A Beginners Guide on Facebook Stories

Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook fourteen years ago. ‘Thefacebook’ was originally only available at Harvard, but gained popularity quickly. Ever since the beginning, Facebook has been adding new features that help enhance the users’ experience. These updates and features have made Facebook one of the largest and most widely used social media platforms today.

Facebook Stories
One of the most recent updates to the Facebook platform has been Facebook Stories. Facebook Stories follow the same concept that Snapchat and Instagram Stories do. 

Users are able to post photos or videos that can be shared with friends or family and that are automatically deleted after a 24 hour period. A user is able to add text, drawings, stickers, and filters to the photos that they take in order to make them more animated and eye-catching. An interesting feature of the Facebook Stories is the Direct function. The Direct function allows a user to privately message another user a story that is created.

Who can use Facebook Stories?
Facebook had originally launched their Facebook stories feature to only users. Facebook then launched the feature in October of 2017 to Pages on Facebook so that businesses could use the feature.

How do you use Facebook Stories?
Using Facebook stories is very simple, especially if you already know how to use Instagram stories or Snapchat. You can easily follow along with the steps below:

1. Access the Camera: In order to do this, you can either swipe right on your Facebook homepage or hit the “Your Story” on the top of the Facebook homepage.
2. Create Your Content: You can either take a photo or video by pressing the center button or you can use an existing photo or video by hitting the gallery button.
3. Customize Your Content: You can customize your content by adding filters, stickers, text, or drawings by hitting the button at the bottom left that looks like a wand.
4. Share Your Content: Once you’re satisfied with the content that you’ve created, it’s time to share it with the world! In order to do this, tap on either “Your Story” or the “Next” button at the bottom of the screen to either share it to your story or to directly send it to another user. Once you’ve shared your post, it will display for 24 hours and then it will be deleted.

Should my Facebook Page use Facebook Stories?
Yes! It doesn’t hurt to try something new. Facebook Stories are a great opportunity to reach new and existing followers. Listed below are a few reasons why Facebook Pages should use this feature:

1. The Facebook Stories feature is prime real estate for people to see your content because it is right at the top of the home page, which means it’s front and center for people to see.
2. A Facebook Page can also cross-post from their Instagram story. This means that you can boost your potential exposure without any additional effort.
3. The Facebook Stories feature is a creative outlet where your page can share footage, expertise, and provide exclusive offers to customers. This is a quick, eye-catching way to engage your market.

The way that we communicate on a day-to-day basis is changing and it is up to a user and company to keep up with the changing trends. Facebook Stories gives users and Facebook Pages a way to deliver real-time, personable content to their followers.

Have you used Facebook Stories yet? I’d love to hear what you think about the Facebook Stories feature. Let me know in the comments or tweeting @WTWH_Anna.