By Raja Anjana Kothapalli
Hobo Video brings you a comprehensive IGTV guide for all you need to know about IGTV. What is IGTV? About IGTV basics. How to upload videos on IGTV? How to create an IGTV series? Why use IGTV for business? What are the different ways to use IGTV for business? About IGTV best practices. Read on to know all the information.
What is IGTV?
What is IGTV is the first question any beginner would ask. To answer that comprehensively, IGTV is a video app by Instagram developed for Android and iOS smartphones. Compared to Instagram feeds IGTV allows users to take longer videos. While IGTV is available as a stand-alone application, it is also available as a part of the Instagram app and website.
IGTV is essentially Instagram’s answer to YouTube and to a way to differentiate Instagram from TikTok. It is designed for the mobile-optimized viewing of long-form videos. Any user can set up their channel and share video content that is up to an hour-long.
IGTV basics:
1. Length: IGTV video length must be between 15 seconds and 10 minutes. However, larger and verified accounts can upload long-form videos with video length up to 60 minutes. But they must be uploaded from a computer, not a phone.
2. Format: Videos must be in MP4 file format.
3. Dimension: Videos should be vertical with a minimum aspect ratio of 4:5 and a maximum of 9:16. However, only IGTV app users can watch horizontal videos on the full-screen mode by flipping their phones.
4. Size: The maximum filesize for videos that are 10 minutes or less is 650 MB. And, for videos up to 60 minutes is 5.4 GB.
5. Content: IGTV videos that do not follow Instagram Community Guidelines will be removed.
How to upload videos on IGTV?
Upload from Instagram:
1. Tap the ‘+’ button on the bottom center of your newsfeed.
2. Choose a video of length 60 seconds or more, and then tap ‘next’.
3. Select share as long video and tap ‘continue’.
4. Select a cover image for your video from existing choices or an image from your gallery, and then tap ‘next’. You cannot edit the cover image once you upload it. So make sure it is perfect before you upload it.
5. Enter the title and description. You can opt to post a preview of your video on your newsfeed. Also, opt to make your video visible on Facebook for cross-promotion.
Upload from IGTV
1. Tap the ‘+’ button on the top right corner of the screen.
2. Choose a video of length 60 seconds or more, and then tap ‘next’.
3. Select a cover image for your video from existing choices or an image from your gallery, and then tap ‘next’. You cannot edit the cover image once you upload it. So make sure it is perfect before you upload it.
4. Enter the title and description. You can opt to post a preview of your video on your newsfeed. Also, opt to make your video visible on Facebook for cross-promotion.
How to create an IGTV series?
The steps for creating an IGTV series are the same for Instagram and IGTV.
1. On the screen where you enter the title and description of your video, tap ‘add to series’.
2. Tap ‘create your first series’.
3. Enter your IGTV series title and description, then tap on the blue checkmark on the top right corner of the screen.
4. Select the series for the video you are uploading and then tap ‘done’ on the top right corner of the screen.
Why use IGTV for business?
Videos are a powerful tool for brands to engage consumers. Millennials and Generation Z watches a lot of video content. Gen Z watches 68 videos in a day. Currently, teenagers between 13 to 17 years, spend 71% of their time on their smartphones watching videos. They spend more than 3 hours every day watching videos online on their smartphones. As a result, brands are inkling more towards video-based content to be trendy and engage with younger audiences.
IGTV helps to promote your business via compelling video stories. 6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV. 72% of consumers prefer to learn about a product or service by way of a video. Year over year there is an 80% increase in the time people spend watching videos on Instagram. You can use IGTV for business by making it a part of your brand’s Instagram marketing strategy.
7 Ways to use IGTV for business:
Have you been wondering how to add IGTV to your Instagram marketing strategy? Are you looking for ideas to create engaging IGTV content? Here are 7 ways to use IGTV for businesses listed by Hobo Video that can increase your brand visibility on Instagram.
1. Create fresh and lively content
To keep your viewers engaged and wanting to come back to your channel, you need consistent fresh and lively content. Based on the interests of your consumers and the information they tend to seek from your business, you can create fresh content to drive traffic and increase engagement for your channel. IGTV helps you reach out to your consumers without overloading them with information via one single and extremely lengthy video. You can divide the information you want to share with your consumers into a series of creative videos to capture the interest of your viewers. This will not only increase your business visibility but help drive traffic from existing as well as new consumers. IGTV video series is a great way to do this.
2. Use popular old content
Another way to use IGTV for business is by posting popular old content from your other social media platforms on your channel. If you are an established business or already have an online presence before operating an active channel, then you would surely have some amazing videos that increased your visibility on other social media platforms. Post such popular old content on your new IGTV channel to drive traffic and further boost your visibility. If your videos are in horizontal video format, then you need to edit them to the vertical video format. Observe your viewers and their reaction to this content and update your new content to match their interests.
3. Publish online interviews
Find out whose interviews would your viewers want to follow and whose interviews can enhance engagement for your business. It can be an industry expert, or your company’s media face or heads or a team, or social media influencers. Talk to them in an engaging Q&A session to create unique and insightful content for your viewers. You need not exclusively organize interviews to drive traffic, you can cut, edit, and post spinners of potential content in IGTV video format from any seminar or conference video recordings of your company.
4. Preview webinars
A preview of webinars is another way to use IGTV for business. As a growing video platform, IGTV is a great way to use long-form videos to get your viewers to know, like, and trust your business. Using it, you can post a FAQ video about your webinar. You can give your viewers a preview of your webinar. And, highlight the benefits they can receive by attending the webinar. You can introduce them to your topic and speakers. If you can manage to put a little thought into creating such videos and come up with attractive content, you can create a genuine interest among your viewers to follow the webinar. This will help enhance the credibility and visibility of your business.
5. Provide informative tutorials
The product or service offered by your business can be marketing via step-by-step tutorial videos. IGTV allows you to publish longer videos making it easy to share tutorial videos with your viewers on various offerings of your business. These tutorials can be on how to use your product, or how to use your product in a new way, or how your product provides value to your consumers. Your viewers appreciate this form of marketing because it provides a means to extract more value from the products they purchased or want to purchase. If you are a makeup brand, upload step-by-step tutorials addressing the different makeup needs of your viewers. For example, upload a how to get smashing smokey eyes video by showcasing how to use your products to achieve the best results.
6. Upload behind-the-scenes videos
Use it for your business by uploading behind-the-scenes videos. Your consumers will be interested in knowing the process behind the manufacturing of their favorite products. If you are a cheese brand, share the behind-the-scene video of your manufacturing process, cheese-making methods, different types of cheese you make, your packaging process, etc., to create interest and enhance the credibility of your brand. This can be effectively applied to a business offering service too. For example, if you are a wedding planner, engage your viewers with behind-the-scene videos of various wedding planner activities such as the selection of a wedding invitation card, the process of making a gift registry, and pre-event decor arrangements. Fill these videos with fun and make them memorable.
7. Develop a community that knows you
Use IGTV for your business by developing an online community via your channel viewers and letting them get to know you via your content and viewer engagement. This adds to the goodwill of your brands and increases the visibility of your business. You can use IGTV to share weekly or monthly segments with your viewers. As your videos become more prevalent, they stand out and resonate with your viewers. Also, being consistent while uploading your videos by having a regular schedule will make your viewers accustomed to coming back and watching your video segments on your channel.
IGTV best practices
Hobo Video brings you important IGTV best practices that you need to know to successfully use as part of your Instagram marketing strategy.
1. Make vertical videos: IGTV supports vertical videos, the most prominent way of viewing videos on mobiles. It means that when you want to use old videos from your other social media platforms for your IGTV channel, you have to make sure that the video format is 9:16, specifically edited for IGTV.
2. Optimise the 10-minute video length: On IGTV videos last for up to 10 minutes unlike short-form video social platforms such as TikTok. This gives you more room to create engaging videos. However, this 10-minute window doesn’t necessarily mean it is a mandatory IGTV video length. You have to ensure that your video length matches your viewers’ average viewing time.
3. Share content and use the right hashtags: Share your content as much as possible and across as many platforms as possible. Also, it is crucial to use the right and relevant hashtags to boost your content. Similar to Instagram, hashtags on IGTV can be added in either the video description or the comment section of your post. So this will allow for the video to reach more people.
4. Take feedback and use it: Your job does not end with uploading quality content and engaging with your viewers. Go a step ahead and ask them for their feedback on your content. You can ask them what they want to watch on your IGTV channel.
5. Be unique and authentic: You need to keep your content unique and authentic. Ensure there is no disconnect with your viewers. Your content should give your viewers a reason to follow you.
Ready to get started on IGTV?
Hope this comprehensive IGTV guide by Hobo Video has helped you to provide all the information you need to get started on IGTV. For any queries or feedback, feel free to comment below. If interested read here for tips to spice up your Instagram.
