The Ultimate Guide for Using Facebook Stories to Grow Your Brand

What Are Facebook Stories?

Facebook stories is a short user generated photo posting feature. What makes this type of content so special is the fact that Facebook stories disappear after 24 hours. 

Unlike normal feed posts, Facebook stories show you the people that watched your content. Other users can also react and reply to your stories—the messages show up in your inbox and enable you to start conversations seamlessly.

Stories appears at the top of your feed, and you can navigate them just by tapping on the screen. Facebook stories can be accessed both from the Facebook mobile app and the desktop version.

The Benefits of Posting Facebook Stories as a Brand

You may be asking yourself: “Will stories bring me benefits that feed posts don’t already?” Well, the answer is YES. 

Think about it this way, why did Facebook make the decision to add stories? This is clearly motivated by something important that affects the user experience.

The fact that users are attracted to stories and use them regularly to share and watch content is enough of a reason to start using them for your business page. But that’s not all, of course.

So, let’s explore this topic. 

Here are the three main benefits business stories can bring to your strategy:

1. More post visibility
2. Share more updates without spamming your audience’s news feed
3. Showcase your brand’s personality 

1. More Post Visibility

When you post a Facebook post, there is no guarantee that your followers will see it. With such a large influx of content that changes with every refresh, it’s likely that a percentage of your audience doesn’t get to see some of your posts.

But no worries, when you post a Facebook story, you can avoid this altogether. The great thing about Facebook stories is that they are “fixed”—for 24 hours, stories appear at the top of your audience’s feed, not affected by the algorithm.

Facebook announces that you posted a new Story by showcasing a small preview image of your content with your profile picture attached to it. All the Stories appear at the top of the feed and the first ones to paper are the accounts users interact with the most.

The way people watch stories is also the reason why they get more views than feed posts. To be more specific, social media users start by clicking on a Facebook story, and then they tap the screen until they go through all of them—so automatically, they get to see your page’s story. 

To get more Facebook story views, all you have to do is make your content engaging and prevent them from skipping away.

2. Share More Updates without Spamming Your Audience’s News Feed

Stories also come in handy when you have lots of exciting news to share or if you want to create buzz around an upcoming project, event, or launch.

Instead of spamming your audience with multiple announcements on Facebook’s news feed (that might even motivate them to unfollow your page), you can use Facebook stories to post your content. 

After all, this way, you don’t cause any inconveniences. On the contrary, you actually get to achieve your social media goals: reach more people and raise awareness.

3. Showcase Your Brand’s Personality 

Posting on Facebook Stories gives you more freedom. Part of the reason is that it’s low commitment content—it doesn’t appear on your feed, and it vanishes after 24-hours, so people view Facebook stories only if they want to.

Of course, this is not a reason to stray away from your brand guidelines or forget about what it implies to manage a business account, but you can use Facebook stories to:

1. Give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into your company
2. Allow your target audience to get to know your team
3. Provide an opportunity to showcase your personality and be more relatable 

How to Post a Story to Your Facebook Page

Now that you know the benefits stories have for your social media content strategy, let’s go through the step-by-step process of posting a Facebook story on your business page.

During this section, you will learn how to:

1. Post a story from your mobile device 
2. Share your Instagram stories to your Facebook page

Keep in mind that to post a Facebook story to your business account, you must be the admin or editor of the Page.

1. Share Stories by Using the Mobile Facebook App

The most straightforward way to add photo or video content to your Facebook stories is by using the Facebook app from your phone. So, let’s quickly go through the process!

Here is how to share stories on Facebook app from a mobile device:

• Step 1: Open the Facebook app from your phone.
• Step 2: Click the plus sign above the “Create story” text above your feed.
• Step 3: Create/upload your story content. Add an image or video from your camera roll or create your story on the spot by clicking the Facebook Camera icon from the right bottom corner. By using Facebook’s in-app camera, you can: take a photo, record a video, make a boomerang, create a photo collage or use the superzoom video effect.
• Step 4: Edit your story using different Facebook tools: 
  • Add effects, text, stickers, music
  • Add custom links
  • Draw 
  • Trim videos
  • Turn videos into boomerangs
  • Add Captions
  • Tag people
• Step 5: Click the “Share” button to make your Facebook story public.

2. Reshare Your Instagram Stories

Sharing your Instagram stories to your Facebook page is a fast and easy way to make the most out of your content while increasing your reach, especially given that the stories format is the same. You can automate this process in just a few minutes and avoid wasting time manually uploading content from one platform to the other.

Here is the simple way to reshare your Instagram story content on Facebook stories:

• Step 1: Make sure you run an Instagram Business account. In case you run a normal account, go to Instagram settings and tap “Switch to Business Profile.”
• Step 2: Follow the instructions and connect your Instagram account to your Facebook Page.
• Step 3: Click on your profile picture from the bottom right corner of the app, tap the three lines at the top-right of your profile and go to “Settings.”
• Step 4: Scroll down and tap “Account”
• Step 5: Scroll to “Sharing to other apps”, enable sharing to Facebook, and activate “Your Instagram story”

Did You Know That You Can Post Facebook Stories with SocialBee?

Do you want to plan your Facebook Stories ahead of time?

No problem, with SocialBee you can schedule your Stories and post them directly from SocialBee.

Here is how you can share Facebook Stories with SocialBee:

1. Open the SocialBee app
2. Click on “Add post” from the top of your screen
3. Once you have entered the Post Editor, make sure to have Facebook selected
4. Click the “Customize for each profile” button
5. Select the type of post you’d like to publish (Feed post, Reel, Story)
6. Upload your Story content
7. Choose a Content Category with a preset schedule for your Story or pick a specific posting time
8. Save your post as “Approved”

How to Create a Successful Facebook Story

Until now, we managed to cover the basics: 

• What are Facebook stories
• The benefits of using stories as a brand
• How to add stories to your Facebook page

While these factors make up the foundation of your knowledge, there are more aspects you have to learn about Facebook stories in order to be successful. 

Here are the top five tips for creating a successful Facebook story:

1. Brainstorm ideas for your Facebook Stories
2. Get creative and experiment with your Stories
3. Focus on video content
4. Post exciting time-sensitive offers
5. Turn your best performing posts into Stories

1. Brainstorm Ideas for Your Facebook Stories

The most important part of a story is the idea behind it.

Having a comprehensive list of ideas will save you a lot of trouble in the future and will actually help you maintain a consistent posting schedule week after week.

So, what are some great ideas specifically for Facebook stories? Well, as we mentioned before, stories allow you to be more free, fun, and transparent in your approach, which means that you can focus more on interactive content. 

Here is a list of top 10 ideas on how you can use Facebook stories:

1. Photos/videos from the office
2. Recommendations (books, movies, music, etc)
3. Employee spotlight (allow your audience to get to know your team)
4. Short insightful clips from your events/webinars/podcasts
5. Limited offers
6. Important announcements
7. Holidays and celebrations
8. A sneak peek of a new product/service/event
9. Customer reviews and testimonials
10. Questions

2. Get Creative and Experiment with Your Stories

Ideas are not the only way to get creative with your stories—you can also experiment with your story format.

The key is to pay attention to what works best. Keep track of what content you post as well as the results you got (views, reactions, and replies). Find some patterns and see if a certain type of format appeals to your audience more than others.

Facebook offers quite a few options for content creation and editing, which allows you to:

• Post a photo/video
• Make a boomerang
• Create a photo collage 
• Use the superzoom video effect
• Add stickers, text, effects, music
• Add visual geolocation tags
• Draw on your photos/videos
• Add Captions

3. Focus on Video Content

Right now, video content is where it’s at. 

Platforms like TikTok are built around video content thrive, and others like Facebook and Instagram are trying to catch up by implementing new features that focus on video content. 

Why? Because video content appeals to the masses and brings in the most engagement and Facebook story views. So, if you want to make your audience stop and prevent them from tapping away from your story, focus on creating short videos and posting them on your stories.

Here are some video ideas you can try for your next Facebook story:

• Short clips from webinars, events, and live sessions
• Boomerangs from the office
• Clips from online motivational speeches/interviews/documentaries
• Video responses to customer FAQs
• Video testimonials 
• Product videos
• Recorded industry tips

Keep in mind that the maximum Facebook story video length is 20 seconds⁠—make sure you spend your time creating quality content rather than lengthy videos.

Here is another fact you should know: 69% of people report viewing videos without sound in public places, while 25% of people report viewing videos without sound in private places.

To get more Facebook story views, be mindful of the context in which your content is being viewed, and don’t miss out on the chance to reach your audience no matter who or where they are.

4. Post Exciting Time-Sensitive Offers

Do you have exciting promotions and events coming up, but you don’t want to spam your audience with constant updates and reminders? No worries, on stories you can go all out and create buzz around your latest campaigns.

While consecutive promotional posts can lead to several unfollows, when it comes to focusing on those that view Facebook stories, things are different—you have more freedom to create anticipation and raise awareness about your sales.

Let’s say you run a weekend-long promotion with a 30% discount on a selection of products.

Here is how you can boost your results by using Facebook stories:

1. Create a seven-day countdown and post a sales reminder every day (how many days are left until the promotion begins)
2. Post images with the products on sale
3. Compare old (before discount) and new prices (after discount)
4. During the promotion, you can update your audience on pieces that are being sold out
5. Make posts indicating how much time is left until the promotion ends

5. Turn Your Best Performing Posts into Stories

Are you running out of content ideas? Access your social media analytics, identify your top evergreen posts, and turn them into successful stories.

Great social media management tools like SocialBee allow you to keep track of your content progress and give you all the information you need to improve your content, such as:

• A top of your most appreciated social media posts
• Best-performing content categories
• The post format with the most results 

From SocialBee’s analytics dashboard you can identify your best performing posts in order to discover the content your audience engages with the most.

Start your free 14-day SocialBee trial today to create, share and evaluate your content performance from the same place!

To make sure your posts perform well as stories too, work on customizing them to the story format by resizing the visuals, cutting out unnecessary text, and adding stickers, emojis, and other effects that can make your content stand out.

Facebook Stories FAQ

Now that you know how to post Facebook stories and how to optimize them for a better performance, let’s go through the most frequently asked questions to make sure we covered everything about the topic.

How Long Do Facebook Stories Stay Up?

Facebook stories are visible for 24 hours after posting. 

Can People Reply to Facebook Stories?

Yes, Facebook users can reply to your stories by using the “Send message” bar at the bottom of the story. The reply will appear in your Facebook Messenger inbox from where you can continue the conversation.

How Can You Access Facebook Stories Insights?

To access your Facebook stories insights, follow the next steps:

1. Go to your News Feed and click “Pages” in the left menu.
2. Access your Page, and click “Insights” in the left menu.
3. Go to “Stories” on the left (in case it’s your first time, click “Turn On”.

When Should You Post Facebook Stories?

There are no best practices for when you should post stories. 

Since Facebook stories are available for 24 hours, the time frame in which you post doesn’t impact your story performance because your audience has a generous time window in which they can view your content.

How Often Should You Post Facebook Stories?

To find out how often you should post Facebook stories, you have to test your audience over time. For example, change your posting pattern weekly for several weeks and discover how many followers view your stories. If you notice that they lose interest after watching two or three stories, stick to one per day.

Your posting frequency is unique to your brand. Some brands might see better results by posting two stories per week, while others might benefit more from posting five stories per day.

How Do You Archive Facebook Stories?

To view your Facebook story archive, you have to:

1. Go to your Facebook profile
2. Click the three dots under your page name
3. Access “Archive”

Reminder: To save your posted stories, you have to turn on the archive function by following the next steps:

1. Go to your Facebook profile
2. Click the three dots under your page name
3. Access “Archive”
4. Tap on “Story archive”
5. Click on “Turn on archive”

Improve Your Facebook Stories Strategy

If you want to improve your organic reach and engage with your audience more than ever before, this is your sign to share Facebook stories more than ever.

This guide contains all the information you have to know to post stories as well as optimize them for better results.

So, get ready to improve your social media marketing once again by including Facebook stories in your posting schedule.

To make sure you cover all the sides of your Facebook content plan, start using SocialBee for your content creation and distribution tasks. Benefit from a 14-day free SocialBee trial today and discover a better and faster way to share your Facebook content!