Why Instagram’s “Stories” is actually really cool (and not an attempt to destroy Snapchat).

If you’re one of the 500 million daily active users on Instagram then you probably noticed some weird circles on the top of your screen today when opening the app. And if you’re like most of my friends, you’re questioning its existence. Well here’s why it exists.

Photo courtesy of Instagram

This feature that Instagram unveiled is called “Stories.” And yes, like Snapchat’s story feature, this a place where you post pictures or videos that last a mere 24 hours. Like Snapchat there are filters (not the cool face filters though), captions, and a pen with a its own palette of colors.

Of course this has caused a lot of confusion amongst the kids my age. With my main question being: Why?

At first, I was the same way. Why the hell did Instagram do this? Was it trying to dethrone snapchat? It just didn’t make sense to me.

To me, Instagram is all about quality content. That’s what makes it so nice. You scroll. You see nice, high quality photos. You see your friends posing in front of the leaning tower of Pisa or eating brunch at Founding Farmers.

“Stories” on the other hand seemed to promote a different message. Stories are able to show what you’ve been doing. Stories can be mundane. They’re are about easily capturing your life and not being judged by what you post. With stories, quality is sacrificed in the name of quantity. So to me it seemed that integrating stories into Instagram was going against the culture of Instagram.

With stories, quality is sacrificed in the name of quantity.

Beyond that, I felt that Snapchat was, for most people, an intimate place. We add our friends. We post a snapchat story because we’re comfortable with our friends peering into our unfiltered lives. With Instagram, the story is different. Instagram just isn’t as intimate. To put this in perspective, I have about 60 people on my Snapchat and about 500 followers on my Instagram. I’d feel a lot more comfortable to posting a story to the 60 people on my Snapchat, than I would be posting to the 500 people on my Instagram.

But then I thought about it a bit more. All of my critiques for Instagram’s stories come from comparing them to Snapchat. After all, Snapchat is the company that pioneered the ephemeral photo so they’re really my only means of comparison.

If we change the scope in which we evaluate Instagram’s stories and stop comparing it to Snapchat, it’s actually a pretty brilliant idea and here’s why.

To understand, we need to create:

THE HIERARCHY OF QUALITY CONTENT.

The Hierarchy of Quality Content

If we take a look at this pyramid (aka The Hierarchy of Quality Content) we notice that Snapchat has the lowest quality content. With Snapchat we’re literally answering the question, “what are my friends doing right now?” We don’t care what we post as long as we answer that question for our friends.

With Twitter and Facebook we get thoughts. We get ideas. Sometimes we also get pictures (esp. from Facebook) but mainly, we’re going to get thoughts and ideas

And these aren’t specific to our friends. These are from everyone. Celebrities, meme accounts, and friends alike.

And finally Instagram. Not as many posts as the previous three, and a lot higher quality in terms of content published. We experience pre-planned, filtered, quality pictures of everyone.

With the introduction of Instagram Stories, the pyramid changes.

Welcome to the new “Hierarchy of Quality Content.” In this hierarchy, most things are the same. Except for one thing. The newly introduced Stories sits above Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.

Wait wait wait. This doesn’t make any sense. Why would Instagram Stories be above Snapchat in the pyramid? Snapchat and Instagram are literally the exact the same thing. They occupy the same niche…right?

In my humble opinion, no. Not at all. While the features are inherently the same, I view Instagram Stories as not a competitor for Snapchat, but a supplement for Instagram Photos. Instagram Photos are static in the sense that you often post one high quality photo of an experience. With Instagram Stories, you’re able to add to that photo by adding “highlights” of the experience you just had.

With Instagram Stories, you’re able to add to that photo by adding “highlights” of the experience you just had.

In a sense, Instagram Stories is merely a high quality Snapchat. It’s the same way that Instagram worked around Facebook. Back in the day, Facebook used to be the hub for posting photos. What if, when Instagram came out with photos, we were like “Oh come on, you’re supposed to post pictures on Facebook, why would I post them on Instagram?” Sure Instagram’s Stories uses the same medium as Snapchat’s Stories. That doesn’t have to mean they’re identical in function. They’re differentiated in the way we’re expected to use them.

So how do I think Instagram Stories should be used?

If we think of Instagram Photos as a painting, then Instagram Stories needs to be a time lapse that captures the process of creating the painting. Another analogy is that Instagram Photos is the end product. Instagram Stories is a means of portraying how we got to the end.

This means that when I’m climbing to the top of the mountain and post that inspiring picture, I’m able to illustrate my journey. I’m able to show people how many steps I took to get to the top. I’m able to show people exactly how much I had to sweat to get there.

And yes, I agree, you can definitely do the same with Snapchat. But it’s the convenience of proximity that makes this very functional to Instagram. When someone sees that picture of you posing on top of that mountain, they might be curious about your journey. At that point, they click on the circle at the top of your screen and boom. They know the struggle you went through.

Overall, the Instagram Photo you posted should lead you to the Instagram Story. The fact that Instagram is able to first, plant the craving for more (when a I see a photo you posted), then satiate that craving (when I look at your story and it complements your photo) is what makes this so cool.

And if we talk about this on a business level, it becomes more compelling. More so than Snapchat, Instagram allows business to create consistent brands. With the introduction of Stories, businesses are able to add another dimension to their branding and they’re able to do this all within the same application. This literally means that users are going to be looking at your brand twice as much.

Give it some time.

Because this is a new product, this isn’t going to be how people adopt it immediately. It takes time for a product to find its niche. Remember when Vine came out? It wasn’t immediately this place for hilarious 6 second content. It was literally a video sharing application. After people starting using it, they started experimenting. After lots of experimentation, Vine found its niche. It became a place for short, funny content. And look at it now, it’s huge.

Similarly with Instagram Stories, it’ll take time for users to understand the best way of using it.

And then one day they will. You’re going to open Instagram and scroll. You’ll scroll and scroll and then eventually you’re going to see something so incredibly cute.

After seeing this incredibly cute thing you’re going to have have one reaction:

And then you’re going to say, “Ugh. I wish I could see more of that incredibly cute dog.”

Thanks to Instagram Stories, you now can.

Thanks for reading. If you hated what I wrote, follow me on Twitter and tweet hateful things @mohammadasyed. If you want to see cool Instagram Stories, follow me @mohammad.syed.

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