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Guidelines to remember for Instagram video marketing

Every social media platform is different. Social video marketing on YouTube and Facebook may offer some similarities. But a skilled advertiser may find himself out of depth in the world of Instagram video marketing.

Facebook and Instagram have been part of the same company ever since the latter was purchased for $1 billion. Recently, Facebook added its own version of Stories to the Messenger app too. But that’s where the similarity ends.

 

Why marketing on Instagram?

As a brand, the goal is to extend your reach to as much potential customers as possible. Instagram is popular enough that it’s one of the essential social media networks to market in. But it offers so much more.

One of the well-known uses of Instagram is for online shopping. There are hundreds of shops to follow. And they’re even capitalizing on this. 2017 saw Instagram adding shopping tags as a feature and partnering with Shopify. As such, users who are familiar with this side of the platform might go into the app with the mindset of buying – a mindset that any advertisement should welcome. Further, Instagram has taken note of the Video-First trend and have added relevant features. Recently, it extended its maximum video length to 60 seconds and added a video view count.

 

How do you market on Instagram

With that in mind, if you plan to advertise on Instagram, you should be mindful of some things.

  • There are right ways to use hashtags.
    And using hashtags is crucial to Instagram culture. Hashtags act as easy search terms when looking for specific posts. Create a unique hashtag for your brand and mark your posts, video or otherwise, with it. If you start a campaign or contest for user-generated content, you can track it using hashtags too. While it’s tempting to treat hashtags as back-end keywords, you should use it smartly. Keep your hashtags focused and at a minimum. Instagram is a community centered around visual aesthetics. A post cluttered with hashtags is less than visually appealing.
  • Consider animated video content.
    Instagram may have extended their maximum video length, but it’s still just 60 seconds. As an alternative, you could consider animation for your video content. It’s low cost and able to get emotions and your message across fast.
  • Instagram users are young and casual.
    It’s believed that adding a video view count to Instagram was a way to entice marketers. It may even add new features geared toward advertisers soon. But as it stands, majority of Instagram’s users are young and casual users. That said, they won’t appreciate blatant ads thrown at them. You need to find the balance between promotion and content that appeals to this audience.
  • Pack your posts with personality.
    With regards to the previous point, it’s important to showcase the fun side of your brand. Starbucks played around with this idea in a recently released video. There’s simple ingenuity in recording one of their Hedgehog Cakepops being sharply turned in time to dramatic music. The brand chose to play with their cute food and got 700,000 views for their effort. This was their third most viewed video content from September to October. The first was a Halloween-themed post and the second is a video with kittens.
  • Go behind-the-scenes.
    A brand that’s only concerned with selling products won’t get much following on Instagram. The users relate more to brands with heart and humor. A quick behind-the-scenes video will easily showcase both.
  • Videos don’t auto play with sound on. Like Facebook, this is important to consider when creating your video marketing content.
  • Play around with the endless loop.
    The video content on Instagram loops endlessly. Planning your video around this aspect could make for a great, seamless, and memorable ad.

Despite the differences in social media apps, they’re all on the way to make best use of the video-first trend. Instagram may have started out as a photo-focused platform, but Instagram videos won’t stay on the sidelines for long.