What You Need to Know about the Latest Instagram Updates
Instagram is undeniably one of the most popular social networking sites nowadays. In fact, it has become the social media platform of choice for many companies, particularly those who need to express themselves in pictures to catch the attention of their target audience. These include businesses that offer local and overseas tours, sell clothes, shoes, and other apparel, and organize private and company events.
If you’re one of these companies, it’s important for you to stay up to date with what’s going on with Instagram. And this is what you should know: recently, the photo- and video-sharing site has made several changes that will change the way people use the website and the way you reach out to your customers. One of the biggest changes is the fact that you can now take and post 60-second videos.
Instagram’s 60-Second Videos
Previously, Instagram supported videos that were only 15 seconds long. These were great if you wanted to feature your model’s outfit for the day (aka OOTD) or showcase a breathtakingly beautiful beach in an exotic location. However, they were useless if you wanted to talk about where your customers could buy the clothes your model wears or how they could book a trip to the beach.
All of these changed when Instagram announced late in March that they would support 60-second videos moving forward. According to the Facebook-owned social networking site, the time that people spend watching Instagram videos has increased to over 40 percent in the last six months. It seems that this new update reflects the site’s commitment to their users and shows their willingness to adapt to new trends.
The video update has already been rolled out, although it will take months before it’s available to everyone.
What This Means for You
Obviously, this is great news for you as a business owner since it gives you more time to tell your story. Fifteen seconds are often too short, but sixty seconds are just enough to demonstrate how to use your products, give customers a sneak peek into your soon-to-be-released services, and show people what’s going on during your events. The possibilities are endless, and you’re only limited by your imagination and by what you think works best for your advertising strategies.
But you also have to realise that longer Instagram videos also generate a whole different set of questions. How will viewers respond to 60-second videos? Are these just long enough to capture their attention, or are they too long that people’s eyes and minds start to wander? Will it be better to keep your videos 30 or 45 seconds long? Asking these questions is important, but it seems that everyone will have to wait until Instagram’s video update is well under way to know the answers.
Other Instagram Changes
Aside from increasing the length of their videos, Instagram has also made other changes in the past few days. They have changed their news feed algorithm so users now see the most important posts from the people they follow instead of the newest posts. Instagram determines the importance of posts based on the number of likes and comments they get, the relationship between users, and other factors.
This might seem discouraging, but it’s actually a good way to ensure your posts can be seen by your followers. The only thing you should do now is to come up with engaging and eye-catching posts to ensure that Instagram will consider them important and put them on the top of people’s news feeds.
The social media site now also allows users to make multi-clips videos, similar to what they can do on Vine and Snapchat. It’s a great way to showcase your creativity and tell your business’s story in a way that will grab people’s attention.
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