IGTV, launched yesterday, gives Instagram long vertical videos. It suits demonstrations and how-to videos, but most small businesses should first post Stories regularly, then try IGTV with one well-planned video.

What arrived yesterday

Instagram launched IGTV yesterday: long videos, shown vertically and full screen, in a new app of its own and behind a new button inside the Instagram app.

Most accounts can upload videos of up to ten minutes. Some larger accounts can upload up to an hour.

Videos start playing as soon as IGTV opens, and each account's videos form its own channel. Nobody has to subscribe to anything new; people see channels from accounts they already follow.

It is a bet that people will watch longer video on phones held upright. Whether they do will take months to show.

Where it fits among the formats

The second is where most small businesses should be putting their effort first, and the reason is less about reach than about habit.

Why Stories come first

Stories are quick. A clip of this morning's delivery, a finished job, a question answered in fifteen seconds, filmed and posted in a minute.

They are forgiving, because rough is normal there, and they appear at the top of followers' screens rather than in a feed that may never show them.

The useful ones can be saved as Highlights on the profile: hours, how to book, frequently asked questions, recent work.

A business that cannot keep Stories going weekly will not keep a ten-minute channel going. Stories build the habit of filming, and a sense of what followers respond to.

What long vertical video suits

Long video earns its length when something needs showing from start to finish.

A demonstration of a process, a how-to that customers keep asking about, a tour of a space before someone visits it, a project from bare site to finished result.

It suits poorly anything that is really an advertisement, a slideshow of photographs, or someone reading out the website.

A useful test is whether someone who already likes your business would choose to watch it for five minutes. If the honest answer is no, it belongs in a Story or nowhere.

The vertical frame

IGTV is built for phones held upright. Videos fill the screen in portrait, and the app is designed around that shape.

Existing videos filmed sideways for YouTube or a website do not transfer well. Cropping them to an upright frame throws away most of the picture, usually including whatever was happening at the sides.

Filming for IGTV means planning for a tall, narrow frame: people and hands in the middle, text kept away from the edges, and the phone turned upright from the start.

What one video takes

Plan three or four points before filming, and decide what the first few seconds show, since the video starts playing the moment someone arrives.

Keep the phone steady on a stand, film near a window for light, and put a small clip-on microphone on whoever is speaking. Poor sound is what makes amateur video hardest to watch.

Then edit out the pauses. A beginner should expect an afternoon for a five-minute video, and it is time well spent only if the video will still be useful in a year.

A worked example

A pottery studio that sells classes and its own pieces already posts Stories most days: pots coming out of the kiln, class spaces left, the wheel room on a busy evening.

People ask at the counter what a beginner class actually involves. That question is the obvious first IGTV video, because the answer is easier to show than to describe.

The studio planned one four-minute video: an instructor centring and throwing a bowl from start to finish, filmed upright on a phone clamped beside the wheel, with a few lines of narration.

The description links to the class page, and a fifteen-second Story the same day points followers to the video.

Stories continue daily regardless. Whether IGTV earns a regular place will be judged over the summer, by whether people booking classes mention having watched it.

Who will see it

IGTV leans on the accounts people already follow. A business with a few hundred followers should expect a modest audience, mostly people who know it already.

Nobody yet knows how many people will open IGTV at all. The new button inside Instagram will draw some curiosity at first, and habits take longer to form.

So point to each video from Stories and the feed, and do not expect strangers to discover a small business's channel on their own.

The website behind the video

IGTV descriptions can carry a link people can tap, which ordinary post captions cannot. Use it for the page the video is about, not the home page.

That page will be opened on a phone, by someone who has just watched you. It should load quickly and answer the next question: how to book, what it costs, when.

Keep the original video file. Instagram holds the copy people watch there, while a version on your own site or on YouTube can be found through search.

The counter-case

Some businesses can start with IGTV: those with a visual process worth watching, someone comfortable talking to a camera, and video already part of their marketing.

A business already making useful videos for its website may find filming them upright a modest extra step.

But one video is not a channel. A run of three or four, at a pace the business can sustain, is the real commitment.

For most, Stories every week first, and IGTV when there is something that needs ten minutes to show.

Before filming anything

  1. Post Stories weekly for a month first.
  2. Save the useful ones as Highlights.
  3. List the questions customers ask in person.
  4. Pick one that is easier shown than told.
  5. Film it upright, under ten minutes.
  6. Link the description to the right page.
  7. Keep the original file for your website.

Step four decides whether the video is worth making. A question customers already ask, answered by showing, has an audience before it is filmed.

Another change in how social platforms meet your website is covered in Safari will stop share buttons tracking visitors.

Frequently asked questions

What did Instagram launch this week?

IGTV, a separate app and a button inside Instagram for long vertical videos. Most accounts can upload up to ten minutes; some larger accounts up to an hour.

Should a small business use IGTV?

Eventually, perhaps, for demonstrations and how-to videos. Most should first post Stories weekly, which builds the habit of filming, then try one well-planned IGTV video.

Why start with Stories instead?

They are quick, forgiving, appear at the top of followers' screens, and useful ones can be kept as Highlights. A business that cannot sustain Stories will not sustain a channel.

Can existing videos be posted to IGTV?

Not well if they were filmed sideways. IGTV is built for upright video, and cropping a sideways video to fit throws away most of the picture.

What kind of video suits IGTV?

Anything that needs showing from start to finish: a process, a how-to customers keep asking about, a tour of a space, or a project from bare site to finished result.

Will strangers find my IGTV videos?

Probably not many at first. IGTV leans on accounts people already follow, so point to each video from Stories and the feed, and link its description to your site.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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