Are you curious about Instagram’s video-channel feature, IGTV? Instagram TV, or IGTV, is growing into a popular trend among Instagrammers, both for business and personal entertainment purposes. IGTV even has its exclusive app, although it is also accessible through Instagram’s regular platform. IGTV is, of recent times, turning out to be the preferred form of video posting for many Instagrammers. Businesses are finding new and creative ways of creating brand impact using IGTV. Are you wondering how your brand could profitably tap into IGTV’s potential?
Let us start with understanding what IGTV is all about first.
Instagram launched IGTV in 2018 to give its users the avenue to create longer videos. On IGTV, one can post videos that are up to an hour-long. Since then, the feature has seen specific updates. New IGTV content ranks high on the Instagram feed and can grab several Instagram TV views at first glance. Then views push your IGTV videos to ranking higher and grow traffic to your personal or business page. An IGTV view is counted every time a viewer spends at least 3 seconds watching the content. This can quickly happen when an Instagrammer paused to check the video cursorily while scrolling their feed. Moreover, IGTV content is discoverable on the Explore tab. This brings the content more visibility and is likely to bring in more audience traction, like IGTV views and likes.
An IGTV view is registered only once against each account that clicks on the content. This ensures that the count you see is of unique views and not of the same account viewing your content multiple times. This makes the viewer count a reliable into your audience outreach.
How Can IGTV be Used to Benefit your Brand?
As mentioned, it is easy to get your content view count ticking if you create IGTV videos. If you are using a business account intending to monetize your presence, you already know how crucial high audience engagement is on Instagram. Having a large number of followers is not always an indication of building a successful brand presence on Instagram. Inactive followers do not engage with the content you post. On the other hand, an IGTV view is a unique, organic interaction. Hence, the higher your IGTV count, the higher is audience engagement. It is a definite indication of successful content creation. Instagram’s users are more likely to be drawn towards accounts that have higher viewer engagement counts on their channels than towards accounts with lesser view counts.
IGTV is still a relatively new phenomenon, and it is quite understandable if you are hesitant about using IGTV extensively in your marketing strategy. We do believe that the medium has great potential and can help you build brand value and real relationships over Instagram.
How Do You Use IGTV?
You do not need to do anything more than use your existing Instagram account to create and post an IGTV video. Previously, you were required to create an IGTV channel in order to use this feature. Now you simply upload the video as you would any regular video, and it gets published on your IGTV account. All you have to do is share as a “long video” and follow the instructions thereafter. You will be allowed to add a description which you should fill out like you would for regular posts. Keep it keyword-rich and use relevant hashtags to ensure your video finds maximum audience reach. You will be prompted to choose a video cover image, post a preview, and to cross-share on Facebook as you click through the directions. Fairly simple, isn’t it?
As mentioned, IGTV has its own standalone app. Although viewers can simply use their regular Instagram app to view IGTV content, the app is designed to give the viewer the experience of browsing a video broadcasting app. You can download this to understand the viewer experience, as this will help you post better videos.
Like with any other feature, Instagram lets you track your audience engagement analytics on IGTV videos as well. Use it to develop your marketing strategies further.
Here are a few ideas on how to make long IGTV videos help you in building community and gaining customer loyalty:
1. Figure Out Your Niche
As a brand, you already cater to a business niche, but do you know what kind of video content suits your brand the best? This depends not only on what you sell but also on what brand image you are trying to build up for your brand. Do not hesitate to experiment and dabble with different genres of video content making. You can very well engage in making videos of different types of content all at once or choose to switch genre and presentation style as the occasion demands.
Orthodox marketing strategies call for keeping consistency in one’s theme or style of presentation. While this surely helps in building your brand persona, it all depends on who you are, who your target audience is, and what kind of content your target audience is likely to watch more. Here are some of the different types of video content you could make for your IGTV account:
-
How-to videos/ tutorials
This can range from the operating instructions of a product to soft counseling. Makeup artists, for instance, are often making demonstration videos and tutorials for creating a trending look. The same makeup artist may also make a video on how to clean up your makeup brushes after having done your makeup. A social worker may make a video on how to self-defend in times of need. The possibilities are endless here.
-
Q-A sessions
You probably already know you can use the Instagram Live feature to go live and interact with your audience in real-time. You can take questions from them during these sessions or answer questions previously sent to you. Live Q-A sessions build organic conversations around topics that are of importance to you and your audience. Such content is likely to find returning viewers. Like seminars, you can convert your Live sessions into posts on your IGTV channel by saving and uploading them here once the live broadcasting is over.
-
Interviews
These could be interviews with people working behind the scenes for your brand, your customers, or creators of the brand. You could do interviews with guests or even influencers. Or you could get influencers to conduct these interviews for your brand.
-
Reviews and endorsements
Product reviews and product endorsements can require time, and the long video format of IGTV is very suitable for the purpose.
-
Entertaining content
IGTV is a great platform for posting dances, shows, poetry reading, and connecting in general to the human side of your audience. You can post such content even if your brand does not fall in the categories that fit this kind of content. Do not always focus on selling your product. Aim for building a community of loyal audience. For instance, you do not have to be a music brand to post musical content. You can invite guests to sing for your audience, or you could simply sponsor a musical session. At the end of the day, you want your followers and potential clients to feel a sense of connection with you. What can be a better way to do that than finding common grounds to unwind together with.
2. Share Your IG Live Videos
Sharing your Instagram Live to IGTV is a great way to reach new audiences and get more views. Give your Live posts a permanent home in IGTV. Let your viewers find them here whenever they need to. This is also time-saving for your IGVT content-making strategy as you are, in effect, repurposing one type of Instagram content to fit the requirements. You can add edits and write a description explaining the improvements, or you can post the live video as is. Either way, you are sure to generate new views on the videos, especially if you follow this up with a notification in your feed and stories that lets your followers know where to look for the session if they missed watching it live. IG live videos are generally viewable only by your followers when in session. By posting it to your IGTV channel, you are also opening the session to other Instagrammers who are not on your follower list.
3. Pay Attention to Production Quality
As they say, the devil lies in the details. IGTV videos don’t have to be flawless to bring your brand popularity, but you should not be creating content just for the sake of creating content either. Likewise, you do not need extremely sophisticated equipment to shoot content for IGTV, but you must pay attention to the quality of the end product before you hit the publish button.
- Create a clear goal in focus.
- Ensure you have a clear video with clear audio.
- Edit to comb tooth errors.
- Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and check if your video meets viewer expectations. A well-made video is thoughtful and able to make a real audience feel a connection with the content.
4. Create A Series
Earlier, you could only create individual videos and post them without the ability to categorize them. This changed when IGTV introduced its new series feature. Now you can create content in an episodic format and categorize them as part of the same series. This gives the viewer the experience of watching a series on a broadcasting channel. The TV-like experience of watching content centered around a particular theme also has the same advantage entertaining television series have – it makes the audience come back for more. The anticipation of “what will happen in the next episode” is a great audience retainer. This is true not only for Story series or episodes with cliffhangers; a well-presented talk or review series can also have the same effect. If you can launch a series that attracts your target audience, you will have your viewers retiring to view fresh content whenever they get posted.
5. Experiment with Video-Orientation
Although the new version of IGTV allows for uploading videos shot either in horizontal or vertical orientation, experiment to see which orientation gives your audience the best viewer experience. Vertically shot videos appear larger on the screen and give the viewer the immersive experience IGTV originally aimed for when it was launched. Optimize your video for the channel. Keep in mind that the vertical video format might not be your best choice if you intend to upload the content simultaneously on your account on other video platforms, like YouTube. Create content specifically for IGTV to create the optimal video.
6. Use Video Editing Features That Enable Your Content
Although IGTV allows you to create videos up to 60 minutes long, you do not necessarily have to make it that long each time you create content. Moreover, you can always edit your long videos into easy-to-follow segments. Keep in mind your audience’s attention span when you make your videos. It is good to break the monotony of a long video by using slides and photograph inserts when necessary. You could use these to provide your audience with details that add value to your content, like captions, graphs, and timelines. Captions and subtitles are particularly enabling, as they allow viewers to follow your content even when they cannot use the audio feature. You can also add animation to add a sense of lightness and to enable viewers to visualize the subject matter in the discussion better.
7. Be Consistent in Your Aesthetics
While you can and should experiment with making different types of videos to attract maximum views, it is worth keeping the aesthetics of your videos identifiable and consistent. You can do this by:
- Adding your brand logo to your video. You could simply add it to a corner of the video while editing it or use it as a physical part of the shoot itself.
- Add identifiable watermarks.
- If the nature of your content allows it, try and stick to the same backdrop to make your videos more visually identifiable at first glance.
- If possible, match the aesthetics you follow in your Instagram stories and feed.
8. Share Links to Your IGTV Channel
Bring more audience to your channel by talking about it – post links to your channel on other social platforms you use. Use your Story feed to announce the airing of new content on your IGTV feed; add a link that Instagrammers can swipe to land directly on your IGTV channel. Drive traffic from IGTV to your Instagram feed and vice versa to maximize user engagement.
To Sum Up
The key to building a community using IGTV is popularizing the content you post on IGTV. With the right strategies in place, you will soon be able to generate the desired reach and impressions for your IGTV content. This, in turn, will help your brand grow a more recognizable presence on Instagram. Needless to say, if you manage this presence wisely, you will have a loyal and ever-growing group of organic followers. Do not hesitate to make IGTV a prominent part of your Instagram strategy, this feature, like Instagram’s reels, has the potential to catapult you into quick fame. So, make the perfect videos, and see yourself trend on the social media platform in ways that can only spell more success for your brand.
