As I’ve been watching Instagram Stories and the occasional Instagram TV (IGTV?) video, I see a lot of videos that could be improved and made more watchable and enjoyable with better audio. So I thought I’d record a video showing some options for upping your audio game for social media without breaking the bank.
Before You Buy Anything
One of the benefits of Instagram Stories is that you can do it quickly and without having a lot of production or planning involved. Which is great and you should definitely keep doing off-the-cuff, behind the scenes kinds of videos for social media. What I’m proposing is that for videos where you have the time to do a bit of planning and prep, take along a bit of gear to help make sure it all looks and sounds as good as possible. People will watch something with lower video quality – but if the audio is frustrating to hear, they’ll swipe away pretty quickly.
Video: How to Improve Your Instagram Story or IGTV Audio
Gear in the Video
Here’s a list of the items I mention in the video which you can buy at Amazon or a local music gear shop should also be able to order them in if you can’t find them locally. A lot of these items are also included in my Gift Guide for Someone Who Wants to Get Into Podcasting blog post as well.
ATR2100 USB / XLR Handheld Mic
Rode smartLav+
Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter
In Summary
I think adding the ATR2100 mic to your Instagram Stories alone would improve a lot of the videos. I didn’t show it in the video, but it also comes with a little tripod that’s handy to use for recording handsfree with it. On that note, the Rode smartLav+ is handy for having your hands free to hold your phone or whatever else you might be needing to do while you’re filming.
Whichever route you go, they’ll both help improve the audio you record with your phone for under $100. Pretty good investment to win over potential customers on social media I’d say.
