In late June, Instagram (which was acquired by Facebook for a cool $1 billion last year) announced an exciting new feature: video. An obvious response to Twitter’s video-sharing app, Vine, Instagram’s new video feature has tons of potential for brands and businesses.
I am a huge fan of Instagram video, not only for personal use but also for marketing purposes. Here’s why I think Instagram video is a great marketing platform:
- Creative features: Allowing users to record 15 seconds of video (as opposed to Vine’s 6 seconds), Instagram video offers more room for creativity. The app allows you to edit and delete video segments, choose from 13 different filters and even select a cover image for your video. Plus, it has a stabilizer feature to eliminate the ‘shaky camera’ effect.
- Easily integrated: Sharing your Instagram videos across social networks is as easy as sharing your photos. To share videos on other social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.) simply hit “share” when you’re posting your video and select the network(s) you’d like your video to appear on.
- No set up required: Vine requires you to set up an account in order to share videos. Instagram on the other hand, allows you to share video with your already existing followers.
- Share “exclusive” content: People will only follow your brand on Instagram if they have something to gain by doing so. With Instagram video, you can showcase a variety of content—behind the scenes footage, lifestyle clips, special announcements, etc.—giving your fans access to “exclusive” material.
- New ways to engage viewers: The new video feature on Instagram gives you plenty of opportunities to engage your followers—you could ask your followers to post videos displaying how they’re using your brand, address your fans in a video or create an Instagram video contest.
I’m curious as to how the new Instagram feature will develop. Will more advanced editing tools be released? Will video become more popular than photos? 15 seconds is also the length of a pre-roll advertisement—will there be opportunities for targeted ads?
Since Instagram video’s release, the company’s shares have been on a steady incline (while Vine’s have dropped dramatically). Clearly, I’m not the only Instagram video groupie.