Why You Actually Should Use Them For Your Brand

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One of the first things you learn once you start dealing with digital marketing is that there is always something new to learn. Be it a new SEO update, or a new piece of technology, it is pretty much expected of you to constantly keep up with the updates and trends. 

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Speaking of which, one of the newest trends is using web stories to promote your brand. But what exactly are web stories and how are they supposed to help you with your brand? Well, that is what we are here to help you find out.

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What are web stories?

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Web stories are an upgraded version of the popular stories format that you can see of different types of Social Media. They combine text, images, video, audio, and animations in order to create dynamic content for the viewer. The newest iterations of web stories allow for a high degree of interactivity through buttons and swipes. This gives the brand owners a lot of room for customization and easy navigation.

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Are web stories a new concept?

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In essence, web stories are hardly a new concept. If you have an account on popular social media like Facebook or Instagram, you have seen them countless times. 

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There is hardly a social media platform out there that doesn’t use stories.

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But, what makes stories a new concept is that companies have just started recognizing how useful they can be for marketing. Previously, marketing managers have only used the web stories as short-term boosts for other content on social media. 

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For instance, if you run an Instagram account you would mainly focus on your standard posts, and only use stories for quick promotion. Now, due to technological improvements and changing trends in marketing, they are becoming more and more important, especially for SEO management and conversion rates.

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How to use web stories to develop your brand

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For this segment of the article, we will assume that you have a basic understanding of brand development. If you don't, we strongly recommend that you do some extra research into branding and various aspects that it entails. The more research you do, the better you will understand how useful web stories can be for brand development.

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Understanding user's attention span

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One of the things that are fairly obvious to anyone following marketing trends is that the attention span of the modern consumer is becoming shorter and shorter. So much so, that the recent studies indicate that the current average attention span of a consumer is 8 seconds. Now, let that sync in. 8 seconds. On average. This means that for every person that has the necessary attention span to read this entire article, there are five that couldn't be bothered to go past the title.

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Unless you grab the reader's attention within the first 8 seconds, you can pretty much consider them gone.

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Would it be better if people, in general, had longer attention spans? Probably yes. But, if you plan on promoting your brand you need not think about what should be, but what is. So, what can you do to tackle the 8-second attention span of your customers? Well, for starters, you can use web stories.

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The role of web stories

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Web stories by default, are designed around short attention spans. When designed properly, they guide the limited attention span of the reader and give them only the necessary info. This ensures that your content will be seen and absorbed by the customer, and not simply skipped over.

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Nowadays you simply cannot rely on customers to follow a long train of thought, even if it is well written. Instead, you need to condense your information into bite-sized pieces and showcase them in an engaging way. This is precisely where web stories shine, as they give you a ton of customizability while forcing you to keep your content short and sweet. So, if you do your research and understand your brand, you are likely to use web stories in an effective manner.

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Staying in line with your brand

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The main problem with stories so far is that they weren't customizable. Sure, you could choose an image or text, and even alter them so that they fit. But, compared to other marketing content, stories were limited and difficult to customize. Luckily, this is no longer the case. Nowadays you can customize your web stories so that they fit perfectly with your brand. Everything, from the fonts to images, animations, and buttons can be altered. Therefore ensuring that your web stories are in line with your brand.

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Easy top page ranking

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As of writing this article, web stories are still a new thing in digital marketing. And, as with most new things in marketing, the sooner get your grips on it, the better. On most platforms, stories are located at the top of the screen. Therefore, they are usually the first thing the visitor sees once they visit the platform. This, as you might guess, promises great results. Especially if you create informative and properly optimized stories.

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Once you get a better understanding of what are web stories, you will easily see why they are essential for SEO.

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Furthermore, since not a lot of people are currently using web stories, the competition isn't as fierce as for other content. You can easily have your web stories appear across Google, where you would otherwise have to work hard in order to tackle the current SEO.

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Final thoughts

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To quote a good film: "There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat". As of reading this article, you still have the chance of being among the first. So, do yourself a favor and avoid forcing yourself to be smarter, or god forbid, cheat. Instead, use our tools to create engaging web stories and promote your brand effectively. The sooner you start, the easier it will be to stay ahead of the curve.