Instagram Introduces New Video Feed

Instagram has launched a new video “featured video” feed for its 400 plus million users.

Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that the social media network has seen a 40% increase in video engagement over the past six months. This prompted Instagram to increase the maximum length of user videos from 15 to 60 seconds, and more recently, launch a new video feed. So, how does the new featured video feed work? And what does it mean for marketers and business owners who use Instagram to promote their products and services?

According to a blog post published by Instagram, the new featured video tab collects videos from the social media network based on your personalized settings and preferences, placing them into a single channel called “Videos You Might Like.” Within this channel, there’s a sub-channel called “Featured” that contains videos on specific topics.

“As people share more videos than ever before, we’re making it easier to discover the ones you’ll love. To begin, you’ll find a personalized channel called ‘Videos You Might Like’ that collects videos from across Instagram’s global community into a seamless viewing experience. And as you scroll through the Explore grid, you may also see ‘Featured’ channels filled with videos on specific topics,” wrote Instagram in a blog post announcing the new feature.

So basically the features videos feed is similar to Facebook’s news feed, as it displays videos based on specific user algorithms. Initially, this feature will only be available to Instagram users in the United States, although the social media giant has announced plants to roll out features videos throughout the rest of the world at a later date.

Internet marketers and business owners should heed this message as being a wake-up call for the importance of video as a form of marketing media. Video offers several key benefits, one of which is the simple fact that it can convey tons of information in a very short window of time. Furthermore, statistics show that approximately 78% of people watch at least one YouTube video every week – and that’s only YouTube, not the dozens of other video-sharing platforms.

The bottom line is that marketers and business owners need to make video a priority. As Instagram and other social media networks embrace video, it will only become more effective at reaching consumers and promoting products and services.