Stories on VK are a relatively new way to draw attention to yourself or a promoted company. If the function appeared on Instagram and Snapchat for a long time, absolutely everyone uses it and is considered an integral part of the application, on VKontakte it is only gaining popularity. Despite this, 40 million out of 95 million users have used “disappearing” photos and videos on average per month.

This material is more suitable for learning by beginners. To get serious about work on the most popular social network, create a group in VK, make a beautiful design, connect widgets for communities, write a welcome /selling post and proceed to full promotion of your VKontakte group…

Stories in VK – how it all began

Stories give you the ability to share a photo or video without posting it to your page. They will be in a special section for 24 hours, after which they will disappear forever. You can find them above the news. From a computer or laptop, they look like this:

And for users of the mobile application, like this:

The app was launched at the end of 2016. In the first month of its existence, only 15 million decided to use Stories, having watched the posts of friends or posted their photos and videos. From January to May 2017, growth continued: the number of people who took advantage of the innovation increased from 23 to 40 million. The sharp increase occurred in the spring, because it was then that the company took up development and promotion: users could get unique stickers for completing tasks and publishing materials.

Instagram Stories instructions for use

How to view Stories in VK

A person can post both a video and a photo. A movie cannot be longer than 12 seconds. The main purpose of the function is to share the highlights from life at the moment.

If you want to see the stories of friends, you must go to the “News” section. Before the news, you will see small circles with avatars of your friends or communities. If the circle is surrounded by a blue frame, the publication was not viewed by you, it is not circled – you have watched it.

To view the publication, click on one of them. You will see a small picture or photo posted by the user. Publications change quickly, if you want to view a photo, double-click on it with the left mouse button and hold. If you click once, one publication will change to another.

Important! Materials are arranged in a row depending on the time of publication: the earlier it was published, the closer the story will be to the beginning.

How to make and add a story on VKontakte

You cannot upload History to VK from a computer. Various methods can be found on the Internet, including the use of scripts and programs. But adding your own code can lead to account blocking. Third-party scripts, the purpose of which is to circumvent the rules of using the social network, are prohibited.

If you want to create a “disappearing” publication from your smartphone, you need to follow these steps.

Open the mobile application, menu and go to the “News” section. The stories of your friends will be located above the new entries. You can click on one of them to view. The principle is the same as on a personal computer: if the user’s avatar is circled in blue, you did not have time to see the publication, if not circled, it has already been viewed. In front of friends and communities, there will be a small circle labeled “History”. Click on it.

If you want to take a photo, click on the gray circle in the middle. It is possible to publish existing files from the gallery: click on the button on the right, select an image (photos and pictures saved on your phone no later than 24 hours ago) and click on the arrow.

To record a video, you need to press and hold the gray button. It can last 12 seconds at most. All functions are available, as well as when adding a photo, in addition, you can turn off the sound. To publish, just click on the corresponding arrow.

Cheat subscribers to groups in VK

What are the possibilities

When adding Stories, the user can take advantage of additional functions:

• while recording a short video or taking a snapshot, select one of the masks (in honor of various holidays, new collections of masks may be added);
• attach stickers… A wide variety of options are available, especially for the various holidays. For example, there are congratulations for February 23, they are shown in the screenshot. For each holiday, separate options are created that are above the other emoji. To add, choose the option you like and drag it to the desired location. To delete, just click and move the picture to the very bottom.
  

• Painting. You can draw anything in three different ways. 8 basic colors are available to the user in order to make the material brighter or to draw attention to a specific fragment.

• Add an inscription. Three different fonts can be used to create a lettering.

Before adding the image, you can save it to your gallery or send it to your friends.

How to find out who watched the story

To do this, just click on it. In the lower left corner there is an icon – a small eye, and next to it is a number – the number of users who viewed the publication. After clicking on it, you will find out who exactly saw the Stories.

Can stories be added by communities

After the success of self-destructing messages from users, the developers decided to provide this opportunity to the communities. In the spring of 2017, major partners, such as Match TV and Overheard, were the first to publish their stories. Now, most communities are actively using this feature for promotion.

Important! The function is available only to verified groups. Additionally, they can use the button for actions, but adding third-party ads is prohibited.

You can upload photos and videos up to 12 seconds long, the size should be standard – 720 by 1080. You can add stickers, inscriptions and drawings. Users can also share the message with their friends.

How to use Stories to promote

“Disappearing” photos and videos can be used to promote a group or your page. Recently, indirect advertising is gaining popularity: a photo of your website, online store, product, article or photo in History.

Stories can also be used to:

• Promotion to official communities and publics. Owners can talk about their work to avoid cluttering the tape. By showing the system from the inside, some working moments, you will add humanity to the page. Increased user confidence will lead to an increase in the number of subscribers, who can become regular customers over time.
• Promotion of a personal brand. Stories are ideal for deleting photos and videos 24 hours after posting. You can post reviews of satisfied customers, give advice or talk about a particular service. This will help you get closer to your subscribers, they will start to trust you and share your page with friends. This way you will be able to promote your services.
• For storytelling. This is one of the methods of conveying information to the audience through storytelling. You can come up with a storyline, take many photos, and gradually upload them to Stories. You can invite viewers to guess or come up with a sequel. Use storytelling to build credibility, improve understanding with your audience, and start influencing their subconscious.
• Promote products… Recently VK launched the sticker Goods. Thereby, in the History you can mark the itemthat is in your group. Before that, the product must be added to your bookmarks.

Conclusion

Stories on VK are an ideal way to find out the opinion of friends and subscribers, to interest them, to draw attention to the release of a new product or article on a blog. They can be supplemented with various stickers and lettering to further entice people. At the moment, the functionality is developed at a minimum level when compared with Stories in other social networks.