For a long time, I didn’t see the point in bothering with Instagram Stories. Why bother putting effort into something that will vanish within 24 hours? But then for some reason, a few months ago I started getting into Instagram stories. And now I’m a little bit obsessed with them. Here are the reasons why.

They’re less intense

Because Lyrical Host’s social media covers so many channels and has so many interactions now, it’s a two person job even though a lot of it is automated. We have a Facebook page, Facebook group, YouTube channel, Twitter account, Instagram account…and daily engagement to manage across all of them. I also get a lot of Messenger messages from people asking questions or wanting to buy hosting.

So it’s nice that for my personal social media, I can just post an Instagram story and feel like I’m putting something out there for people to see, but not have to deal with a million notifications. I get the odd comment or like from someone and that’s great, but it’s not a lot of back and forth so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

It makes you go back to basics

I always find it fascinating how a medium or channel guides people into presenting things a particular way and creates its own culture. For some reason I always feel ranty on Twitter and stressed on LinkedIn. But on Instagram Stories, people are sharing their day-to-day rather than strong opinions, so it’s nice to see the back-to-basics of people’s lives. And it’s less “picture perfect” than regular Instagram posts, because people know it’s only going to be around for 24 hours.

They’re like visual blogging

I think stories are actually the closest thing to blogging without being actual blogging. You can add a pic or say something and just put it out there. It feels less confrontational, and because it’s not a huge list of back-and-forths of different people, and I find it less comparison-inducing.

You can see who’s viewed it

I’m super nosy so it’s always interesting seeing who’s viewed my story. This is one of my favourite features because so many people who don’t use Instagram Stories themselves don’t realise the story creator can see who’s viewed it. It also makes me feel more rewarded because there are so many lurkers on social media that it’s easy to think no one cares or is interested, when in fact lots of people are secretly viewing every post you create. It’s honestly amazing how many people stalk you on the regular ;)

You can make it pretty

I love the design and creativity aspect of it, even though some of the elements are a little cheesy or low quality. It’s more convenient than having to design something in a separate app or different software, and I love that there are Pusheen gifs and cute photo frames. Plus, it’s super intuitive to work with layers, which is something a lot of services struggle with.

I’ve started creating some of my own Instagram Stories designs, and they’re really fun to make!

I just wish there were more fonts built-in by default (and that the scripty font had more options)!

You never know what you’ll see

There’s always a surprise element because you never know what other people have put in their stories, or whether it’s a photo or a video. I love following people’s Instagram Story videos…it’s like a little treat suddenly seeing that animated circle around their profile pic!

The niggles

There are a few little niggles I have with Instgram, like how hard it is to get back to notifications you’ve already viewed, moving stuff around stories can be a bit annoying sometimes, some of the video quality is pretty bad, and it’s awkward that you can’t pause/get back to the same place you stopped viewing a Live instantly. But generally, I absolutely love them, and I always try to upload a pic or comment when I’m not too busy.

If you want to come stalk me, you can follow along at instagram.com/madebyjenni!

What’s your favourite social channel at the moment?