Before I started my own businesses I used to work in the Irish film industry, prior to that I studied video and TV in college. This makes me a bit of a motion picture fanatic. When Instagram introduced video to their service back in 2013 I was delighted. I’d been playing with Twitter’s Vine app but that only gave me six seconds. Instagram gave me 15 and filters.
2 years on I’m still rarely using Instagram video and from the look of my Instagram feed neither are many others. But I saw this study today. Instagram video only accounts for 8.3% of posts but gets 11.6% of all comments. This must mean it’s worthwhile. Maybe it’s time to look again.
Here’s my quick guide to creating Instagram video. It first appeared as part of an Instagram for business lesson for We Teach Social:
How to create video via Instagram
It’s really easy to create Instagram video . You can shoot one long video or shoot a sequence of shots that show a process or tell a story.
To shoot a video click on the camera icon as if you were going to take or upload a photo.
Instead of selecting an image or hitting the shutter button click the video icon on the right-hand side.
Hold your thumb or finger on the red button for as long as you want to shoot video for. As soon as you remove your thumb you will stop recording. You can now point your camera at something else and take another shot.
Repeat this process until you are finished. Now click ‘next’ at the top of the screen.
You can now select filters just like when you use images. The filters for video are slightly different to those for images.
When you are happy with your video click ‘next’, caption your video and post as usual.
Because of the start-stop function of Instagram video it’s easy to create short animated video. I love this one from Gap. (for context Vine is a video app from Twitter that is very similar and was launched prior to Instagram video). This is something even a small business could create.
There’s a challenge for you!
https://instagram.com/p/ayuEy-j9uL/
What works best with Instagram video?
Video auto plays in the Instagram feed, this means that people don’t need to click to watch it. However the video remains silent unless clicked. Remember most people will watch your video silently so make it easy to understand without sound.
The BBC are really good at Instagram video with captions. The 15 second video snippets of new stories are just long enough to tell the story.
https://instagram.com/p/4BvtwAuj31/
If you want to add text to your video clips try Text on Video for iPhone or Instacap for Android.
Hyperlapse
Hyperlapse is a cool app from Instagram that allows you to shoot high speed video. This is a fantastic tool for business. You can show slow processes fast. For example, if you want to share a how to recipe, shoot it in hyperlapse and you can shrink it to 15 seconds.
It’s also a great way to give people a tour of your office. Here’s an example from econsultancy.
https://instagram.com/p/saOFHwIoVL/
And one from The Whitehouse.
https://instagram.com/p/sOUuLoQijc/
Other video tools
Bubble Frame App (iPhone)
There are always new tools emerging for creating Instagram video. This one from KrishnaDe stood out on my timeline. A really interesting video created using BubbleFrame App.
https://instagram.com/p/36Do-vD55s/
The small movements are enough to make the video stand out in the feed without feeling the time suck of clicking play.
I haven’t tried it myself yet but I’m looking forward to giving it a try.
Flipagram
The nice thing about Flipagram is that you don’t have to create video at all. You can let Flipagram make a video for you from photos.
You have the option of choosing photos from your phone, your Instagram account or your Facebook account.
You can also add a caption to each image in your Flipagram so it makes it easy to tell the story.
Flipagram will then make a video from the images. Here’s one I created from photos taken at a recent Instameet at the Irish National Stud.
https://instagram.com/p/4NUt8Gy3hm/
And another that I made to illustrate a PicMonkey tutorial:
https://instagram.com/p/3uiga4y3mQ/
One note for Flipagram. There is an option to add music to your grams. However if you upload video with this music to Instagram you are infringing copyright of the music. This can result in you having your video removed or worse you receiving a bill for the use of the music.
There are lots more fun videos you can play with. My advice is to take it a few at a time. Work to create some really eye-catching videos demonstrating your product, sharing tips, showing aspects of your day. People will enjoy following your stories this way.
Have you used video on Instagram? What sort of results have you seen? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
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