Over recent years, video has become a more prominent feature within social media channels, beginning with the introduction of IGTV & Instagram Reels through to the launch of TikTok (everyone’s secret guilty pleasure).

Following this shift away from imagery, this captivating method has allowed businesses to grow their brand awareness & increase their conversions in an exciting & engaging way. 

With the popularity of videography growing, Instagram last week made some significant changes to their reels feature, all of which are sure to be beneficial to global brands & in how their audience reacts to their content. 

What Are The New Features? 

Audio Options 

Alongside their own library of sound effects & tracks, Instagram has now granted users the opportunity to upload their own audio files directly to the app. 

Perfect for when wanting to add commentary, background noise or jingles, creators can import a sound clip that is at least five seconds long from within their camera roll. Other accounts will then be able to use these recordings for their own content. 

An Increase in Video Length

Previously, all reels were limited to 15 seconds, but now (& thankfully), Instagram has increased this to up to 90 seconds – hooray! The length for Reels ads has also been increased to a length of 60 seconds. 

Interactive Stickers

Whilst only once available within Instagram Stories, interactive stickers are now available to be used in video content. As the ideal opportunity to boost audience engagement, users are now able to incorporate quizzes, polls & emoji sliders. 

How Much Have Reels Impacted Marketers? 

In a study run by Instagram, it’s known that the amount of views online videos generate has almost doubled since 2018 & they have become an integral part of marketing strategies due to their attractiveness.

The digital giant also found that public accounts with over 10,000 followers who published at least five reels over the course of sixty days gained 250% more followers than those who didn’t.

With a current engagement rate of 1.5%, it’s clear that users are now doing more than scrolling through their feed & are actually interacting with the content published by their favourite brands. 88% of consumers have also said that they are more likely to purchase a product from “shareworthy” content. 

With these new features aside, when it comes to sharing content through Instagram it’s all about consistency, creativity & individuality. For more tips on how to utilise the app, click here. 

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