Millions of people watch Instagram stories each day. With that kind of potential audience, Instagrammers need to spend time on social media video editing to make their content super engaging to compete with the millions of other Instagrammers and businesses constantly generating content.
Successful Instagrammers edit their videos based on a well-thought-out plan or storyboard. The plan guides the addition of special effects, the length of the video, and how other creative elements are used in the final product.
Let’s start with a few tricks of the trade and easy video editing for social media used by many Instagrammers who create high-quality content that attracts engagement, paid sponsorships, and high numbers of click-throughs.
Before you start playing around with your footage, decide if you are going to use the content as an Instagram post, reel, or story. Each type of post has different requirements, and there are nuances to each that will impact how they should be edited.
Editing Feed Posts
A video posted to your feed must be between three seconds and one hour in length. If your video is longer than one minute, users will see a preview in your feed so they can decide if they want to view the entire video. This is not ideal, and you need to catch their attention in the first few seconds to get them to watch the entire video.
If you try to upload a video that is longer than sixty seconds, Instagram will trim it for you. In this case, you will have no control over how it is shortened, and all your hard work may end up feeling disjointed.
Editing Reels
Most influencers and businesses focus on reels. These are short videos that are usually between fifteen and sixty seconds long, but can be up to ninety seconds.
Editing Stories
An Instagram story disappears from the platform twenty-four hours after it is posted and must be sixty seconds or less. If you try to upload a video that is longer than one minute, Instagram will chop it into sixty-second clips–or you can trim it yourself before posting.
More About Editing
Instagram has a built-in editing tool that is very basic but allows you to add music, virtual reality features, filters, text, and other effects. It might be a good place to start until you get your mojo going, but you may want to use a third-party editing tool or a professional editing service like Vidpros to help you create content. Keep in mind that most Instagram videos are viewed on phones, so they need to be created in portrait format, too.
A Better Alternative
Video editing is an art that is constantly evolving, and Vidpros is the top provider of fractional editing services. Influencers, brands, and social media marketers who don’t have the time or desire to learn video editing for freelancing and social media marketing often rely on our pool of editing professionals to transform their footage into captivating Instagram content.
Our team is intimately familiar with editing video content to align with the technical specifications and best practices associated with Instagram. Partnering with Vidpros allows you to focus on your core business while our pros do their magic and transform footage into an outstanding video that is consistent with your messaging and boosts audience engagement!
