4 Tips for Brands Who Want to Crush it on IGTV

Are you ready to take your brand to the next level on IGTV? Here are four tips for being successful on the new platform.

1. Be an Early Adopter: Drop everything and incorporate IGTV into your marketing strategy now. RIGHT NOW. Don’t wait for a thousand other businesses in your industry to do it first and then spend ten months studying their content and THEN decide it’s worth investing in long-form video. Be smart, be bold, be strategic, and GET ON IT NOW.Currently, because IGTV is so new, it isn’t terribly overcrowded, so you have an opportunity to stand out on the platform and capitalize on first mover advantage. Instagram has also worked in a number of ways for IGTV to give users more visibility within Instagram. For example, it notifies users when pages they follow upload something new, and it allows brands (regardless of size) to “Swipe Up” to IGTV content within Instagram Stories, which is amazing if you’re a smaller, unverified page.
2. Be Consistent: Post to IGTV regularly…but make sure the content is freakin’ good. If you can become known for developing kickass content on IGTV on a regular basis, people will come to not only expect, but also look forward to, what you’re sharing on your channel. Whether you’re posting once a week or once a month, determine a cadence that your team can successfully manage and stick to it.
3. Cross Promote: Don’t post to IGTV in a vacuum. Every time you post new content to your channel, drive to it on Instagram Stories, on your Instagram feed, on your other social networks, via email, etc. That’s the best way to get more eyeballs on the content and let people know that you’re active on IGTV.
4. Don’t Be Scared: IGTV is the perfect place to test out new and exciting ideas. Netflix did something really weird for its first IGTV—a video of Cole Sprouse, the main character from the hit show Riverdale, eating a burger for ONE HOUR. It sounds stupid (because it is) but it has earned Netflix nearly one million views, thousands and thousands of (surprisingly) positive comments, and most importantly, BUZZ AND CONVERSATION around the brand. Now people are excited to see what Netflix will do on IGTV next. Granted, a video about an actor eating a burger for an hour may not be the most strategic idea for your brand, but the lesson here is to have fun and be unexpected—whatever that means for your business and your industry.