It seems that everyone is talking behind Instagram’s back and how it’s a rip off of Snapchat. It’s like high school all over again—hair flips and oh no she didn’t finger snaps included.

And I get it…

Look I’m pretty active on Snapchat so I see where these critics are coming from but you should know that I’m not a fan of negative talk and as a strategist, I like to keep an open mind of what new opportunities Instagram Stories has to offer.

So I’ll give you my two cents of Instagram Stories and the results I’ve had with my personal account so you can make an informed decision on what you want to do. Hold on to your mouse because this is going to be good…

10x More Views with Instagram Stories

Compared to SnapChat I had 10x more views on Instagram! I was blown away by that number and a little self-conscious because my life behind the scenes is usually unfiltered and unedited. But as I looked at Instagram Stories under a microscope, the jump in views totally made sense and here’s why…

Almost all of my family, friends and clients were ALREADY on Instagram.
They were already familiar with Instagram. And they were already familiar with the type of content I shared on my feed. So when I started posting Instagram Stories, there I was at the top of their feed egging them on to see what was going on behind the scenes of this mompreneur’s everyday life. And it worked. I got more views than I ever did on SnapChat AND more comments!

5x More Comments

I’m used to getting messages in my inbox from prospective clients and brands that want to partner with me (shoutout to Wood Watches by JORD, love you guys) but this time I was getting comments from people gushing over my sweet dance moves while stuck in traffic. People that normally gave me likes on my carefully curated photos and usually didn’t leave any comments were now responding to my Instagram Stories. The raw unfiltered me turned out to be more interesting than my super edited images.

And you know what else I noticed? All you entrepreneurs are going to love this… Stick with me here, it gets better…

137% Increase in Email Subscribers

Downloads of my lead magnet, The Ultimate Checklist of an Irresistible + Profitable Facebook Page skyrocketed!

Soon after I started posting Instagram Stories, a notification would pop up on my phone that I just got a new email subscriber.

And let me tell you, I don’t run any ads for my lead magnet. I used to but I don’t anymore. I’m busy working on new content but if people want it, it’s there on my website for free under Stephanie Liu Resources.

So if I’m not running ads, how do I know that it’s coming from Instagram? Because the bio link on my Instagram account is tagged with Google Analytics tags. That’s how I know. (By the way, if you’re not tagging your links on social, we need to talk. And when I mean talk, I mean-we need to get that shit taken care of right now.)

All that people could really do when they followed me on Snapchat was view my snaps and leave a comment. If they wanted to learn more about me they couldn’t click on a link to my site. To get people to go my site I’d literally have to say in my snap, “Go to my website heystephanie.com” or write over my snap with my website address and cross my fingers that someone was actually going to be able to remember the URL to type into their browser later.

Now imagine how annoying it would be to watch a snap and hear someone repeat their website address snap after snap. You sir, get a finger snap cause I’m out!

via GIPHY

But with Instagram Stories, if the user liked what she saw , she could just tap on my profile photo, view my feed and click on my bio link. And look even if she clicks the link, goes to my site and doesn’t give me her email address, I still win because my site has a Facebook pixel and I can retarget her later.

Are you seeing the possibilities yet?

Do you see the big picture?

Have you started thinking of how you can use Instagram Stories?

And how much did this all cost me? Zip. Zilch. Nada. All I had to do was be comfortable being in front of the camera and share my unfiltered POV on life as an entrepreneur. Imagine looking at your email list a month from now and seeing how it’s grown because of Instagram Stories? How amazing would that feel? Pretty amazing am I right?

So to all the Instagram Stories folks throwing shade, go ahead and continue to sit on the sidelines sipping that haterade because this gal, her clients and her tribe will be in the spotlight and going all in Instagram Stories.

Are you in?