Instagram Stories become more interesting with Mentions, Links and Boomerang

Instagram makes Stories more efficient with the addition of mentions, links, and Boomerang. Will these make them more appealing to marketers?

Instagram is serious about Stories and it seems to be determined to invest in them. Although the idea has been “borrowed” from Snapchat, Instagram users were willing to try the new feature and they actually embraced it very fast. This made Instagram consider further options of enhancing it, starting with featuring Stories on Explore.

Now it wants to facilitate their further usage by including mentions, links, and Boomerang, in an attempt “to make your story even more fun”.

Mentions

The introduction of mentions in Stories will help any user share a moment with all the people that were involved in the particular Story. As with every other mention on Instagram, all you need is to add the “@” and find the right person to mention.

This will display a pop up to your story, showing the mentions to your followers.

If a friend mentions you, you will receive a notification in Direct, where you can also preview the story. If you are mentioned by a non-follower, then this will arrive as a message request.

(Will this be a new way to get spammy mentions as it already occurred on Instagram?)

‘See More’ Links

This is probably the most interesting feature for marketers and brands, as Stories will be able to add links for further details on a story. The test will show up on verified accounts, helping users learn more about a topic, or a user.

You can check the first examples with Chance the Rapper (@chancetherapper), Dwayne Johnson (@therock), or Bustle (@bustle), where you can click on “see more”, or swipe up to view more details, still by remaining inside the app.

Does this idea remind you of Snapchat (again)?

Boomerang

If you enjoy using Boomerang on Instagram to create short videos, then now you will be able to do it on your Stories. Once you’re ready to share a Story, you can swipe right to use the camera. This will allow you to pick the “Boomerang” mode for the recording, which may turn out into an easy way to combine photos into a video.

Are Stories becoming more effective?

Brands are already experimenting with Stories and how they can be integrated in their content strategy, and these additions may offer the right motivation for more marketers to try out new content types.

Stories may offer the right ephemeral appeal for users to feel closer to a brand, provided that there is the right context. The introduction of links can now validate the reason that brands should use Stories to reach their audience, as it may be easier now to include them in their actual strategy.

As with Instagram in general, it’s not just about visual appeal and engagement anymore, it is also about tracking success and measuring the ROI.

And that’s what makes this addition quite interesting to see how it goes.