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Instagram is one of the most used social media platforms nowadays. It proves to be one of the best social media platforms for video contents because it keeps rolling out new features consistently. It’s getting difficult to distinguish between the video options. When you want to share a video on Instagram, you have options to share it as a post, or a reel, or a story or as an IGTV post. Over 1 billion users are actively using Instagram. Most of them are video-centric. Instagram established a solid corner of the market with options like IGTV, Reels, stories, and posts. So, we’ll learn in details about these options and how to choose best one for your video.
Post Vs Reel Vs Story Vs IGTV.
Let’s start with simple definition. A post is a regular video that you share from your account which can be seen by your followers only in news feed. This is the standard option to share your video content on Instagram. Length of the video content can be up to a minute only.
A story is a short video clip that can be seen by your followers on their main feed in a little circle at the top or it can be viewed by visiting your profile too. The length of these clips is only 10 seconds but you can share so many stories at a time. If your story length is increased by 10 seconds you can upload it in sequence after one another. There is time duration for story and that lasts for 24 hrs after that they’ll automatically disappears or remove from your profile. There is a feature called story highlight where you can save your content permanently to the top of your profile.
A Reel is form of short videos that lasts for 30 seconds only. If your reel video increased by 30 seconds you can upload on next reel after one another in a sequence. Here you have options to edit your video content right in the app just like TikTok. You can add effects like music, on-screen text, visual effects, closed caption and many more. Complete video is edited together and then upload on your profile.
Lastly IGTV is the final type video on Instagram. It allows users to create long video content that lasts for 15 minutes when you are using mobile device and 60 minutes for desktop. It is more comparable to YouTube then it is to any other short-form video platform.
With above distinctions covered, let’s understand when to use each of the various placements.
A Post
A post is a standard video option that plays an important role in the Instagram video ecosystem. The duration of the content is under one minute but it lasts forever on your profile. If someone visits your profile and go through your content anytime, they’ll be able to view your posts. It creates engagement and holds your viewers to watch more content. Post works really well if you aims to engage existing audience rather than appeal to a potential new audience. It includes promotional videos, testimonial videos, and interviews with founders or employees or any product launch video. A post is like appeal to your current followers. If your contents meet these criteria but longer than 60 seconds, we’ll discuss more options below.
A Story
A story is great when your content is slightly more casual. It is often designed to experience your followers a glimpse of behind-the-scenes of your brand. It looks like under-produced and it’s okay if it doesn’t look completely polished. It gives you more authenticity to your brand. Sharing your story is a great way to drive engagement with current followers. You can take advantages of story features like polls or reaction emojis. It creates more interactive environment than any other options. Stories last for 24 hours only. The duration of story is 10 seconds but it can be continued to next stories. You can upload 2-3 minutes story by cutting it into a short clip of 10 seconds each. A long video can be tedious and quite boring for viewers as a story. Try IGTV instead for long videos.
A Reel
Reel is a great feature to create engagement with new viewers. High-performing reel helps you to attract new followers and even brings new customer if you’re posting from a business profile. If you want to share reel on your profile make sure your content must be attention grabbing and attractive to create more engagement. Viewers prefer to watch reels like entertaining, educational, or mix of both. Even they’re attracted to authentic and genuine content instead of scripted or formal reel. If you have content that fits these criteria then reel is a great option.
IGTV
Lastly, IGTV is specially used for content that are descriptive or explanatory in nature. Educational, how-to video or product demonstration video comes under IGTV. On IGTV, viewers already know that the content here is more-in-depth and can be lasts up to 60 minutes. It accepts all types of video content that we discussed above. It has feature to meet all the criteria mentioned above. If you have a video content over 3 minutes, it’s difficult to parse into stories. IGTV is great and it can be used as great alternatives as well. It creates great opportunity to create engagement and reach new viewers with your video.
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