If you're ready to ramp up your live stream strategy, this episode of Digital Confetti will blow your mind.
My guest on this episode is Anita Wong, the tech queen of Instagram, Facebook, and video marketing. She helps "un-tech" savvy women to overcome their fears of tech and use all the business tools at their fingertips to share their message in real-time with confidence and authority.
In this episode of Digital Confetti, Anita shows us the many ways you can leverage Instagram TV. By doing so, you'll have more opportunities to:
Get discovered on the Explore page
Share long-form video content on all profiles
Make a running video series
IGTV is a surefire strategy to repurpose content and grow your audience.
What is IGTV?
IGTV is short for Instagram TV, and it is Instagram's TV platform. It is one of the different areas on the platform where you can post video content.
With IGTV, users have a lot of flexibility with uploading their content, including horizontal and vertical videos. When uploading to IGTV, you can be as creative as you want. Another plus is the ability to upload from your mobile device or your computer.
While Instagram is pushing users to put new short-form content on stories and reels, using IGTV for long-form content is growing rapidly. IGTV is also linked to Instagram Live. As long as your videos are longer than 60 seconds, there is a place for them on Instagram.
Accessing IGTV from the app is simple. Underneath the highlights section, there is a tab just for IGTV. From there, you can see every IGTV video you or another user has saved.
It's easy to create your content within the app or repurpose it elsewhere and then upload it. You can share your content from IGTV to your stories, and you can cut your videos down and repurpose them into reels. Everything drives back to one platform, which is a fantastic way to grow your audience.
You can even upload to IGTV from your computer. For example, if you record a live stream on Restream, you can download the original raw file to your computer, access the Instagram app through the Chrome browser, click the IGTV tab on your profile, and there is a blue "Upload" button. While there aren't as many features as there are on your phone, it's still an option.
“Instagram is like an ecosystem where you can share your content and be discovered in a multitude of different ways.”
Before posting a video to IGTV, it is important to add a thumbnail, which is easy to create in Canva or another graphic design app. Just select the IGTV template and make the image you want. If you create all the thumbnail covers in the same way it adds to your brand image as well.
Anita likes to use Mojo to create four-second thumbnails for her videos. She then uploads to InShot, which is another mobile video editor. Other editors include Wave.video, Camtasia, iMovie, and many more.
Additionally, Anita adds the first minute to minute and a half of the video to InShot. She creates a preview that teases her audiences, which helps drive traffic to her YouTube channel.
Instagram makes it easy for your audience to click the video to view more. You can also drive traffic to your website, YouTube channel, or another source for your main content by adding a clickable link in the description of the video.
“There are multiple ways to upload your long-form video content and your repurposed live streams to IGTV. You can use your phone, which gives you an endless amount of creative opportunities, such as stickers, effects, and more. Or, you can add videos directly from your computer.”
How to post an IGTV video
Even if you have great content on IGTV, getting people to watch your videos is another story. That's why it's crucial to have a great thumbnail to get your audience interested in clicking and learning more.
Anita's number one tip for thumbnails to get people to click on your video is to keep it uniform. On Anita's IGTV tab, all of her videos have the same thumbnail with a blue background and a laptop that slides in.
If you plan to create an IGTV tab on your profile, the best thing to do is click the three lines in the top right corner to open up the menu.
Inside of that menu, you have all of the options and places that you can actually post to Instagram in its native form:
Post
Story
Story highlight
IGTV video
Reel
Guide
If you select the IGTV video, it will open up your camera roll, and you can pick a video. The video must be longer than one minute for IGTV. Next, you can add a thumbnail from your camera roll that sits nicely in the square area. If you don't have a thumbnail, you can just make a selection from the video to appear as the preview.
When you hit next, it takes you to a new screen to post your video.
Besides the details you can add, like title and description, there is a switch for "Post a preview." If it is turned off, the video will only appear in your IGTV tab. If you turn it on, a preview of the video will appear on your profile and in the feed. You can edit the preview to show the section of the video that you want and edit the preview's image to make sure it looks accurate for your profile grid.
Remember that in the description, you can add clickable links. So, if you post an IGTV as a preview to a longer piece of content or want to sell a product, you can add a link to drive traffic to any website you want.
Another tip to get people to find and click on your videos is hashtags. Adding hashtags are a way to make your content be seen in the Explore tab. While you can have up to 30 hashtags on a post for your Instagram feed, you can have up to 10 on an IGTV video.
Similar to YouTube playlists, you can even create an IGTV series as a way to group your content. Creating a series on IGTV is perfect if you want to share long-form content with your audience on specific topics.
I often talk about the 10x10 strategy, which is when you write down the top 10 frequently asked questions about your business, your product, or your service. Then, you write the top 10 "should ask" questions. A great idea for your business is to use IGTV as a way to showcase those 20 content ideas. Or, you can use IGTV to show a preview for each topic and then direct traffic to the full videos on YouTube.
If you're using IGTV as a way to showcase products or for your product launches, you can also tag specific products in a video. Then, your audience can click the product and purchase directly from IGTV. However, that feature is currently limited to physical products and does not work for digital products.
How to reach a wider audience with IGTV
Because Facebook bought Instagram, they are continuously integrating the apps, so they work seamlessly. So, before posting your IGTV video, you can actually share it automatically and make it visible on Facebook.
With this feature, you're able to take one piece of content and share it to two platforms simultaneously, with the same amount of effort. Anita notes that she's seen high traffic from her IGTV videos, leading her audience to YouTube and her Facebook group.
“Having an IGTV channel allows you to reach a much wider audience, because not only are you reaching an audience with your live streams on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you’re also then able to reach that audience on Instagram.”
Another hidden feature in the Advanced Settings is auto-generated captions. Turning this setting on is extremely important, so your videos are accessible for everyone. Once you turn it on once, it will stay on automatically.
Once your IGTV video is posted, anyone who is following you will be notified. Then, you can share the video from your feed to your story by clicking on the little airplane graphic in the bottom left corner. Resharing videos to your story gives you even more visibility across the Instagram network.
Anita likes to add additional text or graphics to the story post to catch peoples' attention and be more engaging. There are many different features in the story that you can play around with, including stickers, GIFs, text, and hashtags. Or, you can tag people, businesses, or products.
Once you share an IGTV video to your stories, you also have the opportunity to add the video to your highlights section. Your highlights section is an excellent place to repurpose content from within the app. People get to look at that content over and over again. It's perfect for short-form (stories and reels) or long-form content (IGTV and longer video series.)
For a quick comparison of short-term content, stories are 15-second updates, such as text or video. They only last for 24 hours and disappear after that (unless you add them to your highlight.) Reels, on the other hand, are between 15-seconds and 30-seconds. They take a prominent position within Instagram, and they have their own Explore tab on your page.
Another key strategy for reaching a wider audience is resharing past content. Keep in mind that your audience is continually growing. If you had a great IGTV video a few months ago, you could reshare at any time to reach your new audience members.
To view analytics and see how many people are watching your IGTV, your account must be set up as a business or creator account. The main difference between the two types is for ads. If you do not plan to run any ads, it doesn't matter what one you select. You can change your account type by clicking the three little lines in the top right.
Once your account is set to business or creator, you can click the Insights button to view your posts and IGTV videos' insights. You can take a look at analytics for a certain amount of time.
In order to reach the most people, especially on the Explore tab, the Instagram algorithm works in a couple of different ways.
First, your video or image needs to be good quality and clear. Next, your description needs to talk about what's in the video or picture. Try not to have the two disjointed. And third, the tags also need to relate to the video/image and the content.
Try imaging your content in four different parts:
Hook to reel your audience in
Highlight your audiences' pain points
Highlight the solution you offer
Create your call-to-action
When you hit each of these points, you will have higher engagement on your posts (likes, comments, saves, and shares.)
Additionally, keep in mind that you also need to engage with your audience after sharing a post. Try engaging with other people's posts, sharing your content, and then sticking around to engage with others on your post. Instagram will see that and know you are interested in the platform and willing to engage with others.
How to learn more Instagram strategies
Anita is an Instagram strategist and one of the go-to experts in the industry. If you want to learn more about how you can use Instagram to grow your business, she has many different resources for you.
Anita offers free content in multiple different places. Learn more tips and tricks for your Instagram profile on Anita's:
Facebook group Tech Savvy Entrepreneurs
Give her a follow and subscribe to receive updates. Additionally, Anita has many Freebies on her website to help you create content for Instagram. There are ideas for:
Instagram stories
Instagram reels
Live streaming
If you're ready to take the plunge, you can even register for Anita's Welcome to The Instagram & Facebook Stories for success program. The program teaches you how to create business stories that convert leads and sales without overwhelm.
Instagram isn't just about photos. The app has grown into a giant platform to reach new audiences, grow your business, and elevate your brand. Don't be afraid to do a live stream or post a video. It's a fantastic way to leverage the app.
Thank you to Restream for sponsoring Digital Confetti!
If you haven’t heard, Restream allows you to broadcast live video to 30+ social networks at the same time.
