You can add a photo or video to the story. What are the benefits of video for Instagram Stories, and why you shouldn’t ignore this format? Videos are more informative, they are remembered better than photos, and it is easier to achieve a viral effect and high engagement with them. All this affects the reach and promotion of the account as a whole. The more people have watched the story to the end and interacted with it, the better the account is perceived by the algorithms of the social network and promotes.

In this article we will tell you how to upload a video to a story, what to shoot, and figure out the problems that may arise when uploading a video.

Read also: Games for subscribers in Instagram stories

How to Make a Video for an Instagram Story: 10 Story Examples + Recommendations

1. Stop motion video.

It’s a fun way to advertise your product and brand. You shoot several frames, moving objects manually, and then combine the photo into a video. In the example, we got a story, as if the chips themselves come out of the can. Idea from YouTube channel Fancy smth.

2. Animated creative collage.

Such stories attract attention with their originality, which means that they will definitely be watched to the end. Social media users generally love everything unusual, eye-catching. Collages are made using PNG files and animated GIFs. To create a collage, prepare in advance images with a transparent background in PNG format and download them to your phone. The rest (gifs, text) is done in the story editor.

3. Stories that subscribers can “influence”.

You shoot a story in two parts – the first part is unfinished, but there is a call to action, for example, the word “click”. The subscriber clicks and gets to the second part of the story. The video in the example – a girl inflates a balloon, and her hand reaches out with a needle behind the scenes. A call is displayed to press to explode the ball, the follower clicks, and the ball explodes. It seems that the subscriber can influence the story – this technique increases engagement.

4. Review of goods.

Show your subscribers how to use your product properly. This will draw their attention to your products. If you sell makeup, film a story about how to apply it. If you have a clothing store, show off cool looks – how to pair outfits. We advise you to accompany the video with explanatory captions.

5. Question-answer.

Q&A stories are great because you get feedback from your subscribers. Shoot a video with answers to the most frequently asked questions and pin the story in Highlights so that you don’t have to answer the same thing three hundred times in Direct.

Ask subscribers to ask you questions in the comments, and then film the answers to them. The format is attractive because subscribers themselves offer ideas for content that is relevant to them, and you give them what they ask for. You can film yourself answering a question, item, or step-by-step instruction with voiceover.

6. Backstage.

Capture what’s left of the workflow. How the goods are made, how the photos and videos are made, what the employees do in their free time, what the office looks like – subscribers are interested. Stories like this increase the credibility of your business. Let’s say you have a cafe – you can shoot how the cook prepares food. Or film how you make videos and photos for publication. Use dynamic backstage music.

7. User Content.

These can be screenshots of reviews or photos / videos of subscribers with your product. Video reviews look more impressive. Stories like this increase engagement and motivate customers to share photos and videos of your products on Instagram. You can offer them a discount or a symbolic gift for leaving a review. The advantage of this method is that you get free content for your stories. Then they can be placed in Highlights to interest those who are still thinking about buying.

8. Quests and games to get involved.

Very difficult to organize, but insanely fascinating thing.

The audience is familiar with the task and answers the question. Using the hashtag, it moves to the next stage and responds again. The subscriber travels from one story to another. Well, when there are multiple lines of plot development, it gets even more interesting.

9. Sharing content with subscribers.

Create content with your followers. This will increase engagement. For example, take a video and stop it at the moment when you need to make a choice. Make a survey about what to remove the sequel and ask subscribers to vote for one of the two options. Remove the second part considering the choice of users. The result will be a mini-series, where subscribers choose the plot themselves.

10. Stories from animated templates.

Even a static story can be made interesting and engaging by animating some objects. You can download templates for Photoshop from marketplaces like Creative Market or use an online builder like Crello. We also recommend reading our article: 10 Best Video Makers.

What else can you shoot: tips and life hacks, quizzes, an invitation to an event or webinar, the process of choosing a winner in a competition, cool videos with employees, a background video with the title of the article and a link to the site’s blog. More themes for stories: 27 Instagram Story Ideas.

Recommendations:

• Story videos should be dynamic – you have no more than 15 seconds to grab the attention of your subscribers. You can change the angle, zoom in / out objects, play with lighting, change the environment.
• If you have a business account and more than 10,000 subscribers, add links to your story. For example, if you are reviewing a product, have a link to that product in the story.
• If there should be an emphasis on the text in the story, choose a neutral background, if the text is not needed or it is not enough, then the video or photo should be as informative as possible.
• Make video stories with sound – with music or voiceover. For better video quality, pre-process the story in a graphics editor.
• Analyze the statistics of stories, especially the depth of coverage, in order to understand which format suits your target audience better. If there are calls to action at the end, study which form of CTA is the most effective and use it in other stories.

How to add a video to your Instagram story: step by step guide

Video dimensions and resolution for Instagram Stories

• Recommended story sizes: 1080x1920px (the most common) or 720x1280px.
• Format – mp4, mov or gif.
• The aspect ratio is 9:16.

Let’s move on to publishing the video in history.

Step 1… We go into the application, click on our avatar with a plus sign where the latest stories are posted.

Step 2… On the left is a square that will take us to the phone gallery. Click on it and select a video. Then we edit.

Step 3… Selecting a video from the gallery. You can simultaneously put up to 10 videos for publication.

Step 4… If necessary, add a sticker to the video. They are at the top of the editor – a square with a smile.

Step 5… Click to share with everyone or with the list of best friends.

Video Stickers

What stickers to use in your commercial stories:

• A place… This sticker shows the location. It makes sense to use it if you have a local establishment, for example, a cafe.
  
• Mention… With this sticker, you can add your other commercial account to the story.
• Hashtag… Stories with a unique branded hashtag make your brand recognizable. Then subscribers will be able to find other publications related to you using this hashtag.
• Interview… Find out the opinion and preferences of your subscribers. For example, ask whether they prefer sneakers or trainers.
  
• Questions… Invite subscribers to ask you questions – any or not a predetermined topic. This way you can understand what your followers care about, as well as get free ideas for new stories.
• Countdown… The deadline counter always works well when you need to nudge people to make an urgent purchase. It creates a sense of lost profits. You can make a report until the time when the discount stops working or the registration for the webinar ends.
  
• Slider… Instagram users love interactivity, so try to use it in your stories. The slider is great for this. Ask a question and offer to answer with emoticons.
• Test… This sticker is great because it lets you do a little marketing research for free. It’s kind of an online subscriber profile. Come up with questions and launch a story with this sticker to better understand your audience’s portrait.

Cutting long videos for stories

A long video (more than 15 seconds) is cut automatically in the story editor immediately after loading. Each part then needs to be processed separately – add stickers, text.

If you need to trim a video at a specific moment, then it is better to do it in advance in any video editor, for example, in Sony Vegas or Movavi. Crop and save each part as a separate piece to the gallery, and then upload it to the story. There are online cropping services – online-video-cutter, Clideo. And phone apps – InShot, YouCut, My Movie.

What to do if videos are not uploaded to Stories

Sometimes Instagram won’t upload videos to Stories. We consider the reasons and ways to solve them.

1. Video edited not on Instagram, but in a third-party editor. This problem happens on iPhones. The alleged reason is the incompatibility of the editor’s codecs and Instagram itself.
   Decision: Load the video into a standard editor and crop a little. It will be automatically processed as if you took it off your phone and immediately edited it in a standard story editor – Instagram itself will reformat the video and allow you to post it.
2. Video or music in it violates copyright… Instagram automatically recognizes such content and prevents it from being posted.
   Decision: Use content that does not violate copyright – recorded by you personally, purchased from stock or from the author. If the problem is in the music, replace it with another – also from stocks or free libraries.
3. The video is deleted immediately after publication… Most likely, you fell under the blocking of Instagram for some kind of violation – massliking, spam, user complaints.
   Decision: Wait for all restrictions to be lifted and upload the video. For this time, exclude any activity on Instagram. After removing the block, do not repeat the previous violations, otherwise you will be blocked again. Self-locking is most often given for 14 days, but can be removed earlier – after 3 days, a week or 10 days.