Instagram Video Marketing – What it Means For Your Business

A well-shot video can enliven a still life story into a vibrant moving picture that can play with your emotions. Instagram used this very feature for the first time in 2013 to gather 130 million people today. Ever since, filming and sharing videos have become much easier.

60 seconds! Yes, it is within 60 seconds that you have to present before your audience a visual story and win over their hearts too. Sounds tricky? Well adhering to a few steps can make it simpler.

Create Magic with Your Videos

First thing first! Creativity is the key. Unleash all your creative channels and shoot the best video you can. Plan and visualize each shot, each angle, and how everything will build up into a story. You need to know what message you want to send to the audience. Finally like every story it should have a beginning, middle and an end.

The first few seconds of a video are crucial to capturing the audience’s attention and enticing them to watch further. Playing with movement, looping videos, filming underwater or in the snow or even while riding can be quite interesting. All you will need is a waterproof case, head mount, or bike phone mount. Creating a miniseries by linking the videos with a unique hashtag can create a buzz too.

Filming was never Easier

The best part with InstaVids is that you can not only shoot your video on the Instagram app but can also use your phone camera, camera from other apps or even DSLRs. In these, you can arrange the clips in sequence before editing and uploading. Videos can even be transferred from your computer or DSLR to your phone by using iflash drive, EyeFi SD Card, Dropbox or iCloud to upload on Instagram.

However, when taking clips the sides usually get cropped in InstaVids. So you should envision this and adjust the camera accordingly. Create videos especially for Instagram instead of chopping a longer video that you created earlier.

You can also shoot a video and save it in your Instagram to upload later. Once the video is ready, put the phone in airplane mode and try to upload the video. This will fail and the video will automatically be saved in the stream of failed uploads. You can upload it later by clicking on the reload button. But the video might be deleted if you turn off the phone or close the app screen immediately.

Effects and Filters

A cinematic and smooth transition between clips is a must to get a flawless and interesting video. Various apps like iMovie (iOS), Case in Point and We Video (Android and iOS) are available, to fill in the gaps between clip transitions. Another creative way is to use an object like a piece of wood, a rock or a book or any other object at the end of the clip. Shoot till you reach half the length of the object and check how far it is from the camera. In the next clip start from where you left the object from the same distance. You have a beautiful transition!

Changing focus can also be a method to cover up transitions. Telephoto lens, fisheye lens or macro lens gives a dramatic shift in focus. In fact, you can also shoot videos using your SLR lenses mounted onto your phone.

Perfect Lighting

Good lighting is a must for vibrant and sharp images. If there is a lack of natural light, use external lights on your phone like Kick or Pocket Spotlight.

You can also adjust the light while shooting by clicking on the spots present on the screen. If you tap on the dark spot the entire image will brighten up while if you tap on the light spot the image will become darker. But since both focus and exposure work together, the part you tap will also come in focus.

Sounds Play an Important Role

On Instagram, there is no autoplay for audio. People can opt to view the video with the sound turned off in public or turn it on. This is a very important factor when creating a video. Either make such videos that sound is not required at all or make them compelling enough for people to turn on the sound.

You can use various apps like Mic Block –AntiSpy, MicMute, Block Microphone (anti-spy) and the like to remove audio from your clips on an android phone. To add audio you can use any royalty free tracks found online or can add any MP3 track of your own.

Amazing Effects

Use the 15 filters that Instagram provides to give a more dramatic effect to your videos. You can overlap filters from different apps too or create your own filters by holding anything before the lens like a red cellophane, plastic, or glass sprinkled with water and so on.

Visual drama can be created by zooming in or focusing on something making the rest of the things fall out of focus. Another way is to add slow and fast motion to your clips by using apps like Vintagio. Run it twice through the app to double the effect. Also, upload the best image from your video to create a thumbnail, which shows on your video stream when it is not playing.

To show time lapse on Instagram you can click the record button and take a quick shot. Lapse It for Android and iOS and Instagram’s Hyperlapse for iOS are good apps. A dolly or a camera slider that allows moving your phone horizontally across a scene can also be used.

Stop-motion clips can be achieved by keeping your camera still, with consistent light, and recording short clips. You can also simply click some photos and then create a video in WeVideo or iMovie.

Finally, all throughout, you need to have a stable video for Instagram. A tripod can be the answer to this. It can also be used to film your video from a variety of interesting angles and perspectives.

Videos to Promote Business

For a successful marketing promotion, you can embed your Instagram videos on your business blog, website or facebook. Videos are saved as raw files on your phone, which can be directly uploaded on any channel or by using IFTTT they can be automatically uploaded to Twitter.

Make lots of videos using same resources and create a series. But upload them slowing as per a schedule over a period of time. Always remember that the InstaVid is meant to showcase the personality of your brand. So you need to know the culture of the people you are targeting. Make your audience laugh, cry or be inspired or simply be delighted but connect to them through your videos.