Instagram rolled out its latest feature InstaVideos last month and marketers and businesses couldn’t be more eager to try out the new feature. While we love Instagram and actually think that Instagram should have introduced this new feature ages ago, it hurts us to see so many brands making the use of this cool new feature without really giving it much thought.

Reports indicate that users uploaded around five million InstaVideos with in the first 24 hours of the feature being introduced, and as expected there have been a number of brands hopping on InstaVideo bandwagon since then. But the question is, are these brands doing a good job at using Instagram videos for marketing? Well I’ll be honest, a lot of them are doing a great job, while many are just embarrassing themselves!

If you are one of the brands that have experimented with Instagram Videos, you already know how it is different than Twitter’s Vine. Instagram not only offers you more time for your video content with up to 15 seconds compared to Vine’s 6 seconds but it also offers you 13 different filters to enhance your videos. Now you combine that with the ease of sharing your video directly on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Voila! You have a great recipe to cook an awesome marketing campaign to share with the world! Oh and did I mention? Instagram let’s you go through stills from your InstaVideo and choose your favorite scene to use as the cover photo for your video.

So those are the features that make InstaVideos the new favorite plaything for marketers. Now back to the real question, how can you, as a business or a marketer use InstaVideos to promote your brand online? Let us help you figure that out:

Promotion of Events and Offers:

Got an event coming up? Use InstaVideo to promote it! Believe me 15 seconds are more than enough to promote an event or a special offer via video content. You can extend the reach of your brand message by using the description field and adding hashtags to it.

Product Demo:

Create a demo of your product like Nike did in this video . Show your audience how to use your product or how good it looks in a 15 second video to convince them to try it. Again, remember to use hashtags.

Create a Portfolio:

The 15 second Instagram Videos are a great way to show your work to your audience. Take a page from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams‘ book and create a visual demonstration of how your product was created or shoot a video of your recent project to help your potential clients get an idea of how good you are at your job.

Short How-To Guides:

Shoot a short video to show your audience how to use your product. This tactic has always worked for brands on Youtube, Vimeo and other video hosting sites and believe me, it works on InstaVideos too.

Facebook Sharing:

As mentioned before, Instagram let’s you share videos on Facebook directly and we all know how well visual content does on Facebook. Increase the reach of your brand message by sharing your InstaVideos on Facebook.

With over 130 million users, Instagram gives marketers a great opportunity to raise brand awareness. But in the end, it is not just the kind of video you are creating that matters but also the way you create it. Whether it is a how-to guide, a product demo, or something else entirely, just make sure your message is clear and that the video is designed to grab the attention of your target audience.

Have you created any InstaVideos for your brand so far? We’d love for you to share your ideas and videos in the comment section!