IGTV is an application designed by Instagram dedicated to video content lasting more than a minute. Discover its features and how it works.
The most attentive to new trends in technology have surely already noticed: Instagram is becoming an increasingly important social network for online and offline business, but not only. The social network that communicates through visual content is becoming more and more popular, to the point of putting in difficulty very successful portals such as YouTube and Facebook.
This success, in addition to the format, is also due to the new updates that the house of Instagram continues to launch one after another. After enjoying great success by integrating Instagram Stories, the company launched the IGTV app, i.e. Instagram TV, in June 2018. Find out with Libero Tecnologia what it is in particular and how it works.
What is IGTV
As anticipated above, IGTV is an Instagram app officially launched on June 20, 2018 at an event where the very popular portal celebrated reaching the round number of one billion registered users. The IGTV feature is also available as an integrated function within the social network itself and can also be used from a PC, via Facebook's Creator Studio tool. With this new function, the company has been able to promptly grasp and interpret the needs of the new public, which is increasingly inclined to enjoy video content through mobile devices rather than traditional ones such as television or computer. It is precisely the name that perfectly expresses the purpose and function of this new update. The acronym IGTV in fact comes from the fusion of two abbreviations: that of Instagram (IG) and that of television (TV).
In a nutshell then, the platform allows users to create, watch, comment and share videos in vertical format and from the duration rather long. The requirement to only upload videos in portrait format makes it easier for users to watch them, as the content takes up the entire screen and there is no need to rotate the smartphone to enjoy it. But it is precisely the duration of the videos that makes this update so innovative and popular, especially among content creators. As the most attentive users will certainly know, videos on Instagram can have a maximum duration of one minute, while those who want to create an Instagram Stories have only 15 seconds of time available. IGTV invece permette di caricare filmati che hanno una durata che varia dai 15 secondi ai 10 minuti per gli account considerati "standard", mentre gli utenti con un consistente numero di follower o con un account verificato possono addirittura caricare video che durano 60 minuti.
Ci sono ovviamente altri requisiti che i video caricati su IGTV devono necessariamente rispettare. I contenuti infatti devono:
- avere formato MP4 con un aspect ratio minimo di 4:5 e massimo di 9:16;
- avere una dimensione massima pari a 650 MB per quanto riguarda i video inferiori ai 10 minuti e di 5,4 GB se si tratta di contenuti audiovisivi che hanno una durata che va fino ai 60 minuti;
- rispettare le linee guida della community per quanto riguarda la pubblicazione dei video. In case there are violations or reports from the users themselves, the social network is free to remove inappropriate content.
Now that you know what this new feature is specifically proposed by the most popular photographic social network of recent times, it's time to find out how it works and how to upload videos to IGTV. Knowing how to master this platform will allow you to reach new users and interact with your loyal followers in a whole new way.
How IGTV works
The IGTV video platform is really intuitive and easy to use, even for those who are not really on good terms with technology. To access the videos, all you need to do is log into the app and, without having to perform any special steps, the app will start playing the videos. Come anticipato in precedenza, l’IGTV è integrata anche all’interno dell’applicazione Instagram; chi ha un account sulla piattaforma televisiva avrà tutti i video caricati in una sezione del proprio profilo. Una volta effettuato l’accesso all’applicazione è possibile cambiare i video che si vogliono guardare semplicemente scorrendo verso destra, in questo modo sarà possibile scegliere tra:
- video per te, dove sono presenti contenuti scelti in base ai tuoi interessi;
- video di persone che segui;
- video più popolari all’interno del tuo paese;
- video che non hai finito di guardare, nella sezione Continua a guardare.
Con lo swipe down invece potrai abbassare il menù e goderti la visione di un video verticale in full screen. Puoi scaricare l’applicazione IGTV in modo totalmente gratuito sia da Google Play Store se sei cliente Android sia da App Store se disponi di un dispositivo iOS. You can also watch videos on the portal directly from the Web, just log into your Instagram account and click on the IGTV button you find at the bottom, immediately below your profile bio.
As mentioned earlier, the platform also offers the possibility to interact with videos, just like it happens on the Instagram social network. You can show your appreciation for an audiovisual content by liking it via the little heart symbol, leave a comment or share the video with your contacts via direct message or by re-sharing the preview in the Instagram Stories of your profile. If you want to find the channel of a particular user or a specific video to follow you can search by clicking on Search on IGTV, typing keywords you can easily find the content you are looking for. If you want to upload your own video content you will have to create your own channel, just like on YouTube. Let's see how to create a channel on this portal and what are the steps to take to upload a video.
Create an IGTV channel
If you want to create your own channel to upload videos to IGTV you'll be glad to know that it's a fairly simple process. Once you've downloaded the application from the respective Apple or Android stores and logged in with your Instagram account credentials, all you have to do is click on the gear icon that will bring up the screen with the Create New Channel and Delete commands, to cancel the operation and go back.
Once you've clicked on the Create New Channel option you'll see three new screens, a kind of welcome to the application with a presentation of the platform. The slogan reads:
"A new space to unleash your creativity and interact with your followers through long videos. Videos longer than a minute, full screen and in vertical format, perfect to galvanize the mobile experience."
Once you've seen the presentation screens, just click Create Channel on the last screen and your space will be ready to be used. All you have to do is upload your first video!
How to upload videos to your channel
Now that you've activated your IGTV channel, all you have to do is fill it with video content to share with your followers and other users of the photo social network. Even this operation is very simple, just access the profile of your channel, click on the button (+) on the right, select the video you want to upload from the Gallery of your smartphone, press the Next button. Once you've done these steps, enter the Title and Description of your video, eventually change the cover using the command below the default cover and, finally, tap on the Publish button.
Remember to take care of the presentation of your video to have a better chance of viewing. The title, for example, must contain the keywords of the content, in this way you will allow the Instagram algorithm to better understand the nature of the video and better target it. The choice of the target audience is essential to make sure that your videos are viewed by people who are actually interested in the content you propose. Obviously, remember that your video must be made strictly in vertical and have a maximum duration ranging from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Ovviamente se hai un account verificato o con un consistente numero di follower potrai anche realizzare contenuti visivi che durano 60 minuti.
A differenza delle Instagram Stories, che permette di caricare video che sono una sorta di vlog della propria vita, i contenuti video di IGTV devono sicuramente essere più strutturati e curati per avere successo. Trattandosi di video piuttosto lunghi, che richiedono un’attenzione maggiore da parte dell’utente, i video caricati sulla piattaforma, per essere di successo, dovrebbero:
- essere di qualità, sia dal punto di vista del contenuto che di ripresa. Cura quindi l’illuminazione, i suoni e i vari effetti;
- avere un format accattivante e innovativo in grado di catturare ed appassionare il tuo pubblico. In questo caso aiuta avere un format specifico invece di limitarsi a mettere vari video che non hanno nulla in comune l’uno con l’altro;
- avere una sorta di continuità, pubblicando i contenuti audio visivi in modo costante e periodico in modo da essere sempre presente.
Imparare ad usare al meglio la piattaforma IGTV può darti la possibilità di ampliare la tua cerchia di follower e anche offrirti grandi opportunità di branding, soprattutto se hai già un profilo abbastanza attivo e seguito. Quello che serve è avere creatività, inventiva, un po’ di pazienza e tanta costanza.