What's the difference between Reels vs. Stories vs. Feeds?

“What's the difference between Reels vs Stories vs Feeds?"

What are all these terminologies "feeds", "stories", "reels"? What is the difference between them? Let's dive into that. This is something I do every time I have a new client and I run their ads. They ask "where do my ads go?" "Where exactly on all the social media platforms?" I hope this article clarifies the difference between all of them.

QUICK THREE ONE LINER:

🎬REELS ARE FOR VIDEOS (TIKTOK COPYCAT BECAUSE ZUCKERBERG WANTED TO BE LIKE TIKTOK AND REALIZED FEED & STORIES WERE NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE KIDS ADDICTED TO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM)

⏰STORIES ARE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SEE WHAT YOUR FRIENDS ARE UP TO THAT SPECIFIC DAY AND ALL POSTS ON STORIES GET DELETED WITHIN 24 HOURS.

📱FEEDS ARE WHERE PEOPLE GO TO CHECK UP ON EVERYONE'S UPDATES / POSTS OF THEIR FOLLOWERS (and ads)

Reels (Videos)

Pros:

• High Engagement: Reels are designed for quick, catchy content, which often leads to more interaction and virality.

• Creative Freedom: They allow users to create short-form videos, leveraging music, effects, and trends.

• Reach: Instagram often promotes Reels more aggressively in the Explore section, giving users a chance to reach a larger audience beyond just followers.

• Platform Trend: With the rise of TikTok, short videos are now a dominant content format, allowing users to tap into that trend.

Cons:

• Pressure to Be Creative: Because Reels are centered around trends, creativity and staying relevant can feel like pressure for users.

• Temporary Interest: With so many trends constantly evolving, videos can become outdated quickly, leading to shorter lifespan for content.

• Overwhelming Algorithm: Sometimes, the algorithm prioritizes Reels over other content types, which can feel frustrating if you're more of a photo or text-based content creator.

Stories

Pros:

• Instant Sharing: Stories are perfect for sharing real-time content, giving users a way to post casual, spontaneous moments.

• Fleeting Content: The 24-hour lifespan creates a sense of urgency, encouraging more immediate engagement.

• Less Pressure: Because Stories are temporary, there’s less pressure to perfect the content, making it more authentic and casual.

• Easy Interaction: Stories allow for quick feedback with stickers, polls, and direct replies, making interactions more interactive.

Cons:

• Short-Lived Content: Stories disappear quickly, which can be frustrating if you want to keep important moments available longer.

• Overuse: Posting too many Stories can overwhelm followers, leading to decreased engagement.

• Limited Visibility: While Stories are prominently displayed at the top of the app, they can sometimes be ignored, especially if the user follows many people.

Feeds (Posts)

Pros:

• Permanent Content: Posts remain on your profile, making them an ideal space for showcasing important or personal content that you'd like to keep visible long-term.

• Organized Aesthetic: You can curate your feed to create a cohesive, visually appealing brand or personal profile.

• Discovery: The feed is where people go to explore new accounts, see updates from followers, and discover targeted ads that are relevant to their interests.

• Consistent Updates: Posts are a stable way to share new content and provide updates that don’t disappear quickly.

Cons:

• Algorithm Control: The feed's visibility is often controlled by Instagram’s algorithm, meaning your posts may not always be shown to all your followers.

• Pressure to Curate: Unlike Stories, posts often require more effort to curate and plan for, especially if you want to maintain a specific aesthetic or quality.

• Over-Saturation: With the volume of content in feeds, posts can easily get lost in the noise, especially if not supported by engagement tactics like hashtags or promotion.

1. Feeds:

Instagram Feed:

• Purpose: A place to share permanent posts such as photos, carousels (multiple images or videos), and captions.

• Content Type: High-quality photos, videos, artwork, product shots, etc.

• Visibility: Content appears in a grid on your profile and can be liked, commented on, and shared.

• Interaction: Users can engage with posts by liking, commenting, saving, and sharing.

Facebook Feed:

• Purpose: Similar to Instagram, this is the main area where posts, updates, photos, and videos appear from your friends, groups, and pages you follow.

• Content Type: A mix of personal updates, shared content, articles, photos, videos, and advertisements.

• Visibility: Posts appear in a continuous stream on your home page, with options to interact through likes, comments, shares, and reactions.

• Interaction: Similar engagement features as Instagram but with more extensive use of reactions (like, love, wow, etc.).

2. Stories:

Instagram Stories:

• Purpose: Temporary content that disappears after 24 hours. Great for sharing behind-the-scenes moments, daily updates, or more spontaneous content.

• Content Type: Photos, short videos, text-based posts, polls, questions, GIFs, and interactive elements like stickers.

• Visibility: Viewable at the top of the app, represented by circular profile icons.

• Interaction: Viewers can react with emojis, reply directly via messages, or interact with polls, questions, etc.

Facebook Stories:

• Purpose: Similar to Instagram Stories but on Facebook. Used for temporary content that disappears after 24 hours.

• Content Type: Photos, short videos, and text-based posts with interactive elements (polls, questions, reactions).

• Visibility: Displayed at the top of the Facebook app in a similar circular format.

• Interaction: Users can respond with reactions or direct messages.

3. Reels:

Instagram Reels:

• Purpose: Short-form, highly engaging videos (up to 90 seconds) that allow for creative editing, effects, and music.

• Content Type: Trendy, fun videos with a focus on music, memes, challenges, and educational content.

• Visibility: Reels are showcased in a separate section within the app and can be discovered through the "Explore" page.

• Interaction: Viewers can like, comment, share, and save. Reels are designed to reach a larger audience beyond your followers.

Facebook Reels:

• Purpose: Similar to Instagram Reels but native to Facebook. It allows for short, engaging videos.

• Content Type: Short videos with music, effects, and trends, similar to Instagram’s format.

• Visibility: Reels can be viewed through a dedicated section on Facebook and shared in the feed.

• Interaction: Viewers can like, comment, and share the Reels.

Other resources to help you get started with blogging