With business pages’ organic reach continuing to decrease on Facebook, it’s now more important than ever to experiment with different ways to get your posts in front of as many eyeballs as you possibly can.
Facebook introduced Stories to business pages, which provides another opportunity to showcase your brand and increase your Facebook engagement. Facebook Stories had previously been limited to personal profiles, with a very little uptick in usage.
Facebook’s latest algorithm change prioritizes local news, as well as interactions between friends and family, making it even harder for posts from business pages to be seen without spending money to boost them. It’s now more important than ever to look at alternative ways to interact with your audience. Facebook Stories may help business pages gain some visibility.
In this blog post, we’re going to show you how to create Facebook Stories on desktop or mobile — and even schedule them in advance!
Much like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories are visual rather than text-based. They can contain multiple photos and videos to communicate a message and disappear after 24 hours. Business pages can only post Stories using the mobile app, not from the desktop.
Before jumping into Facebook Stories, it’s important to understand the difference between content that makes a good Story versus content that makes a good post. Much like on Instagram, Stories tend to lend themselves better to behind-the-scenes content and often have a more “guerilla marketing” feel than the professional photography you’re more likely to use with posts. You want viewers to watch your Story from the beginning to the end by guiding them through a journey. Here are some guidelines to follow on how to create a good Story versus how to create a good post:
Facebook Post
- Plan out what you want to showcase to your audience and create a storyboard
- Decide what story you want to tell your audience
– Do you want to share behind-the-scenes photos showing your audience what goes on in your business?
– Do you want to educate your audience with your expertise? Facebook Stories can be a great way to deliver tips and short how-to tutorials.
– Are you trying to discover more about your audience? Ask for
your fans’ feedback and use them to focus group new products or services - Come up with an overall theme/idea and include a combination of video and images to keep the Story visually appealing.
- Decorate the Story with elements such as filters, stickers, and text to keep it visually interesting
- Start with no more than 1 Story per day
- It is crucial to write your text for speed readers. People scroll through their News Feed quickly, so get straight to the point and use a strong call-to-action
- The audience will be more interested in your post if the content is exclusive, entertaining or informative.
- Determine your objective behind each post. Are you trying to get brand awareness? Drive people back to your website? Get newsletter signups?
- To gain engagement in your post, ask questions and use hashtags. Be direct and avoid asking yes/no questions. You want people to comment and discuss.
- Keep your posts relevant to your business and audience. The focal point of your posts should always relate to your company’s culture, products/services, or business objectives.
To share Facebook Stories, you must be an admin or editor of your brand’s page. Through the Facebook app on your phone or your page’s Creator Studio or Business Suite tab on desktop, you can directly post Stories by following these steps:
1. On desktop or in the Facebook app, go to your brand’s page. (You can also create stories from Facebook’s mobile Business Suite app, which allows you to schedule stories in advance.)
2. If you’re using the Facebook app, click on the “Create a Story” link under the “Create a Post” button.
2. If you’re on desktop, scroll down to where you see Publishing Tools, Creator Studio or Business Suite on the left hand side. (The label will depend on what version of the layout you have.)
3. Click Create New and then Add Story.
4. Create your Story by taking photos or video, or upload photos and video from your desktop or camera roll. Note: if you are creating Stories on desktop, you will have less options than on mobile.
- Tap BOOMERANG to create captivating mini videos that loop back and forth
- Tap MOOD to create GIF-centric Stories frames to convey a chosen feeling
- Tap POLL to ask a question, customize the answers and let people vote for their favorite option.
- Tap MUSIC to add a clip of a song to your photo or video.
- Tap STICKERS to add tags, location, questions, shopping tags, time, etc.
5. Add filters, text, or draw on it. Tap Effects to add other creative effects to your photo or video, or Save to save it to your camera roll.
6. Tap Buttons to add a Call-To-Action button (Book Now/Get Directions/Learn More/Call Now/See Event/See Offer) to your Page’s story so people can interact with your page
7. Tap Done, then tap Share To Story
How do I share your Instagram story on Facebook?
If you have a business profile on Instagram, you can allow your Instagram Stories to be shared to Facebook Stories automatically: