When you’re getting started on Instagram, or you’ve been using it for awhile but you’re a bit confused about the different ways you can share posts, here is a rundown of some of the features.
No time to read? Listen now!
Posts
This is the main area of your account. When you go to your own profile and click the 9 grid symbol you will see all your posts. You can share videos here, obviously your standard image posts, and you can also have your reels and IGTV videos shown here (more about Reels and IGTV later).
Posts are shown to your followers when they go to Instagram. However, if you want more exposure and reach for your account, using Stories, Reels and IGTV can help.
Stories
This has been and still is what I watch the most on Instagram. These live at the top of your Home feed, at the top of your profile if you use them, and if you’re searching for someone an active story makes your profile stand out because of the colourful ring around your profile image. I will sometimes scroll through posts, but often I just watch my favourite people in Stories.
Stories are SO easy to use and you can be creative with them. Since they only live for a day, you don’t have to worry about these being perfect, unlike your posts which stay on your profile unless you archive them.
You can also save your stories using the ‘highlight’ feature, so that important stories can be saved on your profile. I love this because you can share behind the scenes, but also save important stories to live on your profile and you can even go back and share these directly with your contacts.
Reels
Reels are something you may want to spend more time on, because Instagram is giving a lot of attention to these.
When you go to Instagram, you’ll notice its one of the main tabs at the bottom- home, reach and then Reels. To me when a social media platform is focusing heavily on a feature, you know that its a feature to pay attention to.
What I’ve noticed most about Reels is that many people are using music, dancing and text to share ideas or to entertain. My favourite Reels are when they are used to share tips. One of my favourites is @MrsDukesFitspo because she shares awesome quick recipes so you learn a new meal really fast. If you go to her account and under the story highlights (which are the circles underneath the following and message buttons), you will see the Reels icon which looks like a video play button).
On the Instagram blog, they share “With Reels, you can record and edit 15 to 30-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects and new creative tools. Reels can be shared to a new dedicated Reels tab that makes it easy for anyone to discover entertaining Reels.”
Now since I’m not the Instagram Reels expert (if you look at mine, Ive created 1 LOL), check out @jasminestar, because not only has she created like 80 Reels, but she has a handy checklist that you can download for free at https://jasminestar.lpages.co/instagram-reels-checklist/
IGTV
The final Instagram feature I want to touch on is IGTV. Basically I think of this as YouTube for Instagram. If you’re creating videos, you can easily also add these to IGTV and reach more people because you already have an audience on Instagram. I would resize these so that nothing gets cut off (you can use tools like Kapwing), or create new custom content only for IGTV.
Videos for IGTV can be longer, up to 60 minutes (need to be at least 15 seconds long).
One great thing about IGTV is that you can upload videos directly from your desktop.
Those are the main Instagram video features that I wanted to share with you. Each feature has its own features within it, but this is just a main run down so you can possibly discover something new, or think about how you could use these for your business.
If you want more information about using social media for your business, check out the Social Media Optimizer course which walks you through the main platforms including Instagram, and includes helpful videos, tutorials and PDF downloads https://thesociallaunch.thinkific.com/courses/social-media-for-business. I’m in the process of updating this course with new updates and content, so because of that I’m offering a half off code until the end of April 2021, so if you’re reading/ listening in April 2021, go the the link, use code april50 and instead of paying $97, you’ll save almost $50, plus that gets you lifetime access, so everyone I create new course content you will have access.
