Instagram remains one of the world’s most popular social media platforms in 2021. The Facebook-owned photo and video sharing app is a regular fix for roughly 1 billion active users worldwide. Photos are the most common type of content shared, but users overlooking Instagram’s video sharing capabilities miss out on quality opportunities to engage followers.

In this article, I’ll explain why adding video to your Instagram feed is a smart idea and will provide you with extra tips on how to best utilise Instagram’s various video sharing options.

Connecting with your audience is the main goal when posting on Instagram. On average, video content generates the most engagement of all Instagram posting options. Videos stand out in the sea of photos on Instagram’s feed and high-quality video is now accessible to anyone with a professional-grade camera embedded in their smartphone.

If you haven’t considered posting videos before, it’s time to do so. Online content is the future of entertainment and video rests at the epicentre of online’s strongest content generator, social media. By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82 per cent of all consumer internet traffic. I mean, just look at TikTok today!

Instagram has continually expanded its video sharing options, now with five types of video to choose from:

– Feed Instagram Video: videos of up to one minute posted on the Instagram feed.

– Instagram Video Stories: Vertical videos of up to fifteen seconds posted on your Instagram Story that disappear after 24 hours.

– IGTV Videos: longer-form videos—between fifteen seconds and ten minutes (sixty minutes if you’re verified)—that can be organised into series, just like on YouTube.

– Instagram Live Videos: live-streamed vertical videos that appear in your Story and can be saved to IGTV.

– Instagram Reels: shorter 15-30 second video clips that users can like and comment on.

Utilise each format to diversify your Instagram video content and provide variety in your feed for your followers.

Online video is traditionally formatted horizontally, but vertical videos are becoming more popular as users view content primarily on mobile devices. In fact, 57 per cent of video plays come from mobile devices and smartphone users hold their phones vertically 94 per cent of the time.

Storytelling grabs the emotional attention of your audience and allows them to connect with your message. Photos limit your ability to create a narrative that speaks to users. Capitalise on the exponential creative freedom video content offers and tell a story that resonates with your followers.

Engage the viewer within the first 3 seconds of your Instagram video. Attention spans are short and you need to give your audience a reason to keep watching. Instagram videos under two minutes long generate the most engagement, so keep it short and sweet.

Instagram is jam-packed with interactive features made to increase engagement. Instagram video Stories present an opportunity to create polls or open a Q&A session. These are just two of the many interactive features available to help bridge the gap between you and your followers.

You don’t have to be a professional videographer to create high-quality, engaging Instagram video content. User-friendly apps such as iMovie, Apple Clips, and InShot allow you to edit video footage straight on your phone. Others, like Adobe Premiere Rush and Magisto incorporate AI technology to automate editing.

Auto-generated cover photos are randomly selected from videos and often won’t capture the best shot. Instagram lets you pick a still from your video to use as the cover photo. After selecting a video to upload, tap the Cover tab in the bottom right corner of your screen. Scroll through your video and pick the image of your choice to set as the cover photo.

To ensure your video is accessible to individuals with hearing disabilities and those who don’t have sound on, add captions to your Instagram videos. IGTV gives you the option to auto-generate captions and there are apps to generate captions for other Instagram video formats.

A compelling narrative is a must to capture the attention of your audience, but without a call-to-action, they won’t know where to go when the video ends. Whether you’re trying to sell a product, gain more followers or increase engagement through comments, provide a clear call-to-action to guide your viewer to the next step.

Instagram provides analytics and insights to help understand your audience and create strategic video content around their preferences.

– Use follower demographics to determine your target audience and what times they’re most active on Instagram.

– View Reach statistics to see how many people are visiting your profile and which videos saw the most impressions over a period of time.

– Track engagement metrics including likes, comments, shares, and saves for all of your videos to see which format, style, and strategy is most effective.

Stated by Think Branded Media, now that you’re armed with tips and tricks to create high-quality, interactive Instagram video content it’s time to start creating. Consistency is key, so create a video content calendar that works for you and strategically use the different types of Instagram video posts to generate engagement with your audience and foster an interactive community of followers.