Your Guide to Instagram Video for Marketing

Stephanie Trembath

In 2013, Instagram launched video sharing to provide users with enhanced storytelling capabilities. Rivaling visual apps such as Meerkat, Periscope, and Vine, Instagram video provides IGers with the ability to produce videos by making it easy and accessible to shoot, edit and share 15-second videos.

Instagram video is optimized for users to shoot within the app based on the traditional 640x640px sharing dimension with the option to shoot multiple clips and edit them together, or shoot one continues clip to create anywhere from a 3-15 second video.

Video is a great way to extend the storytelling experience for your brand. Below are some of the key features, apps, accessories, and insights you can use as your guide to Instagram video for marketing.

Key Features of  Using Instagram Video

• Choose from 13 preset filters to edit your photo
  
• Cinema feature to stabilize your video clips (iOS only)
  
• Share your video on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or embed on your blog/website

When Instagram was released in 2013, Simply Measured studied the way brands use Instagram, and discovered that Instagram videos are creating two times more engagement than Instagram photos. The study focused on Lululemon (one of the first companies to use Instagram video that boasts over 1m followers) and found that Lululemon’s Instagram videos receive roughly seven times as many comments as their photos.

How to Create an Instagram Video

Digital influencer and Instagram aficionado, Sunny Lenarduzzi shares her top 5 favorite apps to help brands engage their audience. Watch her tutorial to see how Sunny creates unique Instagram video content by adding audio, special effects, unique formatting, and filters.

Latergramme’s Tips to Creating Instagram Video

Capture more footage with camera accessories

• The mini adjustable tripod holder that comes with a light-weight tripod stand and sturdy cell phone holder.
  Pros: Affordable, good starter tripod if you only want to shoot with a cell phone.
  Cons: The head that holds your cell phone doesn’t have much mobility, which limits the scope of the video.
  
• The cell phone tripod adapter for Samsung and iOS devices.
  Pros: Slim and portable, and adjusts to fit most mobile devices.
  Cons: Rubber tabs that hold the phone in place are sometimes not secure, phone wobbles if you move the head too fast.
  
• 60-inch tripod stand
  Pros: Really good price. Supports video cameras, still cameras, and cell phone adapters so you can shoot with just about anything.
  Cons: Because it’s made of plastic, this tripod cannot hold anything that exceeds 6.6lbs, which may mean your camera flash or accessories.
  
• The Glif cell phone mount that screws into a tripod stand.
  Pros: Super stable, phone screws into the clip and can be used on any tripod case or placed on a flat surface.
  Cons: Only compatible with iOS 4 and 4S devices.

Turn images into short gifs or videos

Burstio App turns your burst-mode images into short movies or GIFS. Available for iOS 5/6 and 6 Plus users only, Burstio costs $ 1.19 and takes burst photos with your camera to let you create custom GIFS or short videos to share to Instagram.

Use iMovie to speed up or slow down specific video frames

With iMovie ’11, Apple users have the ability to slow down or speed up select video frames to emphasize a point in the video. This feature is great for Instagram as it lets you share more of your story in a short period to keep within Instagram’s 15-second video length.

Most-Watched Instagram Video Creators

Instagram leans heavily on creators who’re good at keeping audiences entertained; these stats are relevant as of July 2015 and show that the top Instagram videographers are entertainers, sports brands, and beauty gurus. Not surprising, given that entertainers and sports stars really know how to work a camera and tend to have film crews dedicated to producing high-quality videos.

Here are the top 10 most-watched Instagram video stars with @nickyminaj, @taylorswift and @arianagrande setting the bar high for female singers.

• Nicky Minaj (42M Views)
  
• Black Jaguar (41M Views)
  
• The Rock (38M Views)
  
• FC Barcelona (37M Views)
  
• NBA (36M Views)
  
• Huda Beauty (35M Views)
  
• Taylor Swift (28M Views)
  
• Ariana Grande (27M Views)
  
• Justin Bieber (25M Views)
  
• Nial Horan (24M Views)

Original article published on the Latergramme Blog.

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