Web stories are visual mobile experiences that offer little information in a format similar to social media stories. What differs from social media is that unlike Instagram Stories which are tied to a specific account, Internet Stories circulate freely on the open web in the form of a website. When creating, you will have the option to share it everywhere (e.g. in email, SMS, embed as a landing page…), while social media stories can only be seen in their closed ecosystem
Why is it worth creating web stories?
People lack the patience for long articles and want short pieces of information that provide a visual experience as well as an interactive experience in addition to storytelling. Creating extensive blog entries is difficult and expensive, and the market is saturated with too much of this type of content.
In addition, Web Stories are placed at the top of the Google search results page, in the “Visual Stories” section. In the official Google Chrome app, you can now find a dedicated section for web stories.
Yes, it’s a new content type that increases organic traffic and gives you a great SEO score.
Elements of a web story
To create a story that deserves to be ranked or shared on Google, you need to meet Google’s standards as well as create content that will engage people.
To help you succeed, we have divided the online relationship process into three main parts:
- Media
- Narration
- Project
Take a look at each one and follow best practices to get the most out of your online viewing experience.
MEDIA
Unlike writing a regular story, with a web story, it’s better to start with the media and then add text. Why? Because an online story is a visual experience, you impress your audience. The text is only to help, not to play the role of the main actor.
Step 1 – Use high-quality images
Online relationships change based on users’ devices, so it’s important to maintain high-quality photos and videos. This way everyone will have the same experience. If you don’t have multimedia content, you can find it in our free media library or on stock image sites like Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels…
Step 2 – Pay attention to the video resolution
Try to keep the video resolution no more than 4K and 2-5MB to speed up the loading of your internet history. H.264 is a popular high-definition digital video standard that you should use because it compresses video to roughly half the size of the MPEG-2 (DVD standard) to deliver the same high-quality video.
If you can, trim the video to a maximum of 15 seconds and resize it in portrait format beforehand
Step 3 – Orientation
Basically, you want to use videos and vertically oriented images for your media. Of course, as you can see from our examples, it is possible to use videos and landscape images. However, you need to have a deep understanding of your brand and internet stories in general. That’s why we always advise beginners to stick with vertical media content, as it’s much easier to incorporate it into a story format and present it on portable media devices.
Narration
Starting with the narrative, ask yourself… Who is this story for? What do you want to emphasize? What kind of reaction do you want to evoke? Events or scenes should be described so that users understand them through the feelings, desires, beliefs or values of the narrators.
By knowing your audience, you’ll know what language to use and how to deliver your message so that it resonates with them.
Second, by knowing what information you want to convey, you’ll be able to create short and meaningful stories online. Know that web stories, like all other stories, must have a clear purpose. And while blog posts give you room to expand on various aspects of this point, web stories just don’t. So make sure you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to say before figuring out how to say it.
Third, you need to understand that behind every good story there is emotion. Whether it’s joy, envy, worry or anger, your story needs to be similar to the neighborhood if it’s going to resonate with your audience. For example, we will take one point and then pass it with different emotions.
Suppose you run a sporting goods store and you are trying to persuade he enjoyed heart disease and poor sleep. So make your choice. Either run in the morning or go to the doctor in the afternoon.
These are just basic examples that need to be optimized for the right audience and changed according to the company’s brand. But they should give you an idea of how important emotions are in online stories.
Design
If media and storytelling are two elements of your website, then design is the glue that binds them together. The project itself is not worth much. But without it, your narrative and media just won’t work, no matter how good they are. At this point, it’s important to remember that getting your story and media right may seem easy, but it’s not. Almost anyone can collect multimedia content in a few words and call it a story. But it’s surprisingly hard to avoid looking amateurish, lacking in style, or just plain confused.
With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that most people hire professional designers to help with their web stories. Gaining the intuition required for good design takes years of experience and study. You can always tell if a web article was designed by a professional because it has a neighborhood style, follows a certain visual trend, and flows seamlessly from one element to another. The longer you look at it, the more you see how capable and creative designers really are.
Does that mean you shouldn’t even bother creating web stories? Of course not. Modern tools and platforms allow you to create a web story in a surprising style, even if you do not have much experience. The only thing we recommend is not to set the bar too high because you just can’t compete with the pros, no matter how powerful your tool is. Nevertheless, we wholeheartedly encourage you to explore, explore and understand the factors that underpin design and how they connect to your brand. And before you get started, we’ll even give you some tips to guide you
Once you’re done with the media and narrative, you can move on to the fun part, which is design. Here we include fonts, colors and composition.
Choose easy-to-read and readable fonts that will look good even on small screens. Sans serif fonts provide a modern, stylish and professional look. Script fonts are elegant and classic
Trends in web stories
In general, web stories are mainly used as marketing content. And just as there are trends in storytelling in marketing, there are also trends in online storytelling. These days, web stories are a fairly new type of content, so there aren’t many trends to talk about. But those out there shouldn’t fly under your radar:
- Minimalist design – Using as little as possible to get the most is always a popular idea. However, it is difficult to overestimate how difficult it can be to create good, minimalist content.
- Emotional design – We’ve already covered the importance of emotion in your content, but this design takes it a step further. Modern websites do not shy away from putting emotions first and information second. So if you feel that highlighting emotions is the best solution for your brand, know that you are not alone.
- Gradients 2.0 – Choosing the right colors for online stories is often a daunting task. Especially if you want your brand to align with your content. Therefore, some companies have chosen to choose only one color and then apply different tonal transitions. Such a design is not only perceived as minimalist (which is always a plus), but also allows you to avoid overwhelming customers with unnecessary stimuli.
Interactive
One of the main reasons web stories are being pushed out of social media platforms is because they don’t allow much interactivity. At StorifyMe, we continue to witness the importance of interactivity for conversion rates and decent online traffic. So, if you want to enrich your web stories, we strongly recommend that you consider adding interactive elements.
Now, it should be mentioned that not all brands can use interactive elements. If your target audience is mostly older people, the interactive elements can be bossy and confusing for them. But if your main focus is on a younger audience, interactive elements are the best way to make your content stand out from the rest. Clicking buttons, swiping in different directions, drawing shapes, taking photos… These are all activities that you can include as interactive elements in your stories. Your main job is to see how your content can benefit from it and not have it pinned
