10 IGTV Tips For Growing Your Audience

While Instagram’s IGTV feature has seen some impressive growth in popularity, simply posting content on the platform isn’t always enough. Here we look at ten key tips for creating content the platform’s users will actually take notice of.

_______________________________________

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

Instagram’s video feature known as IGTV is really hot at the moment, but just posting doesn’t lead to automatic success. IGTV videos require quality product to get people to watch for any length of time. These 10 IGTV tips will help you create content that will make people take notice.

1. Start the video with a hook. It’s important that viewers have a clear reason to watch until the end and the sooner they know what that is, the more likely they are to watch. One way to do that is by thinking of the first minute of your video as an introduction to a blog post by answering the following questions:

• Who is this video for?
• What is this video about?
• Why should you keep watching?

Answering these questions as soon as possible will guarantee longer and higher quality views.

2. Get to the point. Just like with other platforms, shorter is better. Keep the video to no more than 3 to 5 minutes max, or even shorter if you can.

3. Don’t forget the call-to-action. Tell people what to do at the end of the video, such as go to a link, sign up, share, or comment.

4. Use catchy titles and descriptions. Do some keyword research to find out what topics and titles related to your video are already working well, even on other platforms like YouTube. Be sure that your title conveys exactly what’s happening in the video.

5. Use Relevant Hashtags In Your Description. The search functionality in Instagram is not good and certainly can’t compare to YouTube. To ensure that your videos have a chance of being seen by non-followers, include relevant hashtags in your description. Your videos will show up on the corresponding hashtag page on Instagram, where people following that hashtag can discover your content.

6. Only post content that warrants a longer format. While Instagram Stories allows for short and snappy 15 second videos, IGTV specializes in long-form videos that are at least a minute long. As a result, you have to take that into account when creating a video just for the format.

7. Edit your video. People like when videos are raw and authentic so you don’t have to clean them up too much, but sometimes just trimming the front and back of the video helps you get to the point much quicker. You can do this with an app like Videorama, CutStory, Clipmatic, or now right from Creator Studio on Facebook.

8. Create a custom thumbnail. Use an outside app like Vont or Over to add a custom thumbnail with the title text.

9. Add a preview to the newsfeed. When publishing your video, choose Post Preview to allow the first minute of your video to appear in the newsfeed, explore page, and your profile page. Don’t forget to also promote your video in Instagram Stories.

10. Post consistently. Like all other social media, consistency counts. Try to post on the same day of the week at the same time. Schedule your videos to make it easier.

TIP: Instagram will automatically crop your video to a square when displaying the preview in the newsfeed. Be sure to shoot the first minute with extra space above your head (headroom) and your face appearing in the bottom half of the screen to make sure that part of your face or subject will not be cropped out of the frame. 

Although success on the format may be daunting to some artists, following these 10 IGTV tips will help you create some quality videos that people really want to watch.

You can read more from The Social Media Promotions For Musicians book and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.