If you haven’t tried Instagram before, then checking it out is long overdue. Instagram represents an amazing opportunity for the marketing community, adopting more features to become an even more valuable tool for businesses. If you’ve decided now’s the time to try Instagram, this post highlights some of the fundamentals from Instagram story size to best practices.
What is the perfect Instagram story size? How about the dimensions for the standard photo? How do you use Instagram for marketing? If you’re a newbie on Instagram, these things often get confusing. But the truth is most users don’t really care about the size of the photo or video story that you post on Instagram.
However, this is something you need to know if you are a business promoting your brand. If you know about Instagram story sizes and dimensions, then the video you create can be published more quickly. You want to make sure your content is entertaining, eye-catching, and easily digestible. Posting content in the proper Instagram story size is one way to make that happen.
What is an Instagram Story?
Instagram story is one of the many features of Instagram. It’s something similar to Snapchat stories, allowing you to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Is it hard to create an Instagram story? Nope. It’s super easy – you only need to tap the plus sign icon you see at the page’s top-left corner, which opens the story camera.
With the camera on, you can then take a picture or a video using the app directly. You can also use the app to add a video or photo from your phone’s photo library. The story camera takes those photos and videos, automatically fitting them into Instagram story dimensions. But if you use pictures and videos from your phone library, you might have to adjust them first.
Instagram stories are different than your usual Instagram posts because they don’t appear in the feed, on the profile grid, or on the explore page. They only appear as a colorful ring around your profile picture, indicating you have posted an Instagram story. Anyone who wants to view that story simply has to tap the profile picture, opening up the story in full screen.
Can you post more than one story within 24 hours? Yes, and they will be displayed chronologically. It’s a fun, entertaining way to let your viewers or followers know whatever is new in your life. For business accounts, you can use it to post stories that highlight your brand’s story. That serves as a great way to reach out to your audience and grow your brand.
Instagram Story Features
One of the best things about using Instagram as a marketing tool is the features that roll out one after another. Instagram stories are also like that, coming up with regular updates for improved functionality. Among the recent updates is the ability to add location, gifs, and searchable hashtags. You can also tag other accounts, making Instagram stories more than a simple post.
Interactive Instagram Stories
According to social media experts, the most exciting feature of Instagram is the interactive Instagram stories. With this feature, you can create a poster with a poll or a question that your followers can answer. This is undoubtedly a fun, creative, and efficient way to reach out to customers and hear from them.
Instagram Story Size and Dimensions
There are two concepts that you need to consider when dealing with Instagram Stories – size and dimensions. The size is the total MB or GB of the video or photo, while the dimensions or aspect ratio is the video or photo’s height and weight. For example, the aspect ratio of square pictures is 1:1, and vertical images have 4:5 dimensions. It represents the number of pixels, which is also known as resolution.
Instagram story size
Now, let’s talk about Instagram story size. The maximum size for a picture is 30 MB, while an Instagram video can go up to 4 GB. There’s one good reason why you must know the ideal size of an Instagram story, especially if you upload an edited or produced video. If the video does not fit the best size, Instagram will zoom, crop, or leave a part of it blank.
If that happens, your Instagram story might not look as you intended. Instead of attracting viewers, it will turn them off instead because of your posts’ lousy quality. But it’s a problem if you don’t know how to resize the video yourself. In that case, it helps to ask the help of experts who know how to create Instagram videos with the right size.
Instagram story dimensions
Besides Instagram story size, another thing to consider is the dimensions. The correct Instagram story dimensions are 1080px by 1920px. This means the picture or video must be 1080 pixels wide and 1920 pixels tall (height), also known as the 9:16 aspect ratio. This is the perfect dimension if you want high-quality videos and HD photos for your Instagram stories.
Importance of Knowing Instagram Story Size and Dimensions
Why does the size and dimensions of your Instagram story matter? It matters because viewers like beauty and quality. Uploading a photo that isn’t the size and dimension suitable for Instagram stories can result in it cut off or zoomed-in to fit the dimensions. As a result, your photo’s quality is significantly diminished.
In some cases, the pictures have blank spaces at the bottom and top. Either way, the photos or the videos you posted just looks off. Even if you are not a skilled, professional designer, you can tell that a video or image like that won’t cut it for marketing purposes. With that said, you want to make sure that the Instagram story size and dimensions of your content are correct.
How to Make Sure Your Content Follows Instagram Story Size and Dimensions
You can follow these tips to ensure your videos or photos for Instagram stories are the size and aspect ratio.
Take photos and videos with your phone in portrait mode.
If you are taking a photo or video with your phone for Instagram stories, choose the portrait mode. This mode follows the correct dimensions for Instagram stories. Almost all phone cameras have the portrait mode if you just look at the settings.
Use video or phone editors to resize the photos or videos.
If you want to make only some parts of the picture visible or do some edits, you make some quick changes to the phone or video using your image or video editors. There are some free editors, but you can only access limited features until you get the premium version.
Retouch the pictures or videos
Another way to edit your photos and videos and make them fit for Instagram stories is by removing unwanted objects. You can retouch your content using various tools, correcting and erasing things you don’t want visible in your Instagram story.
The Case of Lowered Image Quality
Instagram doesn’t lower the quality of an image or video as long as you follow their rules. It will reduce the quality of your picture goes over 1080 pixels in width. If you upload content over these numbers, the social media platform will convert it, resulting in drastically reduced image quality.
You can use some tools to help with this, capable of compressing photos if it is well above the recommended dimensions. You can also get the help of professionals with the right tools to convert the pictures or videos without lowering quality. This is a huge help for Instagram business accounts to post to Instagram from Dekstop without messing up the dimensions.
Enhancing Photo Quality for Instagram Stories
If photos are shot with a poor camera or are plain too old, what you can do is enhance them. There are also tools you can use for this, allowing you to make some adjustments. But if you are unfamiliar with editing tools, you can again ask a professional to do their magic with dubbing and editing, making your pictures more vivid and engaging. They can also ensure the photos for your Instagram story are within the right size and dimensions.
Instagram Story Tips and Best Practices
Instagram stories are amazingly versatile, making them great for businesses. Below are some more methods to use Instagram stories and their features to benefit your business.
Obtain content from followers
Instagram stories have a way for you to acquire content from your followers. There are various ways to do this, such as starting a poll to get feedback or directly asking your followers to share pictures of their purchases. You can then use that content in your Instagram stories, immediate social proof of your interaction with your audience.
Share user-generated content
With Instagram stories, you can show content made by users and followers. Doing so pleases your audience, as it means you care enough to know about them. By featuring their content on your Instagram account, not only will you save yourself from creating content but also shows your Instagram prowess.
Share moments from business events
If your business is conducting events, you can also promote them through Instagram stories. Even if they are months away, in the past, or is happening right now, you can entice your audience with pictures and images of events to showcase what they are missing out on. With this, your business can increase brand awareness and attendants.
Broadcast live to engage with your audience in real-time
You can also go live in Instagram stories, engaging with your followers in real-time. When you go live, you can do many things like talking about a particular topic about your business or hosting Q&As. You can also interview a guest, like an Instagram influencer. After the live, you can play it with all your Instagram stories.
Show the fun side of your business
Instagram stories are an excellent place to show the quirky side of your business. It doesn’t have to be anything special. Even just behind-the-scenes of doing business is already great content. Videos and images that tell your brand’s story is a fantastic way to get closer to your followers and reach out to potential customers.
Bunny Studio Can Help Ensure You Are Following Ideal Instagram Story Size
Instagram stories make one of the most effective social media marketing tools. But proper size and dimensions are essential to maximizing their potential. If you’re unsure how to edit your photos or videos to fit the correct Instagram story size and dimensions, you can submit your project to Bunny Studio for an expert’s help.
