Views From The 6ram: Why I Like IG Video Views
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If you’re a certified IG creeper, popular Instagram accounts are starting to catch on to your snooping ways.
About two weeks ago, Instagram rolled out views for their videos on mobile. Instead of seeing the number of likes under a video, users see a play button and the number of 3-second views the video has received so far.
As an Instagram user, and a marketer, I am a huge fan of this. I never post videos on my personal page simply because they never receive the same amount of “attention” a regular photo receives. People never seem to take the time to stop scrolling, watch a video and like it as they would do a regular photo. I’m guilty of this as well as 15 seconds is a lot of valuable time…
Well Instagram decided to let users know a little bit more about whether or not their videos are successful. Below is one of my favorite IG fitness inspirations, Massy.Arias. She posts great workout and nutrition tips daily on IG.
She has 187K+ views on one of her videos from last week. Very impressive.
However, if you click on the views button, you can see how many users actually liked her post. “Only” 16K. She gets significantly more views than likes.
The funny thing is, I believe Instagram was originally telling on users who watched videos but didn’t like them. As of today (March 1st), I can’t see the feature, but who knows if and when it will return.
I also started noticing a “suggested ” area below videos that have a lot of views. It will be interesting to see what develops here.
The Marketing Advantage
I like the way Instagram counts views way better than how Vine counts views because they seem more reliable and realistic. Now marketers have an even better idea of accounts that have a strong audience for influencer campaigns.
Video views can also tell marketers how well their own content is doing. If you have a ton of followers on Instagram, but your video views are low, you may want to improve your videos with better quality visuals / sound or by using Instagram Ads. I’m sure once marketers start seeing actual numbers, they’ll be ready to throw money behind their videos to see them grow even more, especially since brands have access to longer clips.
With these new video features and the ability to easily switch between five accounts (FINALLY!), Instagram is fully prepared to take over with video this year. It is certainly time the app got in line with Facebook, their owner, and provided us with stats on our posts. I just need them to open up the data on our photos already!
What do you think about Instagram’s new video views feature? Comment below or tweet me at @yeahitslex.
