If you are a fan of Instagram, you might have seen an influx of Instagram videos showing up in your newsfeed. I wrote about how you could use Instagram video for your business and talked about what your business could share, how you can benefit from it and why I think it is better than Vine.
As I have been monitoring it over the past few days I have come up with a list of 5 great things about Instagram Video and a few not so great things about the new service. In general I’d say that people are enjoying the new service, as Instagram received 5 million uploads in the first day.
5 Things I Love About Instagram Video
1. Built in network
This is probably the best thing about Instagram’s new video service. If you have been a user for a while, you probably already have a built in following. By leveraging this existing following you don’t have to work so hard at building one from scratch.
2. No Looping
One of my biggest issues with Vine is the fact that your video is in a constant loop. It might as well be a .gif at that point. I personally don’t want to see the video over and over again.
3. Filters
Instagram filters are what made the photo sharing network popular in the first place. The fact that you can enhance your video with the same filters gives your videos edge and is a great feature.
4. Stop Motion
You don’t have to record a video in a single go which allows you to shoot different sequences and show them in one smooth motion.
5. 15 seconds of Video
This is a good amount of time to get your point across. It’s a start and I am sure it will increase as time goes on. But for a network that is used to having people skim their newsfeed quickly while looking at images, this is a good amount of time to capture someone without boring them.
3 Things That Could Improve
1. No Sound
Ok, there is no sound unless you have your phone set to ringer. I usually have my ringer set to vibrate which means I have to change my phone settings before I can hear what people are saying in the video. This is a bit annoying.
2. A lot of noise.
There is a lot of noise on your feed with the new feature. I often skim by videos because I have seen enough or the starting image doesn’t capture me. People can skim by a picture and still understand it’s meaning. With video you actually have to watch.
3. No way to add text to your video
This would be a killer feature for businesses using Instagram video. Since there is no voice, I’d like the ability to add text to my videos so that I can add some content and context. As a business I could offer discounts, deals and announce specials within my video as opposed to within the title only.
What do you like and dislike about Instagram Video?
