In this section we explore what you need to know to share good journalism on vertical video platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
TikTok
TikTok launched in 2017, and since then it has become enormously popular with younger audiences. It has over a billion monthly active users.
The app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, and concerns about user privacy have led to the app being banned in several countries, with others considering similar measures.
Nonetheless, a growing number of media organisations and individual journalists have launched accounts, to share news content and life as a journalist, with youth audiences.
Content that works well on the platform includes first-person storytelling, tutorials and tips, and behind the scenes insights, and videos that perform best are between 15-60 seconds long. Here are some examples:
An explainer on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation:
A piece on record floods in Australia in July 2022:
An explainer on the US Supreme Court limiting the powers of the Environmental Protection Authority:
To get started with TikTok you can read this in-depth guide from Hootsuite, and this Interhactives guide to journalists and media outlets doing innovative work on the platform. We also recommend this step-by-step guide from Buffer, and this tutorial by prominent TikTok user Rachel Pedersen:
Instagram Reels
Videos on Instagram Reels are very similar to those on Tiktok, and that’s no surprise, as the platform launched in 2020 to take on its Chinese rival.
Many content creators and journalists post the same videos to both platforms, and the production tools in the Instagram app are similar to those in TikTok.
Get started with Instagram Reels with this Later.Com guide and this Creative Bloq guide, or this tutorial from Shutterstock:
Instagram Stories
You can use Instagram Stories to share a single photo, or a series of photos that display like a slideshow, in a vertical format. You can add text, art and stickers to each photo. Once shared, they are visible for 24 hours. This detailed guide from Buffer will get you started.
You can download a Story to your camera gallery before it expires. This makes the app a useful took for creating vertical video clips which can be edited together later in an app like VN or LumaFusion.
You can also make a Story into a ‘Highlight’ that sits at the top of your profile until you remove it, or select ‘Share as Post’ to add it to your Instagram profile.
Tamara Baluja, a social media journalist at CBC Canada, created this detailed webinar on how journalists can use Instagram Stories, including guidance on how to use the app, and the types of stories you can tell with it as a reporter:
Instagram also has lots of features used by businesses, so if your job involves promoting your media outlet to paying subscribers, check out this Instagram Stories For Business guide from Later.