O ne Thing Instagram Stories Does Wrong
First, let me start by saying that Instagram Stories is fantastic. The team that pieced together the new addition deserves all the praise in the world. Their user interface is simple and intuitive. The functionality was minimalistically perfect from the moment of release. Features were kept slim and any bugs that might have bedeviled users were stamped out before attracting attention.
What I found most impressive was how the adoption rates look promising. Both my professional and personal feeds were well populated with people playing around with Instagram Stories. And the best testament to the new features success: most of those people are still using it.
So what’s that one thing Instagram did wrong? A lot of people have written criticism that Instagram Stories is a blatant rip off of Snapchat stories. And it is. Obviously. But so what? If it’s a feature people want, give it to them.
I don’t take issue with Instagram for copying a feature. What bothers me is how long it took to roll out. Snapchat released the original Stories feature in 2013. They’re currently on something like version 6.5 and have massive partnerships with companies like Rolling Stones, Comedy Central and ESPN.
Some of this is trailblazing Instagram may very well be able to take advantage of, but they’re so far behind. Compare Snapchat’s position in stories to the Instagram kudos I listed above. It’s laughable. The competitor Instagram happens to be racing has a head start and is moving at full speed. Instagram is jumping off the starting line 3 years late and has just now finished lacing up its shoes. This will not be a photo finish.
Nick Cotton is a project manager based out of Los Angeles, California. He’s got a background in the entertainment industry, and uses his talent at online messaging to extol the virtues of content marketing, interactive fiction and sentences measuring 280 characters or less.
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