As video content continues to dominate social media marketing, Instagram has taken big steps in making sure that video becomes a central part of their overall user experience.
Video marketing is a quick and easy way to give your patients behind-the-scenes insight into who you really are as a team and a business, whilst expanding your overall reach. It’s also a highly effective way for you to easily share engaging content to your social pages.
In the first of many updates and in order to maximise user engagement, former IGTV videos and feed videos are no longer two separate features. They’ve now been merged into a new complete format called ‘Instagram Video’.
So, what is Instagram Video?
This latest feature can be found in the a new Video tab in the user’s main profile, making it easier for people to discover video content directly and to navigate more swiftly through the content.
Whilst Reels remain unaffected, staying in their own Reels tab, users can now fast-forward through a video by long-pressing on the screen and sliding their finger to select a different point in the video.
Now when users encounter videos on Instagram, they’ll be able to tap anywhere on the video to enter the full screen viewing mode.
What else are Instagram introducing?
Following the launch of Instagram Video, the app is also testing several other new options that would further integrate its various video functions.
New longer video uploads in Stories are being trialled too. This will essentially enable you to upload full Reels clips to your Stories. Reels clips were extended to 60 seconds back in July, and with this expansion in Stories, that’ll mean that you can upload your whole Reel to Stories as well, instead of directly to the specific Reels feed.
Reels are one of the latest features that have been met with great success. Short video clips, which can be edited to include music, text overlays and visual effects, helping you to create fun and engaging video content. Think Insta’s own version of TikTok but not quite so advanced.
And that’s not all, Instagram is also trialling a new tool called ‘Collabs’ that will allow a user to invite another user as a collaborator on a post or short video on Reels. Posts and videos that are co-authored will be shared to both sets of followers. Views, likes and comments will also be from both accounts, doubling the amount of engagement – a creators dream!
But what does this mean for my Dental Instagram page?
As Instagram consciously moves away from the “square grid picture sharing” app that it was once known as, your opportunities to diversify your digital marketing increases too. Users want personalised, engaging and dynamic content from social accounts, gaining more information from a business page in a shorter amount of time.
Personality and creativity becomes key for your dental practices marketing strategy. Utilising engaging video features to your advantage, showcasing your team, your services and your practice is a great way to make sure you’re utilising your platform to the best of it’s abilities. Collaborate and engage with other businesses and users too, to build your reach and increase your following.
Staying ahead of the trends for your dental practice’s page is an important part of showcasing who you are, what treatments you offer and ultimately a way to grow your patient list.
However, we get it, sometimes keeping up to date with new features on social media can be overwhelming, so why not Get in touch with us today and we can show you how to make sure that not only your social media is the best it can be, but all aspects of your digital marketing are working to deliver great results for your practice.