Since launching in August 2016, Instagram Stories has been a major threat to Snapchat's original 'Stories' feature. Instagram itself now has over 700 million monthly active users and its Stories feature has proved popular, reaching 200 million daily actives within eight months, surpassing Snapchat in user adoption. In terms of popularity and interest, Instagram Stories has been two times more popular than Snapchat Stories according to Google Trends, while the growth of Instagram has been attributed to a massive 82% decline in user growth on Snapchat.
And while Instagram Stories' traction with a broader range of users is a key indicator of its success and viability, Mediakix conducted a month-long study evaluating whether top Snapchat influencers were also posting more often to Instagram Stories, and to surface trends and insights among its power users. Top social media influencers post on the platforms and channels providing the best growth and engagement opportunities - if the leading Snapchatters are indeed posting more on Instagram Stories, then these trends could spell trouble for Snap Inc.
Throughout the study, we found that more stories were posted on Instagram than on Snapchat in 25 of 30 days. Of the twelve influencers examined, eight posted more stories on Instagram than on Snapchat. Finally, on average, influencers are posting 25% more on Instagram Stories than on Snapchat Stories, averaging 6.6 stories a day on Instagram and 5.3 on Snapchat.
These results have significant implications for marketing on Snapchat, and influencer marketing as an industry (influencer marketing on Instagram alone is to reach $1 billion in 2017). With content creators and social media influencers favoring Instagram Stories, marketers should expect that even more audiences will follow suit. As Instagram Stories continues to outstrip Snapchat Stories for engagement, views, and discoverability, marketers will need to follow user and creator trends to capitalize on and implement successful social media "stories" campaigns.