Using Instagram video as an effective marketing tool

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth more—which is why many social media platforms are starting to foray into video sharing to boost their subscriber base. One of these video platforms is Instagram, whose popularity has grown exponentially as that of social media platforms where it is supported.

Image Source: bulletpointbranding.blogspot.com

Instagram video as an effective marketing tool is an understatement, considering that the social media platform has a base of more than 130 million users and its format facilitates sharing to Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, which have also seen profound growth.

Instagram offers up to 15 seconds of video recording, compared to its nearest competitor, Vine, which offers only a maximum of 6 seconds of video recording. It also has video editing features that support the same high-quality filter sets for still photos, which are the very novelties of Instagram.

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Here are some ways marketers can capitalize on Instagram’s powerful new video-sharing feature:

• Product demos, including how-to videos and product features;

• Visual portfolios, highlighting work done for previous clients;

• Special offer promotions and events, using hashtags to track conversations about the product or brand;

• Brand humanization and real-life engagement between the brand and its customers;

• Increase community engagement on Facebook

Videos can help build customer engagement and increase sales in a way photos can’t: the latter can only showcase the aesthetics of a product and caption its functions, but the former can truly demonstrate how it works and changes lives.



Video Source: bulletpointbranding.blogspot.com

John Bohan founded Socialtyze to help empower brands through the power of social media. More information can be found at this website.

REPOST: Facebook Finally Lets You Place Photos Directly In Comments, But Still No GIFs

Facebook made a new tool that allows users to insert photos directly to comments. Read this article by Alexis Kleinman of The Huffington Post.

Image Source:  huffingtonpost.com

Finally, Facebook is making a change that everyone can agree is an improvement. On Wednesday, the social network added a little camera button on its comment boxes, allowing users to insert photos directly into comments. Before, users were forced to copy and paste links to photos into comments.

Facebook provided The Huffington Post with the following screenshot that demonstrates how the new photo sharing system works.

Image Source:  huffingtonpost.com

The feature is being gradually and globally rolled out starting today, Facebook told The Huffington Post, so if you don't have it yet, don't panic. The new tool was built at one of Facebook's many hackathons.

As far as we can tell, the new photo tool doesn't support the use of GIFs, some Facebook users' favorite mode of communication. GIFs take up much more bandwidth than photos, and supporting GIFs could slow the site down considerably. We both dream of, and dread, the day when GIFs are embeddable into Facebook comments.

John Bohan has  over 12 years of experience in crafting smart media campaigns, managing online communities, and building engaging applications. Visit this Facebook page for more information on how to make social media work for online marketing campaigns.