Instagram Video

So you have an Instagram account that you use for business advertisement! Posting quality content is the number one priority for any Instagram Business Account. So much so, quality videos is also a priority for personal accounts looking to boost their fan following a great deal. Regardless of if you have a business or are someone looking for personal Instagram fame, knowing what you are working with can provide boosted chances.

Instagram is a world famous social sharing channel and has set parameters that must be followed when posting your content on it. For videos, there are format, size and duration limitations that any video must fall under. I have been often asked How Long Can Instagram Videos Be?!. When creating quality videos for your business or personal Instagram feed, there are other parameters that you must keep in check as well.

Why Post An Instagram Video?

When done right, a quality video post on the social media channel can provide great results. If you have been using the app for a significant amount of time, you must have come across some business profiles or public figures as well. These usually have followers somewhere in the range of high thousands or even millions. That famous Kylie Jenner post that saw about 20m views is a good reference point.

Oh! And yes, we are going to ignore that world record egg post that went on to become truly ridiculous by following correct sharing channels. However, some of the major reasons videos get posted on Instagram are:

  • Business profiles advertising their products or services
  • Personal accounts looking to boost their followers
  • Informative accounts trying to educate people on various topics
  • Random social sharing for events or happenings from around the world

Instagram Video Limit in Terms of Time Duration

Simply put, with the latest updates, time duration of 60 seconds applies on Instagram Video posts. All videos, whether they are commercial, personal or informative must fall within this limit if they are to be posted on this social media platform. Major things to keep in mind are:

  • 60 second time limit for general profile video posts for all accounts
  • 15 second time limit for story videos posted for all accounts
  • Minimum time duration limit of 3 seconds applies to all accounts

It might look very short amount of time but when you do things right, can be just enough. Most informative videos or advertisement based ones will find their videos falling in the range of 30-50 seconds. Using powerful tools like Info graphics and other useful ones, the whole 60 seconds can be made use of quite brilliantly. Now you know as a fact How Long of a Video Can Your Post on Instagram in 2019. We will keep you posted in case this limit changes any time soon.

How Frequently Can/Should You Post?

Instagram is a privately owned social media platform. It is now owned by the Facebook Inc. and has gained much popularity by some calculations even passing that of Facebook itself. Where Facebook started as an all-out social media sharing app, Instagram had its inception as a picture sharing app only. Later, it evolved to be what we know it today. Private Message in shape of its DM, even video calling feature and much more got incorporated that gained it the popularity that it has.

There is no set limit as to how many videos you can post on Instagram. However, when you need your high quality videos to be viewed properly by the number of people you target, keeping things in check is recommended. When you post too many videos, even your best ones tend to get mixed and skipped by potential target profiles. Usually, somewhere in the range of 8-10 videos per day are good enough unless you own a newsfeed based Instagram profile. In which case, more the better of course.

Creating High Quality Instagram Videos

Now that you know the exact time duration limit for your Instagram Videos, you can get down on it to make super high quality ones. Of course the basic requirement of your content being informative should suffice in all cases. Whether you have an Info graphics based video or a regular camera capture showing whatever you need, quality goes a long way. Instagram Video Size and format are some important considerations as the app does have some set limitations.

When you have sorted out the actual content that you will be making a video of, here are some important considerations for Instagram Video Format:

  • Video Size: Your Instagram Video can be up to 1080 Pixels in width with any height that you need. It is best to keep pixels size for most modern smartphones in mind when designing your video however
  • Frame Rate: Frame Rates vary from video to video and type of content as well. 29.96 frames per second is the perfect match for Instagram guidelines putting your videos right in place with the standard
  • Bit Rate: Best bit rate for Instagram videos is 3,500 kbps. This will make your videos enough stable and perfectly displayed on feeds for users across all devices
  • Audio Codec: Supported type for Instagram Videos is AAC (Advanced Audio Coding). 128kbps suits best for a proper encoded video offering rich sound and no lags at all
  • File Size: While technically, there is no limit to the file size you can upload as compressed video outputs any size into recommended one, Instagram only allows for 15MB files to be uploaded
  • Best Supported Video Codec: Best-case scenario for Instagram Videos is H.264 compressed videos. This formats supports by default offering crisp playback
  • Video Format: MP4 and MOV video formats are supported in Instagram upload. However, any other format videos can also be converted into these two making potentially any video format fit for the social media platform

Converting Videos to Instagram Format

Not all videos that get recorded or made follow Instagram guidelines. In fact, you will find that almost all videos don’t follow recommended Instagram guidelines. However, when you have a video that needs to be uploaded onto the social media platform, you will need to convert it accordingly.

Above-mentioned specifications for videos suit Instagram Video Limit accurately. For the duration of your videos, you have to keep them either from 3-15 seconds for stories or 3-60 seconds for posts. If you videos exceed these time limits, Instagram will automatically trim and crop the rest out. Usual parameters of Instagram Video Trim start the video from its starting point and they end it at 60 seconds. However, given the right tools, you can modify this as well. When you are able to adjust video crop without having to convert or crop it in Instagram, even longer than 60 seconds videos are best uploaded directly from the app.

Importing Facebook Videos into Instagram

Facebook owns Instagram, which was once a rival social media platform. However, with the merging of the two, it is not possible to have your accounts on both connected. Both business and personal accounts find this feature very useful as posts can be shared across one platform and they imported on the other. When you post a video on your Facebook account, it can also be imported into Instagram just with the tap of a few buttons. However, Facebook is not limited in ways Instagram is when it comes to uploading videos.

When you have a video longer than 60 seconds on Facebook, it will be automatically trimmed when importing into Instagram. Similarly, all other specifications will also be converted automatically when importing videos from Facebook into Instagram. When you have connected business accounts across the two platforms, uploaded posts including videos show preview and the option to display them in the other. However, unlike Facebook, which is a general social sharing platform, Instagram is meant for much high quality videos. Its app on modern Smartphones is designed in a way that only high quality videos play well in it.

Impact of Quality Videos On Instagram Followers

High quality content is always a winner when it comes to social media. Videos that are informative with good quality content succeed in getting the maximum number of followers. Whether personal or commercial advertisements, quality of videos has to be top notch. Usually, Facebook compressed videos or too compressed videos lack quality altogether. This is where creating top quality videos for Instagram works best. For advertisers and marketers, using original content with high quality video always works best.

Overall quality of the Instagram platform is high. App is in a white color theme with polished icons and rich looking interface. Users scroll down on their feeds looking at content including videos on their smartphones or other devices. When you need best follower conversion, boosting high quality videos to the relevant audiences is great option as well. Both private and business accounts can do this. But boosting posts suits public figures or product and services based businesses best. Keeping in mind all the format and size details and keeping your Instagram Videos under the 60 seconds limit, you can get great results.