YouTube has announced that they are retiring their Stories format on June 26, 2023. Did you even know YouTube had Stories? Probably not! Regardless, this news is worth paying attention to in regard to the larger scheme of things because YouTube isn’t the only one! LinkedIn killed their Stories. Twitter dumped their Stories too. Could this be an indication of the overall decline in the Stories format across other major social networks?
We all know about Instagram Stories. Probably the most popular. Many have used them religiously for quite some time to promote upcoming events or to create highlights for their account. If you’ve been using Stories, it’s probably pretty clear that they aren’t getting the attention that they once used to. With the prominence of vertical, short-form video, Stories appear to have perhaps lost their thunder. This isn’t totally a bad thing. Stories take time. Reels take time. TikToks take time. So do Shorts. It’s becoming clear that prioritizing your time to focus on short-form videos rather than Stories could open up some much-needed bandwidth to maximize your efforts in these other areas where you see more success.
Right now, on Instagram, you’re going to move the needle much more by using Reels and Carousels. Even the single-image post is dying! If I were you, I’d move any focus you’ve given to any Stories formats and shift that energy toward vertical short-form and carousel formats (this includes Facebook albums) immediately. Over on YouTube, don’t forget that you’ve got a great opportunity to jumpstart your efforts by using newer formats. It’s clear that YouTube wants users to leverage their new Shorts format and their underutilized community posts. Together, these formats can help to breathe some much-needed life into the second-largest search engine in the world.
At the end of the day, I think it might be time to drop your Stories, across all networks. It’ll save you some time and allow you to focus on where the action is truly at in the ever-evolving digital marketing environment.
