V is for… Video

I am personally not a big fan of video, but you can’t ignore it. It is a powerful way to connect with people. On Instagram, there are a number of ways that people use videos – Instagram Stories, Instagram live and IGTV.
and posting Instagram video posts to your feed. If video is something that you enjoy (or something that your audience is really engaging with) then using video on Instagram to reach out to your followers should definitely be a part of your strategy. Video can also help you tell your story better.

Instagram Feed

You can post Videos into your main Instagram feed. Instagram does give you the option to shoot videos directly in the app. However, most people will upload a pre-recorded video from their camera roll.

Videos in your main feed can be 3 seconds to 60 seconds long.

It is important to remember that while Instagram videos auto-play in the feed, they don’t start playing sound automatically. In order to hear sound the user has to tap on the video. Therefore it is important to make sure any videos you are posting to the main feed can be understood without the sounds.

Instagram Stories

Videos using Instagram Stories are shorter. They need to be 1 second to 15 seconds. Instagram Stories while they can be pre-recorded a lot of people do just shoot their video directly in Instagram Stories. Once you have shot the video you can add the stickers, captions etc in the usual way. This is great for posting fun and informal content.

Instagram Live

Instagram Live videos can only be broadcast from your phone. To record a Live video – open your Instagram Stories camera and select the “Live” camera option. Then click start live video to get started.

They are recorded vertically and can be as long as 60 minutes. It should be noted that unless you turn off notifications, your followers will be notified when you start a live video. You can see the number of viewers in the top of your screen and any comments they post will appear at the bottom.

Once you have finished your video you can tap end in the top right corner and then End Live Video to confirm. You can then either save or share your video.

Instagram TV

Finally, there is IGTV – Instagram’s standalone video platform. These videos can be 15 seconds to 10 minutes for normal accounts and 15 seconds to 60 minutes for larger/verified accounts.

Before you can upload a video to IGTV, you need to create an IGTV channel. Your IGTV is a bit more like YouTube – you have a channel which will have videos and profile. You can add title, description, keywords and links. However, unlike YouTube it is important to remember that IGTV vides are vertical!