The Pros and Cons of Stories on Every Social Media Platform

Instagram Stories

According to Statista, by 2025, there will be 1.44 billion Instagram users across the world, accounting for 31.2% of global internet users. Over 500 million people post IG Stories daily. 70% of users watch stories every day. The platform is most used among people aged between 18 and 34.

Let’s take a look at the positives and negatives of using Instagram Stories:

Instagram Story Pros

Wide Reach

Instagram has a vast user base, offering extensive reach and engagement opportunities.

Interactive Features

Instagram Stories are highly interactive. You can easily engage your audience with Polls, Questions, Links, “Add Yours” stickers, and more. These are great ways to get feedback and enhance your relationship with your audience, or allow them to feel more directly connected to your brand.

Analytics and Meta Integration

The apps and Meta’s comprehensive insights and analytics help business owners track performance and optimize content based on data. The seamless integration with other Meta-owned platforms, such as Facebook, enhances cross-promotion with less effort and time.

Algorithm Advantage

IG Stories are a great way to send people to your website (if that’s your goal), and they are an easy way to experiment with content. If you post multiple stories, you can see in real-time whether users are clicking away from your content or are actively enjoying it.

Authentic Content Creation

Unlike the very curated, well thought out, and planned Instagram grid posts, Stories are much more off-the-cuff and casual. This means that they are an inexpensive and easy way to create content, so you can spend less time on editing, and more time engaging with your audience and making them feel closer to you and your brand.

Highlight Feature

Despite the fact that Stories were initially created to only last 24 hours, the platform’s Highlight option allows specific Stories selected by account owners to be saved in collections on their profiles. This is a great tool for brands looking to bring attention to your business’ main content pillars, such as recurring sales and special promos, new arrivals, core values, and more!

Instagram Story Cons

Saturated Market and Algorithm Changes

If you go to your Instagram feed right now and scroll through the stories band, it will probably never end. High competition means it's harder to stand out among other creators and businesses, and Instagram’s algorithm is constantly changing and impacting story visibility for accounts with smaller followings.

Time-Consuming

Although Stories don’t require as much planning as gird posts or reels, consistently creating high-quality content can be demanding. Getting into the habit of uploading stories multiple times a week is a challenge for business owners who don’t have a helping hand with their Social Media Management team.

Privacy Concerns

Although you can see which users have viewed your Stories, Instagram, unfortunately, does not alert its users when someone takes a screenshot of their Stories. This lack of security means images of your Stories can be spread without your permission or knowledge (even if you have a private profile).

Source: Shutterstock

Facebook Stories

After Instagram’s 2016 launch of Stories, Facebook launched its very own Stories function in 2017, and the rebranding and introduction of Meta Platforms in October 2021 tied the two platforms closer together. Although Facebook has the highest number of users of any social media platform, its Facebook Stories are surprisingly unpopular.

Facebook Story Pros

Cross-Posting with Instagram

One of the perks of Facebook Stories is that they offer cross-posting with Instagram Stories—although this only goes one way (from Instagram to Facebook). Cross-posting isn’t necessarily the best strategy for brands, but for a casual social media user, it means that friends and family who are on Facebook, but not Instagram, can have access to their Instagram Stories.

Algorithm Bypass

Since Facebook Stories live at the top of users’ newsfeeds, it’s possible to utilize them as a way to bypass the algorithm. While feed posts might get lost in the crowd, brands can ensure that their Stories are presented directly to their audience at the top of their Feeds as soon as they open the app.

Group Stories

Something that sets Facebook Stories apart from other platforms’ Story functions is the Group Stories option. This feature allows anyone attending a Facebook event to contribute to the event’s Story roll, which appears on the event page at the top of the home feed.

Facebook Story Cons

Lower Engagement and Lack of Distinction

Facebook Stories see lower engagement compared to Instagram Stories. In general, there’s nothing truly distinct about Facebook Stories that sets it apart from Instagram Stories. In fact, many users question why they would move over to Facebook when they are already happy with IG Stories, and businesses often just leverage FB Stories to get that extra mile of exposure for the content they have going on Instagram.

Demographic Challenges

These days, the typical Facebook users generally fall into an older age bracket, and this might have something to do with why Stories hasn’t caught on in the same way it has on other platforms.

Facebook users utilize the platform to send messages to friends or watch videos, not discover content and brands as they do on other platforms. As a result, Facebook Stories can often appear as a dead space for many users and don’t attract the same attention as Instagram Stories.

Ad Saturation

Users may experience ad fatigue due to frequent interruptions by ads being promoted by accounts they don’t follow or want to see when they might be looking for updates on their friends, family or brands they are already familiar with.

Source: Shutterstock

TikTok Stories

In 2021, TikTok released their Stories feature and, although they’re similar to Instagram Stories, they are slightly shorter, with a cap of 15 seconds max, and work quite differently on the app, being served to the user in a separate feed, allowing comments just like regular TikToks, and marking them with a blue label to let the viewers know the content will expire.

TikTok Story Pros

Viral Potential

With TikTok Stories, you have a high chance of getting your content to go viral due to TikTok's unique algorithm and the way it matches videos with user preferences to a hyper-niche level.

Creative Freedom

This feature doubles-down in TikTok’s way of encouraging creativity and experimentation. Without having to keep the content in your profile forever, you can experiment with different lanes of content creation without affecting your feed’s performance or the algorithm serving your videos to the wrong audience. 

For example, let’s say you have an e-commerce business that does mainly product unboxing videos, but you want to try out ASMR content. Test it first on stories and then make a data-driven decision!

Young Audience

If your business needs to engage with a younger, highly active user base, this is the platform for you! TikTok’s main audience has users aged 18 to 24.

TikTok Story Cons

Short Lifespan

TikTok Stories are ephemeral, lasting only 24 hours, and without any possibility of revisiting, unlike Instagram’s Highlight feature.

Resource-Intensive

The app’s algorithm requires frequent content creation to maintain visibility. If you’re thinking of posting one story a month, maybe redirect your resources and strategy to main feed posts or other platforms that will give you a better result in terms of engagement.

Niche Audience

TikTok primarily appeals to younger demographics and specific interest groups, limiting reach to older users and segmenting content within different niches inside the app.

Source: Shutterstock

Snapchat Stories

Snapchat’s target audience is one of the youngest on social media, alongside TikTok. Still, the platform was actually the first to adopt the Stories function, paving the way for the other platforms to eventually follow suit.

Since its inception, Snapchat’s rise to fame has been “disappearing” content. The platform’s ephemeral quality was a big part of what made it initially attractive to users: gone were the days of puzzling over creating the perfect grid or profile—Snapchat re-invented the off-the-cuff, improvisational nature of social media and made it fun again.

Snapchat Story Pros

Ephemeral Content

“Disappearing” content creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity. This serves mostly personal profiles, but we can also see it being applied to businesses like tabloids and similar publications, which share content daily and get users to subscribe to their ongoing updates.

Strong Engagement with Low Effort

If you’re not a fan of a more stylized platform like Instagram, Snapchat is a great option for you. Snapchat allows businesses to get high user interaction and engagement rates at a lower cost of resources.

AR Filters

Snapchat is known for its creative use of filters and was actually the first platform to start using them in 2015. It’s even possible to create your own custom filters, whether you want to highlight a special event or day for your business and get your users to engage and participate in this! This extra level of easy customization is something that other social media platforms don’t have, and it’s Snapchat’s strength as it enhances user experience.

Enhanced Privacy

Since the search functions on Snapchat are pretty limited, you have a lot more control over your privacy. For someone to find your profile and stories on the app, they need to know the exact name of your account. On other social media platforms, it’s much easier to stumble on users’ profiles through an advanced search function or hashtags, for example. Plus, on Snapchat Stories, users will receive a notification when another user takes a screenshot.

Direct Interaction

Snapchat Stories are great for communication since they allow you to swipe up and directly message the person whose story you are viewing. This means you can reach out to your friends and comment on their Stories.

Snapchat Story Cons

User Base Demographic Limitations

On Snapchat, your content will be limited to a younger audience, mostly Gen Z. If you want to get your brand in front of an older or broader demographic, this platform could be a lonely place!

Less Discoverability

Snapchat Stories aren’t as useful as other platforms’ Stories functions for those brands, businesses, and individuals looking to go viral. Due to the platform’s limited search function, it’s unlikely that followers will stumble upon your profile organically, making it harder to stand out from the crowd or solidly assert your brand presence in a natural way.

Hidden Features

Making the most of the variety of features Snapchat Stories has to offer can be difficult as they are sometimes hidden or hard to find. This makes the platform less user-friendly than the other platforms. 

Limited Analytics

Snapchat provides business owners with less robust analytics tools than competitors such as Meta and TikTok, so you might not have enough insight into how and why your content is performing well.

Source: Shutterstock

WhatsApp Status

WhatsApp Status allows you to share text, photo, video, and GIF updates with your that disappear after 24 hours. You can also personalize your Status viewership, allowing you to create user lists, block contacts from seeing a specific Status, or set them up for singular viewers. The maximum duration for status is 60 seconds, and WhatsApp supports a wide range of formats, including 3GP and mpeg4 videos.

WhatsApp Status Pros

Personalized Engagement

High engagement is due to the personal nature of the platform. If you have a WhatsApp Business setup and your customers often reach out through this platform to get your services or flag questions or concerns, posting on your Status is a great way to make them feel special and more intimate with your business. WhatsApp Status can serve the same purpose as having a select group of loyal customers who join your mailing list and get exclusive perks in return!

Wide Reach

With over two billion users worldwide, WhatsApp gives your business a big platform to get noticed. The platform is very popular in regions like South Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and more.

Privacy

Status updates are only visible to contacts, offering a sense of security and community. You can also customize who views certain Status posts and who doesn’t, which allows you to segment your customers for special sales or exclusive information.

WhatsApp Status Cons

Limited Features

WhatsApp has fewer creative tools and interactive features than its Meta counterparts, Instagram and Facebook.

Lower Engagement

WhatsApp generally shows lower engagement rates compared to other platforms when it comes to Statuses. They appear in a separate feed from your WhatsApp messages, and people can easily skip checking them out for days.

Narrow Audience

The content you post on your WhatsApp Status is restricted to your existing contacts, and your contacts must have your Business’ phone number saved in their address books to see your Status, limiting broader reach.

Source: Shutterstock

Conclusion

Businesses looking to include Stories in their social media marketing strategies should think about who their audience is, which platforms they are on, and what type of content they want to see. This will dictate which platform’s Story feature is the best choice, and whether they’re worth the effort. 

Undoubtedly, out of all the social media platforms, Instagram has done the best job with its Stories function: it’s used by individuals and brands all over the world and has become a main driving force for the platform. 

Whether you prioritize Instagram's interactivity, Facebook's broad demographics, TikTok's viral potential, Snapchat's exclusivity, or WhatsApp's personal touch, understanding these pros and cons will help you maximize your social media impact.

Either way, it’s good to have professionals on your side. TechWyse offers a range of social media services that suit the needs of businesses looking to break out on a variety of social media platforms. Call 866-208-3095 or contact us here today to learn more about how we can help take your business to the next level!