Social media platforms have been using stories for a while — the popular content that disappears after 24 hours. For Twitter, these are called fleets, similar to “fleeting” Instagram stories. Twitter introduced fleets back in November, and users can now use stickers for Twitter fleets.
These are images or words that add emotion or a reaction to your fleet. This new element on the app is probably just the beginning of the visual features Twitter will roll out for its fleets.
Keep reading while we compare fleet stickers to features on other social media platforms, and get ready to brighten up your fleets with stickers.
Why Should You Use Stickers For Twitter Fleets?
Stickers are a quick way to say a lot. An emoji adds emotion to a story or post without saying the words. It’s a conversation with stickers. Social media users have a lot pulling on their attention. If you are able to grab their attention, stickers help express the message quicker. Here are some common ways to use stickers for fleets.
Eye-Catching
Stickers add visual attraction to help grab a user’s attention before they’ve heard the message. The sticker may tell them that you are announcing something exciting before you’ve gotten a sentence out in your video fleet.
Share the Topic
Stickers give the audience an idea of the content. For example, If you created a post about LGBTQ, and you use a sticker that shows that, you may capture someone’s interest right away and they will stay on your fleet to see what you have to say.
Your Own Reaction
You can react to your own fleet with a sticker. If your fleet is about a mistake or a funny fail, you can add a sticker that gives a casual and funny reaction to it. This gives your viewers an emotion at the start of your fleet by understanding the way you reacted to it.
Animated Stickers
Most of the fleet stickers are animated. If your fleet is a picture or flyer, the sticker can add some movement to an otherwise still visual. This helps to grab the viewer’s attention when they’re quickly flipping through their fleets.
New Ideas For Content
Stickers can also give you ideas for new content as you search for different themes. New features help to spark new creativity for a brand’s content.
Call to Action
You can also direct the audience with a call to action. If you add a sticker that asks for a follow, you don’t have to use space asking for that in your fleet. The more you can pack into a small amount of time, the more engaging your content will be.
These graphics help grab the audience so they stay for the fleet. Of course, you can always go overboard. Adding a sticker can draw the audience in. Adding five stickers will overwhelm your audience. They won’t be able to see the fleet with the stickers in the way of the original content. They will be off your fleet in a quick moment.
Story Features on Other Social Media Platforms
Stories are very popular across social media apps and contribute to users spending so much time on the platforms. Since stories and fleets are only available for 24 hours, people can post their “fleeting” thoughts without worrying about if they want them on their profile feed forever.
Instagram has reported that users under the age of 25 spend more than 32 minutes a day on Instagram. Stories are content that holds a user longer than a typical post. They include videos, pictures, and of course, stickers and emojis.
Stories can be found across the bar at the top of Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Linkedin, Snapchat and Instagram. All of these have stickers you can add to your story.
Stories are also on Youtube, simply tap the user’s profile picture and it will take you to any stories they have for the day. A colorful ring around the profile picture tells you that there are new stories to watch. This is also the case on Twitter where you can access fleets by tapping the user’s profile picture.
Across social media platforms, there are stickers with expressions, trending topics, slang and calls to action, just like the new stickers for fleets. Even Linkedin, a site for professionals, uses fun stickers in its stories.
Stickers Enhance User Experience
Since stickers can tell a user what the fleet is about before they start listening to the video, they help users get to the content they want to see. They may come across a sticker that says breaking news and it makes them stop. When a brand is sharing new information, stickers help let the viewers know.
Stickers help the audience by directing them to the intended subject, emotion or call to action. When scrolling through dozens of fleets, stickers make their favorite content more fun.
Instagram stories have stickers that can add Q&As, charity donations, countdowns, quizzes, and polls. Their sticker feature is more interactive than what is available for Twitter right now.
Twitter is rather late to the game with stories, but with its fleets just coming out in November 2020, we’re likely to see more additions to the feature. Stickers may help encourage more users to try out the fleet feature by making it a fun experience.
How to Add Stickers to Your Fleets
Adding stickers to your fleets will feel familiar if you are already using stickers on Snapchat and Instagram. When you create a fleet, you have the option to add a sticker by tapping the smiley face icon on the bottom row of your screen.
You will then see a collection of Twitter’s stickers and twemojis. Twemojis is Twitter’s word for emojis.
You can also use the search bar to pull up GIFs sourced from Tenor and Giphy.
When you are done, you will click the fleet button in the top right corner to post.
Since Fleets are only available for 24 hours, users have fun with them. You’re less likely to overthink the content. Fleets are a great place to try something new. Adding stickers to Twitter fleets is another way to express yourself, and it will be gone tomorrow. Try out the new stickers for Twitter fleets and you just might grab a few more follower’s attention.
