New Instagram Features Seen to Boost Effectiveness of Short-form Videos as Marketing Tools

Credit: Meta

Instagram is encouraging more people to use Reels with its host of new features. The company’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, announced that all new videos posted on the platform will be turned into Reels. To accompany this move, Instagram now provides a selection of Reels templates that serve as a wellspring of content ideas. The platform will also allow users to turn any public photo into a Reel. In addition, Instagram will soon let users leverage their phones’ front and rear cameras to record scenarios and capture reactions simultaneously, akin to YouTube reaction videos.

According to Mosseri, unifying video formats means users will gain access to all the Reels tools when composing video content. As a reward for using Reels, Instagram will feature those under 90 seconds more on its Discovery tab. This is the company’s way of compelling users to post short-form videos in an effort to keep Tiktok’s popularity in check. The same can be said when it comes to shared content. New video posts shorter than 15 minutes will be shared as Reels. However, videos posted prior to the update will remain as videos and not be turned into Reels.

To add more content sources and promote collaborations, Instagram enables users to “remix” public photos using Reels. In doing so, users will be treated to features like picture-in-picture, split-screen, green screen, and top-bottom formats for them to produce attention-grabbing content. As such, the “remix” feature promotes the creation of original content instead of simply sharing interesting posts.

The new Reels templates are designed to streamline content production workflows, making the creation process far less painless. Meanwhile, the dual camera feature adds a new dimension to content creation. These functionalities enhance the experience of creating short-form videos.

With these developments in place, social media marketers should start making room for Reels and short-form videos in their playbooks. In fact, they should be given a high priority.

Prioritizing Short-form Videos is a Good Idea

Popularized by Tiktok and now furthered by Instagram, short-form videos have become the content format of choice for many. Based on the number of social media users, short-form-heavy apps Instagram and Tiktok are two of the largest social media platforms around, behind only Facebook. And Facebook has also launched its own version of Reels. According to Meta, short-form videos have become the company’s fastest-growing content format.

The surge in popularity of short-form videos has led to the format having the highest ROI among all content types. As a result, 5o% of marketers aim to leverage short-form videos for the first time in 2022. According to HubSpot’s Social Media Trends Report, the short-form video is the most ideal content type for engagement and lead generation in 2022. In fact, 85% of marketers believe short-form videos are currently the most effective social media format around.

With this, 30% of marketers are planning to invest in short-form videos more than any other social media trend in 2022. After all, nearly all marketers (95%) who previously leveraged the format plan to maintain or increase their investments in it. As for Reels, these have already received 22% higher engagement than standard videos in 2021. This figure is seen to grow this year with Instagram’s latest updates. Meanwhile, TikTok has been the most downloaded app for the past few years.

TikTok and Instagram have engineered a sea of change in content prioritization for social media marketing, as short-form videos have swept most users worldwide. Marketers and brands that fail to capitalize on this trend would likely get left behind.