Use IGTV to Grow Your Soul-Led Business

IGTV is here to stay and it’s taking Instagram through an Uplevel! If you haven’t started using this Powerful tool, what are you waiting for? This is great to Build Instant Connection with your tribe.

In this blog post, you’ll learn three important things to get you started with IGTV and most importantly, WHY you should be using it to grow your Soul-Led Business!

Are you Ready? Let’s dive in.

First, let’s talk about…

What in the world is IGTV?

This is the latest addition to Instagram. It allows you to upload videos longer than 10 minutes via your phone and longer than that via your desktop! Yep, that’s a secret no one will ever tell you… That’s why I’m here!

Now, to get started all you have to do is go to your App Store if you have an iPhone and look for IGTV and download from there. Once downloaded you’ll be prompted to create your own Channel. You can create your account by using your Instagram handle.

Once created, you’ll see other videos from its own explore page and from people, you currently follow.

What’s interesting is that the volume is off but you can watch the video. Once you tap on the video, it will begin to play with volume.

Now, when it first came out, the intention of IGTV was to play Vertical videos only! But this has changed and they are encouraging others to use it horizontal videos.

There are three places you can watch IGTV:

Via the explore page

Your profile

The IGTV app itself.

And just like anything else, Instagram picks up videos for you based off of your interest, who you follow, and what is currently popular.

At the moment, there are no ads but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any… They do have the intention of adding later down the road. So that means, this is the best time to start adding “valuable” content before ads start to show up!

Video is by far one of the best ways to connect with people and truly make an impact. So if you haven’t jumped on board… This is your best shot at getting good at video.

I’ve got a blog post here that gives you a head start on how to use Stories and Video for your Business: How to Use Insta-Stories to Your Advantage!

IGTV is like NOT like Youtube

Well, let me just say this first… It is like Youtube but without all of the big maintenance that’s required when it comes to it.

You don’t need the latest production team to help you set up, you don’t need to get all fancy to show up on IGTV at all! You just don’t! Unless you seriously want to then that’s your option.

Think of Stories but another level with Video.

In fact, you can create tons of videos with your phone and edit them later or have someone in your team help you edit them later one… by edit I mean cutting the video, adding captions, and polishing it up a bit if necessary. Other than that, your video should be ready to upload to IGTV.

Some of the apps I recommend for editing your video:

Inshot

iMovie app

Over

One thing I must say is that IGTV wants you to upload videos that are longer than 1 minute and less than 10 minutes. Anything less than 1 minute it won’t let you upload… Those you’ll be better off uploading via Instagram itself as your 60-second video.

Also, anyone who watches anything over 3 seconds counts as a “View.” So make sure your video is interesting enough to keep your people watching longer than 3 seconds! This is KEY!

And what makes this platform different from Youtube is that the size of an IGTV is totally different. If you’re going to upload a video and want to know what size you should use, I suggest going for 16:9 Ratio or 9*16 which is the same for IG stories.

How do you upload the Videos to your Channel?

Easy, open the app and at the top right corner, you should see a + sign. When you tap, it should take you to your videos from your phone.

Keep in mind that you can only upload pre-recorded videos**

Once you choose your video, this is a very important thing to remember EVERY TIME!

It will then ask you to choose your cover.

Choosing a cover from your video is super important if you want to get maximum results. What I always recommend is picking a cover from your video that best highlights the topic of your video!

You can create one using Canva or Over but if your video has a better cover… then use that! Picking a great cover will allow you to get more views and increase your reach! And who doesn’t want that?

Next, add your Title and Description.

I also recommend you add a few emoji’s to your title. Why? Because this builds interest!

In the Description, I too recommend you add a few hashtags, this also helps you rank in Hashtags! Sweet!!!!

And finally, it will ask you if you want to Post a Preview to your Instagram. Always turn it on unless this is something you don’t want sharing in your Feed.

That’s it! You now know how to upload your videos to your IGTV! Yay!

Bonus

What should you Post?

Depending on your industry, I recommend you share things like:

Collaborations

Testimonials

Product Demos

How to’s especially if you’re in the makeup/health industry or you have a product.

You can also add links to your Description as your Call to Action so you can send people to your offer or anything else you want them to sign up for. It’s such a great feature to have since you can actually click on links with the Instagram app itself unless you go to someone’s bio or swipe up under Instagram stories.

How exciting right?

Tell me, what are you going to share with the world? Drop your comment below. Or if you have questions drop those too and I’ll make sure to answer them to give you some feedback.