Video is clearly one of the top forms of content right now, particularly on social media, and Instagram is certainly no different, with Stories growing to become one of its most-used features and having recently introduced IGTV.
Producing quality video content, however, can be a costly, time-consuming task – that is, of course, unless you have the right tools for the job.
In this post, I’m going to share five top tools that will improve your Instagram video marketing strategy, covering everything from creation to posting and management.
1. Quick from GoPro for easy video editing and creation
If you haven’t yet tried GoPro’s Quick app for iOS and Android devices, you’re going to love how easy it is to create and edit videos with it. While it’s true that you don’t have a lot of control over your video, the results look great - plus, you don’t need to have a GoPro camera to use it or share the videos you create.
The way it works is very simple - once you’ve allowed access to your phone’s camera roll, all you have to do to create your video is add the images and video clips you want (at least five for one video). Then, choose one of the multiple themes, and the tool will essentially build the video for you.
That said, you do have some customization options - for example, you can choose how long you want each video clip or image to last, add text overlay for any of your video’s scenes, change the font, as well as add music to it (you can add your own if you have the rights to it, otherwise you can use one of the app’s free songs):
When you create your video, you’ll notice that there is a Quick by GoPro scene at the end – you can remove that by clicking on that scene while in editing mode and then tapping on “disable”. If you also want to watermark your videos, you’ll have to create it using a third-party tool and import the image to your video.
2. Jumprope to create engaging how-to videos
Jumprope is an iOS app (which unfortunately is only available on iOS devices) that helps you create beautiful and engaging how-to videos.
The way it works is super simple, and the results can look amazing - your video is essentially a collection of 'steps' – as many steps as you want – whereby each step is a video, photo or a boomerang. You can upload these visuals from your camera roll or take them directly with the app. Afterwards, you can edit your video using one of the various filters, trim your video and speed up certain scenes (for example, you can speed up a step in a cooking process if you’re sharing a how-to video showcasing a recipe).
The app is perfect for marketers, as you can highlight the products you want to promote, add links and create highly engaging how-to videos. What’s more, you can actually link to the products you want in your how-to video in order to drive traffic and sales.
3. Agorapulse for managing your Instagram account & scheduling your video content
Managing an Instagram account - and particularly posting content - has always presented some issues to marketers and businesses. Instagram only recently started to allow third-party tools to publish and schedule updates (not to get into the entire “getting a reminder on your phone to post your Instagram update”- type of issue) but now, there are various tools which offer some very handy features for Instagram marketers.
Agorapulse - a social media management tool that works with Instagram, as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube - has several useful Instagram features that will delight those who use a lot of video on Instagram.
- Publish and schedule Instagram content directly from the app - Including posting and scheduling videos (however, you’ll need to make sure that Instagram direct publishing is turned on)
- Publish and schedule Instagram Stories directly – No need to post them from your app several times a day
- Create queues of your Instagram videos - In other words, you set the times you want to publish for each day of the week, upload videos to the queue, and the tool will automatically publish them (and even republish them if you make that setting) on Instagram at the times you set. You can then visualize your publishing schedule with the social media calendar
- Create groups of hashtags - Making it easier to add them automatically to your Instagram posts
In addition, you also get all the other features you’d expect from a social media management tool. Worth considering in your process.
4. Hyperlapse and Boomerang: Instagram video creation apps
Instagram has created several fun content creation tools which you can download from your respective app store.
And in terms of video content in particular, there are two apps that you have to check out (and start using to create fun short videos):
- Boomerang - Boomerang is an app that does something very simple, but with great effect. It enables you to create mini-videos that last basically loop back and forth - all you have to do is capture something (or someone) in motion to create your looping video. If you like a GIF you’ve created, make sure to save it or share it on your Instagram profile (or else you’ll lose it)
- Hyperlapse - Hyperlapse is another fun video app from Instagram with one specific feature - creating time lapse videos. For example, you can create a time lapse video of a day at work, or the story of an event you’ve attended in just 30 seconds
5. Later: for Instagram management and scheduling
While Agorapulse works for multiple social networks, Later is all about Instagram.
This Instagram marketing tool basically allows you to plan your entire Instagram strategy and content ahead of time, as well as schedule it to be published directly.
You can start by uploading all of your Instagram media to your Later account, for safekeeping and easy access. Then, you can use the visual content calendar to plan all of your content and decide when to publish it – as well as, of course, scheduling it.
It’s worth mentioning that you can post and schedule any type of content you want (photos, videos, Insta Stories) but you will need an Instagram business profile in order to be able to publish them directly.
Apart from planning and scheduling your Instagram, you also get a few other useful features: reposting for those who want to leverage user-generated content (UGC for short), Instagram analytics and, using the Linkin.bio integration, you can link your Instagram posts to your website, blog posts, products pages and pretty much anywhere else you want.
Conclusion
Video - whether it’s a short Boomerang or a 60-second how-to - is huge right now on Instagram (and certainly not just Instagram). In this post, I’ve shared several useful tools for Instagram marketers, from planning and scheduling tools that will help you save more time, to video creation tools that will help you create better content, faster.
Hopefully they help to get you thinking about how you can incorporate more video into your Instagram strategy.