Instagram Video: How You Can Use This Short Form Now

5 Actionable Instagram Video Marketing Tips

Instagram VideoWhat can you experience in 15 seconds?

One television ad but do they get viewed?

Or you can view an Instagram video. It has the benefit of being easy to create and consume via a mobile device.

It’s so easy to create that during Instagram Video’s first 8 hours, over a year’s worth of video was uploaded; in other words, you’d need sit a year straight to watch all of the videos consecutively.

Instagram short video – Long term marketing benefits

Instagram Video

 

Short form video is the new black of content marketing.

Consider how to use Instagram Video to support your content marketing objectives. 

Instagram Short Form Video

Instagram’s videos provide 15 seconds of content more than twice as long as a Twitter Vine. Additionally, there’s basic editing and the ability to upload video from an iPhone.

40% of the 1,000 top most shared Instagram videos were made by 80 brands based on results from Unruly Media during a one month period.

Short form video findability matters. If your target audience can’t find your content, it’s useless. Instagram short video findability comes from 2 major sources:

  • 90% of Instagram Video shares occur on Facebook.
  • Instagram has a 150 million user installed base. While not all of these users have the video version of Instagram, it doesn’t need to convert its base to testing the platform.

MTV was the most shared brand on Instagram Video. MTV had 84 videos in the top 1,000 and attracted 134,110 total shares across Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. Since MTV is the original music video company, this is no surprise.

The most shared branded video on Instagram was Peanuts’ Snoopygram with 26,962 shares.Instagram Video - Snoopy

Like any other form of content, short Instagram Videos require a strategy that’s integrated with your overall marketing, social media and content marketing plans.

5 Actionable Instagram Video marketing tips

What does your 15 second Instagram Video content offering have to provide to inform and/or entertain your prospect ultimately moving them into the buying process? (Remember that Instagram photos support sales.) Here are 5 actionable Instagram Video marketing tips to help you create stellar content. (Want more help? Here are 10 video content elements with questions to help guide your video marketing.)

1. Make your products into Instagram Video stars.

Just as you use Instagram to spotlight your products in photos, create micro-video content around them. Think video celebrity to offer the basic content types.

  • Provide product information
  • Demonstrate how to use your products.
  • Show how to style your products.

2. Take advantage of seasonal and other cultural events to develop timely Instagram Video content.

  • Incorporate short video into your editorial calendar. Plan for major promotional events.
  • Create videos at live events and conferences. Have a roving videographer to capture highlights and interview thought leaders.

3. Put your employees on camera with Instagram Video.

Let your prospects, customers and the public see your business from the inside.

  • Create short video interviews with your senior executives. In the pre-Internet days, I created talking heads videos of senior executives that took days to create and cost about $10,000.
  • Give a visual tour of your business. Include every aspect of your production and delivery.

4. Create an Instagram Video mini-series.

Make a series of short videos around a story line related to your 360° brand. Be the director of your brand’s mini-series. Think “House of Cards” and “Orange Is The New Black”.

  • Create a series of video vignettes that in aggregate tell an overarching brand story.
  • Develop a continuous narrative that flows from one video to the next. Use a consistent set of characters associated with your brand that your audience can recognize from video to video.
  • Storyboard your videos before diving in. This allows you to create other forms of content at the same time such as photographs, presentations

5. Get your customers into the Instagram Video act.

Bear in mind that only 1% of your audience will create content. Therefore make it easy to encourage your prospects, customers and fans to participate.

  • Include a video corner in your retail or conference booth to capture your prospects and customers. Make it fun with costumes and props.
  • Get customer permission to capture experiential offerings such as a tour.
  • Run a contest to motivate your target audience to show their creative side.

 

With regard to Instagram short form video, you need to create great content and distribute it well. Of course as with any social media or content marketing, you need to track your results.

Have you used Instagram’s short form video? If so, what was your experience? How did it compare to Vine?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen


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