The biggest obsession of our life is jewellery. Gorgeous gradient rainbow setting necklaces, dazzling rings with a sparkle, wooden hoop earrings and diamond ear climbers make us go weak in the knees. We love ogling at fine jewellery and when the platform to do so is the unconstrained Instagram stories (our secret second obsession!), it is the best feeling ever. The question this beckons is: Are you utilising this unrestrained social media feature to get the most out of campaigns for your jewellery brand?

Ramya Nagesh, national planning head at the digital agency, Glitch says, “The idea of using different formats — Stories and Feed is to make content more engaging and also build content that’s more native to the format. While the brand tonality, look and feel will all stay constant, both formats can achieve different things.”

Let’s start from the beginning for the uninitiated; Instagram Stories are a fun tool for photo and video that are visible only for 24 hours. It is a friendly platform with interesting stickers and filters to add a lot of spontaneity and spark that you can use to expand your brand’s social narrative. Unsurprisingly then, it is the marketing trend you can’t afford to miss out on.

“There is no better way to reach out to the global market, to put your brand out there and leverage on the fact that there is no mediator in between. This relationship is only between you and your audience across the world. It helps to un-tap potential markets, understand what the world wants and develop and grow accordingly,” says Tarang Arora, creative director at Amrapali Jewels. It is essential to note that more than 70 per cent Instagrammers follow a business. Instagram Stories appear in a bar at the top of your feed and the profile photo gets a colourful ring around when there’s something new to see.

Recently the ‘Digital IQ Index Watches & Jewelry Global’ measured the digital competence of 83 watch and jewellery companies based on their digital presence, engagement and market penetration in 2018. Cartier, Tiffany and Bulgari topped the chart. According to the survey, 97 per cent of all brands posted at least once on Instagram stories, with 13 per cent creating shoppable stories.

“Instagram Stories allows you to showcase a side of the brand that your followers don’t usually get to see on your feed. The ephemeral nature of stories enable you to feature content that looks less produced, like behind-the-scenes footage. Also, you can add an additional level of interactivity through sliders and polls, which creates excitement and increases engagement,” suggests Deepika Sabharwal Tewari, Associate Vice President for Titan’s jewellery division Tanishq that posts at least three times a week.

#tools to use

Instagram Stories’ features many ways to engage audience — there are polls, sliders, quizzes and much more to experiment with. And it is good to know that Cartier and Tiffany alone are not killing it on Instagram Stories. You can too; the key is to learn how to leverage the latest features and keep posting.

Tewari adds, “We largely use sliders and polls in order to keep the interactions simple. During our activation campaign in February, we used this interactivity to gauge audience preferences and affinities. In one Insta Story, for example, we asked our users to pick between studs and hoops. At the end of the day, the verdict was in and we gained an invaluable insight into our audience.” This is how winning brands are optimising content. It is essential to put together stories that are engaging and adapting for your specific audience.

A great way to closely interact with interested Instagrammers is to publish behind-the-scenes footage. Instagram stories are increasingly being used for event coverage and building aspiration for jewellery as well. Sliders asking people how much they love a product is a great indicator of what is doing well and what isn’t.

“They constantly keep updating tools. I love adding GIFs — they are innovative and funny and give a light note to your content while effectively delivering the message across,” says Arora. Dabbling with quizzes and questions for upcoming endeavours keep interest levels high. “Quiz can help build understanding of the brand and products. The ‘Question’ feature can be used for AMAs — to understand and answer questions or gauge responses on a personal basis and poll to understand what people like more and create simple interactions,” comments Nagesh.

With Instagram Story, brands agree that they feel more connected to the consumer and Let’s make your story sing! vice versa. Additionally, it is the sharpest tool in town to help new jewellery brands create their strategic position in the mind of the prospective buyer, talk about new collections from the very time of conception, share first-looks of prominent collaborations, detail upcoming pop ups and events, and of course, get direct customer feedback on anything and everything of essence to the brand.

“Say for instance there is an event occurring that day and you want to feature it on your page, but you are unsure of how to integrate it into the flow of your feed. Instagram stories are the perfect tool to include this content,” says Tewari. She adds, “Twenty-four hours is an added advantage: You don’t have to worry about people going back and seeing a product that’s discontinued. You have complete control on the narrative and can get greater interaction from your audience.”