If you ask any teenager or someone in their early 20's how they like to receive their social media content, a lot of them will probably say stories. Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, Snapchat Stories, and even YouTube already released their own version of stories. Telling a good story on social media seems simple, but it's a lot more complicated than it might seem. There are a million questions going through your head; what do I put out? How do I get people to stay connected to my story? How do I grab attention? All of these questions are very valid and are not easy to answer because most of it relates to where you are in your business and your industry. However, the good news is, when creating stories, none of it really matters.

Are you obsessed with video? If you are not using video to brand yourself on social media, you need to start! YouTube, Facebook, SnapChat and Instagram have all come up with video options that could lead to very lucrative opportunities for your business. In 2019, 80% of all internet content will be video, and as a small business that is trying to build your brand, that's an important statistic to know. This isn't getting on a camera, posting a video to Instagram and hoping you will go viral. It's creating content that you know will create the buzz you need, and the content that people are searching for. Instagram has created a solution to this problem; IGTV. It's spontaneous video combined with planned engagement strategy will get your small business to the next level.

Selfies, models, celebrities, and pictures of food is what most people think of when they think of Instagram. Beyond the #notfilters and the avocado roses is a useful tool that can build brands on one of the most frequented sites on the internet. Instagram has 800 million users and about 500 million are daily active users. In addition, most of the users are between the ages 13-30, and even more important 73% bought a product or service they saw on Instagram. Creating content on Instagram isn't just about applying filters, hashtags and expecting likes. It's all about targeting your audience, creating a demographic, and cleverly putting your product or service in the forefront without being in your followers face.

In this age of streaming content, everything can and must be recorded, uploaded, and liked at a customer or users will on social media. While streamed and mostly unsaved content apps like SnapChat have been a popular tool for millennials and Gen Z'ers alike, it also has a growing user base for older generations as well. One of these apps that is gaining traction among the older generation is Instagram. Ever since Instagram was bought out by Facebook five years ago, Instagram has exploded in popularity. Small businesses of all generations have embraced Instagram as more food and lifestyle bloggers discover their favorite cupcake spot.