Instagram have recently announced some great news for businesses and individuals on the platform. You can now share links in your Stories!
Whilst this feature is certainly not new, it was previously limited to only accounts that were verified or had a following of more than 10,000. As this is a major feat for small business to achieve, the feature was unfortunately unavailable for many, meaning the only way you could include a link was through the bio which can be extremely limiting.
However, moving forwards this is not a problem. Businesses of all sizes can start adding links to their stories which is especially amazing news for smaller eCommerce businesses as they can start linking directly to certain products or landing pages through their stories.
Instagram states "Whatever you're into, from cooking to volunteering or shopping, you now have a space to share in stories- regardless of your account size".
This new development will hopefully reduce the desperate need for companies to try and reach the elusive 10,000 followers. Instead, they can use their Instagram stories to continue to build their following in an organic way by producing great content whilst being able to share links at the same time which benefits both the business and the user.
Now the links are available for all accounts, we will inevitably see even more value in Instagram Stories. Companies who are already active on Instagram should start to look more carefully at their Instagram story strategy. Stories are a great way to drive engagement. Now that link stickers are more readily available, they can drive more traffic to your site as well.
It is important to note that this privilege is not automatically extended to everyone. New accounts and those accounts who have violated the Instagram Community Guidelines will not have access to the link sticker feature.
This is welcome news to Instagram users, so what are you waiting for? Best get started using it!