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How to Create Videos That Fit Instagram Stories

Instagram is a mobile-only social media platform that allows users to share pictures and videos of their lives. It has over 800 million monthly active users. One of the newest features on Instagram is “Instagram Stories. “Unlike Snapchat’s stories, Instagram Stories are available for 24 hours before they expire.

Understanding the purpose

Instagram Stories is intended for short snippets of life, so it makes sense that videos are short. This is characterized by non-permanent content. It also forces vertical video in line with the “mobile-first” trend. The video we were familiar with was the landscape ratio. That’s why it was unfamiliar to people to shoot vertical videos in the first place. But now, the vertical format has become familiar to us, and even the vertical version of the music video is released separately.

Also, the business value of Instagram Stories is that you can show your message 100% to your followers without advertising. (Whether it will be clicked or not depends on the depth of the relationship between you and your customers.) It disappears after 24 hours, but the content reaches all followers, so you can try to induce the active participation of customers. The Facebook business page shares various success stories.

Optimized size for Instagram Stories

The dimension of the Instagram Stories videos is 9:16. In terms of pixels, 1080x1920 is the optimal size. This is a vertical FHD quality video, and most smartphones can shoot in a vertical ratio (9:16). There is no exception, and you must make a video just in size suggested by Instagram.

Video length of Instagram Stories

Videos can be no longer than 15 seconds long on Instagram Stories. If it’s a vertical video longer than 15 seconds, you can upload it to IGTV. Also, these days there are Instagram Reels, so you can upload short-form videos like TikTok. There are so many formats that you may feel this is complicated. True. But you are looking for the right channel or form for your business purpose. If so, you just need to understand that 15-second vertical videos are uploaded to Instagram Stories, and longer videos use IGTV.

Making your video for Instagram Stories

Although Instagram Stories videos are vertically sized, the way you make them is not notably different. You can use the tools you are familiar with. Just set the canvas to 9:16 size and start.

But these days, many web-based video makers are specialized in Instagram Stories. If you want to be productive in video making, I recommend these tools.

Ready-made template video makers

If you want to make it carefully one by one, you can use Premiere or After Effects. But if you use online video makers, you can quickly create a video with less effort. Most services provide a lot of ready-made templates. These services have already prepared many design templates suitable for Instagram Stories and allow users to change only the message. There are many template-based services. A typical template-based service that I would like to recommend is Video Maker by Placeit. You only need to change the contents of the pre-made After Effects template.

Promo is also a service that makes it easy to use dynamic templates. You can use dynamic effects from AE, but there are many restrictions on content change or image replacement. If you cannot find a template that fits your message perfectly, you’ll have to compromise a bit.

Animated GIF style video makers

Alternatively, Animated GIF-quality results such as Canva and Crello are an excellent option for making Instagram Stories videos. These services are suitable for promotions or time sales rather than message delivery.

Best Alternative to kill two birds with one stone.

If you have a clear video sales letter script, there is a way to kill two birds with one stone. VideoStew is a service that was born for that purpose. The most differentiations are that there are no pre-made templates. (Actually, there are many templates, but it’s just a guide for your easy start. It’s fully customizable.) The content you create through the web editor itself becomes a template. So, you don’t need to waste your time to search a suitable template that fits your message. Instead, just type in what you want.

It is a web-based editor that feels like a PowerPoint, and you can freely make your own template without any restriction. You will definitely have a new video-making experience that you have never experienced before.