Facebook testing features that let Pages archive and share Stories

Facebook’s Stories Archive feature for Pages.

Facebook is testing new ways for Pages to archive and share Stories. Marketing Land first became aware of the new features after social media consultant Matt Navarra Tweeted an image of them on Tuesday.

“We’re always looking to bring more Stories features to Pages on Facebook, like Stories Archive and the ability for people to share a Page’s story. We will continue to learn and iterate as we test more features like these,” said a Facebook spokesperson in an email to Marketing Land.

Why you should care

The new feature allowing Page Stories to be shared by other users could potentially expand the organic reach of a brand’s content beyond its followers.

“As advertisers, News Feed posts and ads have had sharing abilities for years. Now, with Stories in the mix, having this popular new placement will be beneficial to us as our audiences will easily be able to share our content, thus, amplifying reach, visibility, and brand trust,” said Akvile DeFazio, president of the social media advertising agency AKvertise, “When people deem content share-worthy, it eases some of the heavy lifting we do as advertisers.”

With the Stories archive feature, brands will be able access to their Stories after the 24-hour display period ends, an extra bonus that comes with many benefits.

“Archiving this ephemeral content will prolong its shelf life, which will be helpful in keeping historical data, strategizing future posts based on past performance, and will give us the ability to repurpose content as we test it with new audiences.”

The archive feature is listed under the Stories tab in a Page’s Publish Tools menu, and the ability to turn on sharing for Stories is under the “General” tab in the Page settings menu.

More on the news

• Facebook opened Stories to Pages more than a year ago, but the only rolled out Stories ads globally last September.
• In December, Facebook rolled out Stories to Groups globally, giving group admins controls to monitor the content and members contributing to the Stories.
• During Facebook’s earnings call for the second quarter of 2018, COO Sheryl Sandberg said the company would be investing in growing and promoting Stories, and that Facebook was very optimistic about monetizing its Stories content.