This week held no shortage of chatter about Instagram. First, brands and users alike panicked amid speculation that Instagram would change its chronologically-sorted feed to one modeled after Facebook’s newsfeed. Rather than showing photos in reverse-chronological order, the feed would display the most relevant posts at the top, sending Instagram users into a frenzy, asking followers to turn on post notifications. In fact, mentions of the term “Instagram” on Twitter shot up to over 1 million on March 28th—more than double the previous day’s volume.
After the company appeased the Instagram community’s concerns, they made an exciting announcement regarding Instagram video:
We want to bring you fun, flexible and creative ways to create and watch video on Instagram. As part of our continued commitment, you’ll soon have the flexibility to tell your story in up to 60 seconds of video. This is one step of many you’ll see this year. In the last six months, the time people spent watching video increased by more than 40 percent. And longer videos mean more diverse stories from the accounts you love, whether it’s Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) hanging out with friends or beauty star Bretman Rock’s (@bretmanrock) latest makeup tutorial. For iOS, we’re also bringing back the ability to make videos out of multiple clips from your camera roll. To learn more about multi-clip video on iOS, check out the Instagram Help Center. (Source: Instagram)
The ability to post Instagram videos up to 60 seconds long means a few things for our clients and other brands:
- The ability to provide a more intimate view of an organization’s work: From rallies to panels and speeches, our clients partake in a wide range of events. 60 seconds of footage will give organizations the opportunity to provide meaningful coverage of these events on Instagram.
- Giving users a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of politics: Similar to the way candidates are now using Snapchat to document their behind-the-scenes lives on the campaign trail, politicians can now provide meaningful insight into their day-to-day, which we wouldn’t necessarily see on the news. Long form Instagram videos may help voters feel a more personal connection to candidates and will play a part in the quickly changing campaign landscape that has been a result of social media.
- The need to produce richer and higher quality video: On a platform that innately appeals to our short attention spans, brands will need to work to create videos with higher production value if they want to keep viewers engaged. From professionally shot videos to interesting animation–brands will need to incorporate whichever elements necessary to encourage Instagram users to tune in for the full 60 seconds and prevent them from scrolling right past the video.