IG Stories’ New “Show All” Feature Demands a Major Shift for Current Content Strategies

Another day, another new Instagram feature… or at least that’s how it feels as an SMM these days. 🤠 Last week, we noticed a new IG Story layout on a few of our devices that really got our strategy wheels turning.

Though users are currently able to share up to 100 stories per day to Instagram, the platform is testing showing followers a maximum of 3 IG story slides per account and having users select a “Show All” button in order to view the remaining IG story slides from that account. If the user does not select “Show All” while viewing the 3 IG story slides, they will then automatically move on to watch the next user’s IG stories.

From a consumer standpoint, this update would condense excessive IG stories, allowing users to spend the majority of their time consuming story content from users that they actually want to see. For brands and influencers, however, this update throws current content strategies for a major loop.

Here are a few ways we’re anticipating this test, if rolled out to all users, will affect analytics and our approach to IG Stories going forward:

• First, users can expect to see more views on less stories. Think about it like this: currently, as a consumer, how often do you actually get the chance to watch the stories of everyone you follow? With so many IG stories to tap through, it’s nearly impossible! Because this update will limit the default number of IG stories shown to 3, users will now have more time to explore stories from more accounts. As a result, you can expect to see more views on your first three stories than you typically might have before this update.

• Though we anticipate views on our first three stories will increase, we also can anticipate a much larger dip in impressions after the third story, as not everyone that views your IG story will click the “Show All” icon.

• This is why going forward, the first three slides of your IG Stories will be critical to your content strategy. We aren’t recommending that users limit their stories to only 3 slides, but it is important to either: 

  • Get to the point (bye-bye text building/tap through IG Stories that get to the punch line 7 slides later 👋🏼), or 

  • Make the initial slides attention-grabbing enough that users will feel enticed to press “Show All”

• If this feature does eventually roll out to all users, we’d recommend including a CTA with an arrow to the “Show All” icon on your third story IG slide prompting users to view more.

We hope you found this blog post helpful in learning more about the new IG Stories layout! For more social media news and tips, subscribe to our social media newsletter and follow us on Instagram. 

xx- The Homies