IGTV: What we think of Instagram’s new feature
Instagram boasts 130 million active users and 58 photos are uploaded on average every second.
So with such a massive share of the market, what more could the picture champs want? More. Always more.
It was inevitable that Instagram HQ had something new up their sleeves for us at some point in 2018. But when it broke the news of IGTV it split the opinions of its user base.
Does it rival YouTube? Should it want to rival YouTube? Will people get on board?
For those of you who haven’t had a chance to play around with IGTV yet… what have you been doing!?
The feature is Instagram’s new long-form vertical video platform. It’s made specifically to be consumed on your mobile device and, as all good new features allow you to be a little bit more lazy with every update, you don’t even have to build up a community on a new platform, your Instagram family is already there and ready!
Instagram have even, ever so kindly, created IGTV it’s own app, especially for the strange individuals among us who haven’t loaded their phone storage with every other useful and useless app on the market.
Spoiler: we’re not the biggest fan of the new feature. Reasons/rants to follow later.
But there are some benefits.
Previously, only the Instagram A-listers who had unlocked the swipe up feature could tag brands or websites; IGTV isn’t so elitist. Having the ability to shuffle your viewers towards outside websites is a massive bonus, especially for those of us involved in careers in digital marketing…
And there’s more good news! You can also add clickable hashtags – plus you can link your IGTV videos in your stories, which allows for pretty good promotion of your video.
Another feature we like is the simplicity of the upload. It’s super easy to get yours videos out – just like adding video to your stories, except there’s no limits on length! YouTube, take note.
However, it’s not a budding digital romance between IGTV and the Orfi Media team. And here’s why.
For one, once your video is up, there’s no going back. There’s no editing after publication, so any annoying small mistakes means completely re-uploading your content again.
On top of that, one of the reasons we love Instagram is the fact that it’s fast, aesthetically pleasing content at my fingertips. We flick through pictures, maybe watch a few stories, and then we’re out again.
Ask us to watch a full length video and you’re completely changing our relationship with the platform.
And for what? To try and muscle in on YouTube’s turf? That won’t end too well. Just ask Facebook Watch.
Are you team IGTV? Fair enough. To show there’s no hard feelings here’s a couple of pointers to help you early adopters to get ahead.
- If you’re going to upload, give me something worth spending the time to watch – leave the rest on your story! Can you provide your audience with some professional or expert insight, or tell them something they may not have heard before? Be informative, personal and entertaining if you’re going to ask for people’s attention for a longer period of time.
- Use the feature to tell us who you are. Even if you’ve been focusing on Instagram for a while, think about IGTV as a new space – don’t just assume people will find you through your IG profile. Take advantage of the new feature to tell us about you, your brand, what you do and why we should tune in next time.
- Sharing from Facebook? Podcast? YouTube? Go for it! Now the space is there use it as another way to promote content that you already have out there. Some of your YouTube followers may not be your Instagram followers, and the same goes with Twitter and Facebook. So use it as a promotion tool, it’s basically a free boost with a potential new audience. Enjoy!
What do you think of IGTV? We’d love to hear from you, so drop us a line at hello@orfimedia.com or get in touch over social media @orfimedia.
