Since Instagram launched Stories about seven months ago, the program has been incredibly successful. More than 150 million people are using Instagram Stories each day, and users engage with the tool, too. 20 percent of Instagram Stories get a direct message or response from viewers. In fact, because of its near-instant success, Instagram is already testing Story ads with select companies.

Because the Instagram Stories feature was so well received, Facebook — which owns Instagram sees more potential in Stories. Now, they're coming to Facebook.

You may have already seen Story elements popping up in your Facebook feed or Messenger app. This month, Facebook has integrated Stories into its platform in two significant ways. Read up on the changes below.

Meet Messenger Day

Early in March, Facebook launched Messenger Day. Yes, this feature is essentially Stories within Messenger.

You click the camera, which is smack dab in the middle of the Messenger menu bar, and take a photo or video. You can add text, doodles and more than 5,000 frames, effects and stickers to your image. When you're ready, you can share it with a particular person, group or add it to your day. You can also modify who sees the content in your day.

24 hours later, poof, the content disappears.

Introducing Facebook Stories


The launch of Messenger Day paved the path for Facebook's bigger announcement of Stories on Facebook. Starting March 28, Stories have begun to appear directly under the search bar and above the News Feed in the Facebook app. Stories from your closest friends and contacts will appear first.

Again, the functionality of the Stories works similarly to Messenger Day and Instagram Stories. Except, on Facebook, all your friends can view your Stories. You can't, at this point, filter who sees what.

Adding Stories before its News Feed is a major shift for Facebook.

"The way people have been prompted to share for 10 years, it's very text-centric," said Connor Hayes, a Facebook Camera product manager, in a TechCrunch interview. "Even when you look at the way we've done this on mobile, you can see half of the screen is still taken up by a place for you to type text."

Now, with Facebook Stories, Facebook wants to shift that. With Stories, you "let your camera do the talking," as shown in the promo video above.

Over the last few years, communication has gotten increasingly visual. With this latest move, Facebook is embracing that mentality — and sees it as a business model for the future.

What does this mean to you and your business?

Video often performs best on Facebook already, and with Stories, that effect is only going to be amplified. Users want to see, not hear, from you. They want more images, more videos and to a degree, more authenticity — all of which can be easily achieved through Facebook Stories.

And if Stories on Instagram is any indicator, this new change could have an enormous impact on the types of content your brand regularly creates.

After all, the best way to reach and connect with your users is to deliver content they want.