The holiday spirit is here, and social media platforms are making sure that they’ll help both their audiences and businesses experience easier shopping. Instagram has been rolling out features being a haven for a huge number of brands. The platform recently rolled out branded content, the Guides tab, and paid badges on Live streaming. Today, Instagram tests timer on Stories.
Around 500 million Instagrammers use Stories around the world daily. Matt Navarra shared a tweet made by Kyle Harris showing that a timer listing is now visible below Instagram Stories bubbles. This is an experiment that Instagram is now conducting to boost the usage of Stories. The timer listing indicates how many hours more is left before each Story will be seen on an account. Instagram is looking at this timer listing to prompt users in viewing them before they last.
Instagram tests timer listing on Stories effective 08 December 2020.
Implications for Marketers:
Instagram’s tests on timer listing on Stories is a new idea for the platform to boost the exposure of the features. For marketers, it may be worth it to try experimenting. Timer listing on a brand Story can create a sense of urgency for users to check any promotion or sales. As such, it can be a great way to increase conversion.
