Instagram’s IGTV: What It Means for Your Brand
If you’ve watched Netflix’s cheeky one-hour video of Cole Sprouse eating a hamburger, then you know about IGTV. The video that was uploaded on Instagram’s brand new, long-format, vertical video streaming platform, has garnered over 500,000 views and 5,000 comments so far!
Netflix is not alone in experimenting with Instagram’s new app. Other brands like Bloomberg, Nike, BuzzFeed, and Vogue have also jumped on the bandwagon.
Videos are expected to account for 78% of the total mobile traffic by 2021. A report by UXMatters says that mobile users hold their phones vertically 90% of the time. Instagram’s decision to launch a vertical video-viewing app has come at the right time.
Let’s find out the latest buzz about the app and how to leverage it for your brand:
Features:
- Videos appear in a vertical format. No more rotating your phone to watch videos.
- Videos can be an hour long.
- You can add a description (with clickable links) and a title to each video.
- Videos play automatically when you open the app.
- Videos can be up to 3.6 GB in size.
- As of now, there are no ads in the videos.
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Users can browse between “For You,” “Following,” “Popular,” and “Continue Watching” tabs.
- The For You tab: shows users videos that IGTV thinks they may like based on their interests.
- The Following tab: videos from friends that the user is already following on Instagram.
- The Popular tab: videos that are already trending.
- The Continue Watching tab: takes users back to the videos that they were watching, but did not finish.
1. Types of Videos to Create
As a brand, you can create videos for the following:
- Tutorials
- Product reviews by influencers
- Demos on how your product fits in with your consumers’ day-to-day lives
- Team introductions
- Office tours
- Scripted stories
- Educational videos
- Behind the scenes
- Events and launch parties
Benefits:
- Huge Audience: With a ready audience of over one billion users, the potential benefits of IGTV seem endless. You already have the reach, so you just have to create something that your audience likes and shares.
- The Visual Benefit: The right video can help you deliver your message quickly and easily. Unlike boring emails and long texts, videos are cool and quirky.
- Affordable: All you need is a decent camera (your phone camera is enough) and you can rope in considerable ROI.
- Lesser Competition: Unlike Facebook and YouTube, IGTV has been launched recently, so there’s little competition currently. Start early and establish your brand before everyone else.
2. How to Use IGTV
You can either download the standalone IGTV app or you can use it from inside your Instagram app. The picture below shows a screenshot from the Instagram app. You can see a small IGTV icon on the upper righthand side. Every time someone you are following posts a new video, you’ll be notified.
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Log into the app and click on your profile picture. It will prompt you to create your own channel. Follow the instructions and you will be led to your IGTV home feed.
Click on your profile picture and you will be taken to your channel. Click on the plus icon to start uploading videos. There’s a catch here though: you can film the video from your phone camera or off of another camera app and then upload to IGTV.
Anyone who follows you on Instagram can see your IGTV channel on your profile. The channel will appear right below your bio as shown in the below image:
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Tips to improve your brand reach on IGTV:
- Emphasize on Branding: Create a brand identity that communicates trust and authenticity.
- Schedule Your Videos: Stick to a schedule so that your audience knows when to expect a new video from you.
- Video Length: Although IGTV lets you create hour-long videos, don’t jump to it right away. Start with shorter and crisper videos that last up to 2-3 minutes.
- Call-to-Action: Leave a link to your site in the video’s description so that your audience is just a click away from learning how cool your brand is.
3. How Brands Can Leverage IGTV Benefits
- Improve Employee Engagement: Use IGTV to showcase people who add life to your brand — your employees. Introduce them to your audience. Share fun stories about your team. Let them answer questions your consumers ask in the comments.
- Showcase Products and Services: Make categories of your products and showcase them to your audience in separate video series. Link each video to a different landing page.
- Brand News: Use this as a platform to share updates, news, and announcements about your brand in a storytelling format.
- Repurpose Existing Content: Repurpose your existing videos and Instagram Stories and upload them to IGTV.
4. How to Measure the Success of Your IGTV Videos
Click on the video. Swipe down for video details. You can easily view insights just like a business on the regular Instagram app. The image below explains the process.
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You can now analyze the below metrics:
- Views
- Engagement: likes and comments
- Audience retention: Percentage of viewers who watched your video till the end
- Audience retention graph: Graph showing the percentage of viewers at each moment of the video
IGTV has been out just for a month and we can already see brands jumping in. MTV is planning to release this year’s Video Music Awards on IGTV. Louis Vuitton has made a 12-minute video on Men’s Spring-Summer 2019 fashion show using this platform.
While brands are crushing it on IGTV, it’s still too early to say what the future of the app looks like. It depends on how ready the audience is to download yet another app and stay active on it! Only time will tell whether IGTV will become a game-changer in the video platform or fade away like another Instagram story.
