How to utilize Instagram’s IGTV
Instagram is undoubtedly one of the largest social media platforms in the current landscape of our society. Owned by Facebook, the social media giant recently announced that Instagram, the photo and video content distribution platform, had approached 1 billion active monthly users on the site. To put things into context, that’s roughly 1 in 8 people on the entire planet.
Instagram has now launched IGTV – a platform for users to share and distribute content up to an hour in length. In a bid to overtake YouTube as the world’s largest video sharing platform, IGTV aims to rival the Google-owned social media phenomenon. In this article, we’re going to discuss what IGTV is, and some steps that you can implement in order to create good content for it.
It’s become absolutely no secret that people nowadays are watching less TV than they did 5 years ago. With the likes of YouTube and Netflix becoming the primary source of content consumption, large companies (such as Instagram) are looking for ways to gain even more attention within their platforms. Also, with the majority of content being viewed on a mobile device, it made sense for Instagram’s new platform to be optimized for vertical video. After all, those dimensions encourage a longer viewer retention time – causing the company and creator to make more money from monetization.
In order to create content for IGTV, it’s no good simply re-uploading content in a bid to save time. After all, landscape videos on a vertical video format look absolutely terrible. Instead, producers should be thinking about filming and editing content in a vertical mode specifically for IGTV. For example, you could shoot a vertical video about a show you recently played. But with more users to flocking to the platform due to vertical videos, it is inevitable that monetization within IGTV will become prominent. The most likely way that this will happen is Instagram putting pre or mid-roll ads inside videos – similar to what Facebook currently has. In contrast, there could be a subscription offering in which users pay X amount of money per month to avoid advertisements within videos.
During the launch event in San Fransisco (USA), Instagram said that they will allow anyone to create content within the new IGTV platform. Whether you are recording a night out with your friends, or a producer recording a set at Tomorrowland, IGTV seems to offer a wide variety of opportunities for anyone that has a passion for content creation.
Kevin Systrom, the CEO of Instagram, said that the app was specifically designed to make video consumption much easier on a mobile device. With the majority of apps (such as YouTube) requiring you to search through a directory, it’s not the most efficient experience in the world. In contrast, IGTV plays videos once the app is opened – much like a traditional television. With video consumption on the rise, and social networks becoming increasingly more important within society, IGTV is simply a prequel of what’s to come.