Today I am sharing a recent podcast episode I did over on Modern MLM (click here to give it a listen, I would LOVE to have you join the discussion) all about Instagram TV. IGTV for the cool people. 😉 I’ve had a lot of questions about this and I think that it can get a little overwhelming because you feel like you have to do a whole new platform. So I wanted to break it down and help you decide if it’s right for you and tell you the ins and outs.

First I want to talk about what IGTV is, how it works and then how you can incorporate in your business if you want to.

Before We Get Started

Right off the bat, I want to be clear that I do not think IGTV is for everyone. I also think that we have to be very wise about what platforms we say yes to. I really believe, especially when you’re starting out, you should choose one platform and get really good at it before you move on. You will notice I have more than one platform. So let me correct that, I believe that you need to have a short term and a long term platform that you are working on at the same time and then you can grow from there. Now I have been doing this a very long time so I have multiple platforms that I have been doing, getting the hang of and “mastering” along the way.

I’m not learning this from scratch. So that’s why you’ll see me on more than one place. I think that if you feel great and you’re ready to take on more, that’s great. But please don’t feel like you have to be everywhere at once. That is a quick recipe for overwhelm (which I covered last week in my “3 Steps To Fight Overwhelm” post if you want to check it out). Now that we have cleared that up, let’s dig into all things IGTV!

What is IGTV

IGTV is short videos you can watch on the Instagram app or the  IGTV app. Why did Instagram launch this feature? It’s because the people at Instagram are super smart. Last year it was predicted that by the end of this year 80% of content that was consumed would be video. So Instagram wanted to jump in that ring.

While we have YouTube and Facebook lives you’re now able to do long-form videos and really teach from the Instagram app. So you can get a lot of content without leaving Instagram. This is awesome since most Instagram users spend up to an hour a day on Instagram. IGTV increases that time since people can get all of their content without leaving the app.

How Do You “DO” IGTV

You can upload a video between one and ten minutes long if you have a personal account. If you are a verified business account you can do up to 60 minutes. The length is very important.

They are also the first app to format their videos vertically. They are capitalizing on the fact that most users are on mobile, unlike other platforms.

Why Would You Want To Do IGTV

Just like we’ve seen with Facebook Lives, if you are an early adopter of IGTV you will be rewarded. The platform/algorithm will push your IGTV videos out to more people. It’s great to be one of the pioneers. You are going to see more and more people on IGTV. The best part? Your current Instagram is all you need! Check out this post for more details.

However, don’t feel pressured to be on IGTV. If this isn’t the time for you that is okay. As I have mentioned before, I know I should be on YouTube and I would love to be there. But this is not the right time for me. So don’t feel guilty and give yourself grace.

How To Create Great IGTV

Let’s start off with a trick! You can re-purpose your lives for IGTV. These need to be lives and not stories. What you need to do is:

1. Make sure your settings are ready when you do your lives.
2. Check the cog in the left corner, click it to automatically save it to the camera roll.
3. Make sure they are under 10 minutes.
4. Keep them short and to the point.

Create Good Content

You have 10 minutes to make these videos so you want to make sure you have a plan. Do not create content just to create content. Make sure your content is educational or entertaining or inspiring. Provide value to your audience and think about how you can serve them.

What kind of things does your audience need to be educated on? Make a list of that. What empowers your customers to do what they need to do?

As you are creating that, I want you to think about this structure of a video. Now, this is a good structure no matter what you’re creating, whether it’s a blog post, whether it’s a talk, a speech, whether it’s a video. You need to know your goal of why you are creating this.

Define Your Why

Once you know why you are you selling your product in this one? Are you building trust? Are you trying to build your email list? Are you trying to cultivate connections? Why are you creating this video? Please know that before you start this is, this is the crux of like creating content just to create content.

Next, I want you to create a bullet point list of what you’re going to talk about. I would choose between three and five bullets. Anything over that is going to leave you a zero time to actually talk about it because remember, you have to do this in 10 minutes or less. So if you have 15 bullet points it won’t work.

With these three or five bullet points take a minute to think about what you’re going to do. If you are doing a makeup tutorial, please double check that you have all the makeup that you need. I’ve been there, where I’m like, Oh man, just wait one second, let me go grab my brush. That’s fine but remember, we want to be polished and prepared. Our people are going to be fine if we make a mistake. But take the extra time to actually do this.

Call-To-Action

Your call-to-action should be something like getting on my email list, “here is this Freebie, go get on my email list”.  The call-to-action can be like; leave a comment, ask a question, share with a friend. These are all very great call-to-action examples. Your video needs to have these because otherwise, people can’t read your mind. My friends, they don’t know what you want them to do. So you just better tell him in a nice way.

Let’s Review

• We know what IGTV is
• We know how to use it
• We are making the right decision for us (on whether we use it or not)
• If we decide to use it we are going to save it to our camera roll
• We’re going to keep our Instagram lives less 10 minutes so we can upload it to IGTV
• We’re going to structure it in a really great way to keep it succinct and at 10 minutes or less
• Three- five bullet points or a step-by-step tutorial of what you are doing.
• A clear call to action

IGTV is a really exciting opportunity for your business and I hope this helped motivate you to get started if it’s something that will work for you. So what’s my call to action? My call-to-action is my free guide to “What to Post on Instagram”. I know you guys waste a lot of time trying to figure this out. Just use my template and it will be easy. You guys can do it. It’s going to be so great.

Hopefully, you feel great about IGTV. It’s a really great place to be if you want to be there. I’d love to be tagged if you go live so I can check out your awesome content!

Do you think you are ready to give IGTV a try?

Thanks for hanging out with me.