From a content marketing standpoint, there are many reasons why we love IGTV (Instagram TV). Without a doubt, in social media marketing, one of the most effective and useful formats to employ is video.
IGTV, released back on June 20, 2018, is Instagram’s response to YouTube. It has been designed and optimised for mobile viewing of long-form vertical videos, where users can set up their channel and verified users can pump in up to an hour-long video. IGTV is accessible via Instagram and as a standalone app.
1. Got no Pro Equipment, Not a Problem
1. Got no Pro Equipment, Not a ProblemToday, it is no longer expected to produce professional quality videos, the same as it was during the early days of YouTube. It used to be that the lack of professional A/V equipment was a hindrance to entry, but no longer.
With today’s advancement in handheld devices, anyone can make video content. All one needs now is their phone or any point-and-shoot camera that is capable of recording videos. Accompanied by the proliferation and development of platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram Stories and its latest addition Instagram Reels, the playing field is on equal footing for everyone by making it possible to create video content with an equipment they already have – their mobile phones. Your imagination and story-making savvy are all that’s needed for anyone to produce entertaining and engaging content.
2. Creating is Easy As Pie
With the help of only your mobile phone, you can create content that you can share with your family, friends, and followers with a simple click. It is not even necessary to have expensive lighting equipment, inexpensive ring lights can suffice. You can even go further by exploiting nature and shoot outside using daylight, or shoot indoors using light coming in from your window.
While professional videographers may employ the use of professional equipment and their knowledge in creating videos for IGTV, there is no expectation for anyone to produce a professional-level output.
3. Make Money with IGTV
If you are already a YouTube content creator, you may be familiar with monetisation. YouTube pays its top creators up to $5.00 per 1,000 views. This is on top of the ad revenues they make for their content and sponsorship deals, IGTV on the other hand pays its creators nothing. Of course, money-centric creators will gravitate towards where the money is, but hold on.
Although Instagram does not offer ad options on IGTV at the moment, there are other avenues to gain money by using IGTV. Yes, you read that right, you can make money through IGTV.
Admittedly, the first requirement for you to start raking in the bucks is for you to have a sizeable following. Once you acquire that, companies may come and offer to pay you to promote their products. Concurrently, you can also use your own IGTV platform to endorse your products.
When promoting items, companies would pay you every time someone purchases an item through a link you provided in your channel. This practice is now also being done by YouTube content creators. Additionally, other channels can also pay you to promote their IGTV channels.
The only downside IGTV has as of the moment over YouTube is that it needs to enhance its conversion rate optimisation (CRO) by adding more link options for brand accounts. Even then, the possibility of earning coins on your IGTV channel is possible.
4. IGTV can get you a step ahead of everyone
Instagram currently has one billion plus active users, this same number also has IGTV accounts or channels by default. Despite this number, a big percentage of these users have not established themselves to exploit this platform yet.
What this means for you is that there is an opportunity for anyone to be one of its future IGTV stars. There is a lot of elbow room for you to start viral trends, build and grow your following, and create and push your brand.
If you already have been creating content for YouTube, the next logical step is IGTV. Just remember that, unlike YouTube’s landscape format, IGTV employs a vertical format.
5. Crack Your Video Archive Open
If you have been on social media for quite a bit, it would not be far-fetched that you might already have multiple video-sharing accounts, each being hosted by different websites, and having varied functions. Using your IGTV account is going to be beneficial because it gives you another avenue to repurpose your existing videos from other video-sharing sites or even content that is in your archives but has not been released yet. Setting up your IGTV account can potentially extend the reach of your content effectively.
The process works both ways. Just as you can repurpose your video content from other sites or even your archive to IGTV, you can also repurpose your videos created in IGTV to other video-sharing sites and applications.
Tip: For your longer videos from other video-sharing platforms, re-edit them and do mini versions for IGTV. Remember that for smaller accounts, IGTV allows a 10-minute video. Officially verified accounts and/or those with 10,000 followers or more can upload up to an hour of video.
Bonus: You can still Jive even when not Live
Probably, the biggest hindrance of any individual who delves into the field of video content creation is confidence. Though it may be true that a lot of people would want to shine and be stars of their channels, not everyone is confident enough to appear LIVE on-screen.
The good news is that IGTV sought to break this content creator dilemma by providing an avenue for creators to upload pre-recorded videos. While you still have the option to broadcast content live on Instagram, IGTV has provided a refuge for creative content creators who are still not confident and intimidated about going live by providing an option for people to upload pre-recorded videos.
With the right message, uniform branding and a solid strategy, you too can reach and engage your customers through these powerful visual mediums. Get in touch with our Social Media Marketing team to see how we can help.
