I’ve got some exciting news for you today.
I’m so excited that there is a new feature coming to Instagram specifically for Creators.
Now before you wander off and go “But I’m not a creator”… you ARE a creator.
Let me prove it to you
If you are using the Instagram platform for any reason and you’re posting on it regularly then you most likely have a business or want to have a business
If that is the case, then you, my darling, are a Creator and I have some amazing news.
Instagram is dropping the gems finally and are rewarding their Creators.
They are about to reward you for all of the content that you have been posting on the Instagram platform
I’m going to be sharing some screenshots that have been verified by Instagram that this thing is about to happen.
It’s not happening yet but it will happen and it will happen very soon.
That’s one of the reasons why I’m writing this, to tell you what is in the pipeline so that you know exactly what is coming and you can prepare yourself and your business
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TL:DR
Instagram is doing a big push on allowing creators like you and I who are creating content on the platform to monetize the platform.
This new feature that is coming out is called Exclusive Stories
Here’s a glance at this episode…
[02:06] What are exclusive stories?
[10:06] 3 ways to use this model in your business
[10:25] #1: Share behind the scenes content
[10:42] #2: Share additional Tips
[11:12] #3: Use It as A Tool For Accountability
What are Exclusive Stories?
In a nutshell, ‘exclusive stories’ is Instagram giving you the ability to publish content that is only available for a select few people.
You can call this some sort of gated content that people are going to have to pay a subscription fee for in order to access.
What Instagram is saying is we’re going to allow you to create a membership on Instagram.
I think this is absolutely huge.
There is only one thing like that currently on Instagram but there’s a roundabout way of doing it and you know influencers have created it and it’s called the close friends list, where you can put people within a closed friends list and you can actually charge people to be on that list.
Monetizing is not the reason why Instagram created that feature but this new feature exclusive stories that I’m sharing with you right now is created specifically for monetization.
Instagram is giving you the permission to make some money, hallelujah.
So, compared to a close friends list where you might see a green circle to show that you are part of a close friends list…
… with the exclusive stories it’s going to be purple and this is going to be around the story so that it’s like feeling like you are in this exclusive club
It’s like if Oprah had an exclusive club and you were in the membership and you paid for it.
Let’s say you hop on Oprah’s Instagram and you are in that exclusive club, only you will get access to those stories and you get to see Oprah in a whole different light than everybody else gets to see her and that is what exclusive stories are all about.
Now you can compare this to say Patreon on YoutTube which is one way that YouTube helps its subscribers and creators to monetize the platform.
So YouTube has Patreon and of course, Twitter has its own ‘Super Fans’ or Super Followers if I remember correctly.
Now Instagram wants to create its own exclusive stories so that’s what it is it’s about, to compete with these other platforms.
These changes make so much sense because if you saw my other video where I shared with you all of the changes that Instagram is bringing to the platform (and these are huge changes by the way so you’re going to want to check out that video)
…you’ll see that Instagram is paying a lot of attention and are doing a big push on helping creators to monetize the platform.
Not sure what I’m talking about? Check out the post INSTAGRAM IS CHANGING | New Instagram Update July 2021 | Algorithm Update
They are releasing lots of new features, all of which I’m going to be covering and showing you exactly how to use them for your business.
They are doing a big push on this and so you want to get in on the action once it’s released.
But before we even get to that stage I want to show you what the ‘Exclusive Stories’ looks like.
The screenshots that I’m about to share with you and the exclusive stories feature were discovered by a guy called Alessandro Paluzzi whose job is a Reverse Engineer.
So he goes into apps and codes and he figures out what is hidden in the code to tell his audience and people like you and me what is about to come.
He discovered this and released it and so Instagram had no choice but to comment on it to actually say “yes we do have this in the pipeline”.
Instagram hasn’t said too much about it because they don’t want to give away too much of the game but at least they have proof, the screenshots, that I’m about to share with you which came from Alessandro Paluzzi ‘s Twitter account which he shared publicly to everybody and so you can check that out yourself as well.
Instagram validated that these screenshots are in fact correct.
Here is the first screenshot.
From this screenshot, you can see that it says “only members of the ________ can see this story”
Imagine inserting your own name, only members of Pam Obasa can see this story.
So it is pretty much a members-only club.
It’s exclusive and that makes you feel good because you know that whatever type of content you are viewing in that story nobody else can see unless they are part of this exclusive club.
You know, as human beings we all love to be part of something exclusive, part of something that nobody else is a part of and that makes you feel good, it makes you feel important so this is why people will pay for this feature.
They’ll pay you to have access to your exclusive stories.
That doesn’t mean that other people can’t see the stories.
Other people will be able to see that there is a story but they won’t be able to see what the story is.
When other people who are not part of this exclusive club want to click on it, it’s going to say this is a members-only club, as the screenshot shows.
It is actually a really, really great way to just really show a part of your brand or a part of your audience some extra love and of course they might pay you for that if you choose to monetize this part of your brand.
Another thing to know about exclusive stories that we already know before it’s even launched is that these stories cannot be screenshotted.
You can’t screenshot this, you can’t save it, you can’t keep it and I can see why.
Because if you could then it would devalue it.
Imagine if you’re in my club and then you screenshot the thing and send it to somebody else in a group on WhatsApp with everybody else, it would totally devalue this exclusive community.
I really like that Instagram has made it so that it’s impossible for you to take a screenshot or share this story in any way.
There is one more thing that you can do with the story and that is to save the story to a highlight which I think is brilliant
Again, I’m assuming that the only people who will have access to that highlight are probably people in this club and the way that people have responded to this is that it makes sense because when people join this club your exclusive stories club they need something to see so, therefore, they will have access to the highlights and they will see all the exclusive stories that they had missed.
I think this is brilliant that Instagram is giving us the opportunity for our users or people who are part of this exclusive stories club to be able to save these stories or rather save these stories so that there is a bank of these stories and they can view them later on down the line.
Even though this feature has only been exposed recently and I’m talking over the last couple of days it’s actually not the first time that Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram talked about this.
Way back in May he had an interview where he talked about the fact that they really want to give creators the opportunity to have subscriptions on Instagram and I’m all for it.
I really think that creating content takes a long time and especially if you’re not very good at creating content it’s a waste of time and I’m very grateful that I’m able to use my content to grow my business but not everybody has that opportunity and so this is great news to me.
3 Ways To Use Exclusive Stories In Your Business
#1: Share behind the scenes content
Everybody loves this type of content, any type of behind the scenes content they want to know how you really live, what is life like for you and you know I think that’s a brilliant way to use it.
So behind the scenes content is going to be brilliant.
#2: Share additional Tips
This is an outline for me but I really think this would make a really great bonus for online courses.
Imagine you’re selling your online courses, one of the bonuses is the ability to be part of your exclusive stories and within your exclusive stories you’re sharing additional tips etc that are probably not a part of the course, it’s like a bonus to your buyers.
I think this is one of the ways that I will certainly be using this and it’ll be an asset for those who are in this club.
#3: Use It as A Tool For Accountability
I really like this and I will be testing it.
This is what I imagine, if you have a coaching program we all know that one of the biggest problems is accountability.
But your clients are busy scrolling on Instagram.
So imagine if you’re using the platform that they are scrolling and possibly spending a lot of time on to actually use it as a tool to educate them, to help them further to reach their goals.
Imagine they’re busy scrolling and it comes up with a prompt from you and as your clients inside of this club, this prompt reminds them to get back to their work or to achieve their goal or to just redirect their attention.
I don’t know but I really think that this would be a really really nice way to hold your clients accountable and I will be exploring this when this feature lands.
Conclusion
Like I mentioned this feature hasn’t or hasn’t officially been released but it is in the pipeline.
As soon as it lands I am going to be all over this feature and creating content for you guys to show you how I’m utilizing it, how others are utilizing it successfully.
I honestly think that this is going to shake up the world of Social Media and it’s going to change the way we do business on Instagram forever.
I also think that it’s going to really shake up the likes of Instagram the likes of YouTube and Twitter who already have this model via Patreon or Super Fans and it’s going to potentially take away some of their members, some of their creators and bring them to Instagram
It’s going to be a really, really big game changer and I’m here for the game.
I’m here to play.
…………………….
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT ON HOW TO USE INSTAGRAM FOR YOUR BUSINESS
INSTAGRAM IS CHANGING | New Instagram Update July 2021 | Algorithm Update
So let me know in the comments below, RE the new Instagram updates…
What do you think about this new feature?
Be honest with me.
Are you excited about it?
Are you overwhelmed?
Do you like what Instagram is doing?
Let me know in the comments
