Instagram has announced that Stories will now be available as up to 60-second clips – not just 15 second clips. And, yes, this is super exciting for some obvious content creation reasons, but it’s also a very BIG deal algorithmically and strategically.
First, yes, from a content perspective, the option of creating a single one-minute video, rather than four 15-second videos, is awesome. Smooth flowing video. No breaks trying to match up music or middles of words in a cut over. So much goodness with this!
And, yes, there’s the inevitable reality that this longer form video option brings Reels and Stories more in line with each other. I’m still predicting that we’ll see the day these two formats merge into one, and this is just one more move in that direction.
But the real reason I’m excited about 60-second Stories is because it’s a big advantage algorithmically.
When someone is watching your Stories, if they don’t like or care for that sequence of content, they tap forward and skip that post. If you have a minute of videos as four 15-second clips, they are skipping ahead FOUR times. Now, a skip ahead is actually a negative ranking algorithmically. So that means you have FOUR negative dings against your content for that viewer. Not ideal!
BUT, if you only have one longer video and they don’t like the video, it’s only ONE skip forward. This is a much more accurate representation of their interaction with your content and better tells Instagram what that user is interested in from you, while keeping your content from dropping down the ranking.
Additionally, if someone watches a whole one-minute video, that’s a much longer retention. That shows more interest in your content than watching a short video and can also help be a boost algorithmically.
So, it’s a win-win! Yay for 60-second Stories!
And you can watch more about my thoughts on this in this video:
Instagram Expert (@jenns_trends)Oh, and if you’re one of those people that find value in shorter Stories, that’s ok too! You can still create shorter videos. You don’t have to max out the full minute if you don’t want to. You can still create a series of shorter ones or just a single video of 20 or 30 seconds. But the option of going up to one minute is going to be advantageous for so many!
Instagram is unpredictable. You never know when and what the platform will bring to us. No one thought 90 secs Reels and the same way you can expect even 90 secs stories! I doubt it will give any excitement to the users.