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Betsy Ramirez

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Bright Ideas

It’s Hip to be Square: How to Square Your Food Video

To square or not to square, that is the question? Why should you even care about square video? When I first started doing food videos over a year ago, I couldn’t even think about the shape of a video. You may (or may not) have noticed a difference in the shape of a lot of the Facebook videos over the last few year. There is a reason for that. Instagram really is to blame! Since they only focus on mobile, they only allowed a 1:1 aspect ratio (that means square) on their videos. While that is no longer a requirement for Instagram, it really made a difference when it came to a user scrolling through feeds.

Facebook followed the square video trend last April and for good reason. Those who go square have more real estate than the traditional 16:9. Square video gets more engagement. According to Laundry Service, a full service media agency, 1:1 outperform 16:9 videos by 54%. Square video receives 28% more views. Their data went further and found 67% of viewers were more likely to watch the entire square video verses an entire horizontal video.

To help you figure out what to do, I am answering some questions that I had for my own videos and how to incorporate it into future videos.

What size video do I need to be creating?

The size video you create really depends on where your target market lives. If it is on Facebook or Instagram, you really need to go square. If you want a YouTube audience, you need to continue 16:9. I think food bloggers and dietitians need to be present on YouTube as well as Facebook. It really comes down to where you want to put your time. I do both 16:9 and 1:1  but that has changed the way that I film my videos. I do make 2 separate videos for both platforms but I don’t do much tweaking to make it Facebook/Instagram friendly, keeping it a minute in length or less. On YouTube, I don’t really care how long the video runs.

What the heck is 1:1 and 16:9?

It the relationship between width and height expressed in numbers. Let’s not get too technical. Just know that 1:1 is for squares and 16:9 is for rectangles. It’s really that simple. If you are still confused, think it terms of pixels (which is different). Facebook requires a minimum of 600 pixel width. 600 x 600 is the smallest you can go. 1080 x 1080 is the highest I would go.

How do I make a square video?

You can easily manually set your videos for a 1:1 in Final Cut Pro and Premier Pro. Animoto just announced a square video builder just last week. If you do it in any other software, you may be able to manually set it using aspect ratio 1:1 or pixel size that I mentioned above.

If you can’t, my suggestion is to center all of your video when you film, and use an app. Clips was just launched by Apple. It’s free and in your app store. I can speak from personal experience that it works! You just save your video to Dropbox, download it to your phone, and upload to Facebook and Instagram. Boom, you are done!

Square if you dare!

 

Author: Betsy Ramirez

Betsy is a registered dietitian/nutritionist, homeschool mom, & fairy tale junkie, who loves getting crafty. Being on my bike and lifting weights are my therapy. Thinking outside the box is my jam!

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Comments

  1. Alysa Bajenaru, RD says

    March 27, 2017 at 11:42 pm

    Thank you, Betsy. You are a fantastic resource and I am so excited about the Facebook group!

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      March 28, 2017 at 6:04 pm

      So glad I can help, Alysa! So happy you are part of the group!

  2. Kelly Jones says

    March 28, 2017 at 8:33 am

    Great tips as I am getting ready to create a few vlogs and then want to do some hands in pans videos. Also just like seeing what you recommend for editing!

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      March 28, 2017 at 6:03 pm

      So happy you are doing videos! Can’t wait to see!

  3. Lindsey says

    March 28, 2017 at 9:40 am

    I had no idea! Thank you so much for the great info!

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      March 28, 2017 at 6:02 pm

      You are welcome! Glad to help!

  4. Kristina @ Love & Zest says

    March 28, 2017 at 12:04 pm

    Thanks for the tips! I will definitely look up that app!

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      March 28, 2017 at 6:01 pm

      So glad you found it helpful!

  5. Roxana says

    March 29, 2017 at 2:32 pm

    Great tips and advice. I used to center it like that. Nice to know about the new app options. Thanks for sharing about the group.

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      March 29, 2017 at 3:14 pm

      So happy to have you on board, Roxana! Thanks so much!

  6. Wendy Jo says

    March 29, 2017 at 2:42 pm

    This was such sound advice! Thank you! Posted my first square video!!!

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      March 29, 2017 at 3:14 pm

      I love your video, Wendy Jo! Keep rockin’ it!

  7. Lauren O'Connor says

    March 29, 2017 at 3:13 pm

    So helpful! Thanks for the tips.

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      March 29, 2017 at 3:15 pm

      Thanks, Lauren!

  8. Stacey Mattinson says

    March 29, 2017 at 3:52 pm

    Wow – I had no idea. Definitely need to be squaring my videos!

  9. Shannon @ KISS in the Kitchen says

    March 29, 2017 at 3:54 pm

    Bookmarking this for the future! Great tips- thank you!

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      April 1, 2017 at 12:23 pm

      Thanks so much, Shannon! Glad it helps!

  10. Jessica @Nutritioulicious says

    March 29, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    Such great tips Betsy! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!

    • Betsy Ramirez says

      April 1, 2017 at 12:23 pm

      Thanks, Jessica! Happy to help!

I am so tickled you are here!

I'm Betsy! I'm a registered dietitian, homeschool mom, Air Force wife, & world traveler. I love my family, food, crafts, exercise, nutrition, and now homeschool! Thank you for joining me at my kitchen table.

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