The Secret IGTV Feature that No One Is Talking about Yet

Instagram launched IGTV last week and everyone has been talking about it. I did a quick experiment with the platform to launch a Bible study series I’m starting next week. I’ve been doing a little research and came across a great post by Jenn Herman:

Have you heard about the new Instagram feature: IGTV? Read more below for tips and tactics to maximize your own IGTV channel! 1. You can use IGTV on mobile AND desktop (including uploading from desktop)! Um… awesome! 2. You can download the separate IGTV app from your app store. Or you can use the IGTV icon on your home feed page to view videos. 3. It’s vertical/portrait mode video only. 4. Video uploads for most accounts is currently up to 10 minutes (some big brand partners can go up to one hour) 5. You cannot record within IGTV – you can only upload videos recorded elsewhere into the app. 6. Instagram videos, Stories, and Live videos are not automatically saved to IGTV. They must be saved to your device and uploaded to IGTV. 7. There are no lists or segmentation of videos on your IGTV channel. Just all your videos in one long chain. You will want to have a clear purpose and theme for your videos! 8. Every video can have a title and description. Use them! 9. Video titles get cut off around 20-25 characters in the thumbnail on your channel so keep your titles short or descriptive in the beginning. 10. ???????????? You can put CLICKABLE LINKS in the description ???????????? and anyone can click on that link. Use these to drive traffic and conversions! 11. ???????????? Put multiple hashtags in your description (like an IG post)???????????? IGTV videos with hashtags show up in search results! 12. You cannot edit your video description after upload so get it right the first time! EDIT: You can edit video descriptions via desktop ???? just not on mobile. #jennstrends #learnfromjenn #instagramstrategy #instagramexpert #instagramforbusiness #instagrammarketing #igtv #instagramlive #instagramstories #instagramtips #instagramupdate #instagramnews #buildyourbrand #videomarketing #socialmediamarketing #onlinemarketing #smallbusinessmarketing #socialmediastrategy

A post shared by Jenn Herman????Instagram Expert (@jenns_trends) on Jun 25, 2018 at 6:53am PDT

Numbers 10 and 11 in her list make this form of Instagram content stand out in my mind:

Cool Feature 1: Links

You can add clickable links in IGTV video descriptions, which you cannot do in regular Instagram posts. You can add swipe up links in Instagram Stories after you reach 10,000 followers, but for most people that is not a reality yet.

Cool Feature 2: Hashtags

IGTV videos will show up in the results of hashtag searches. This is great for discovery, of course, but even more important for your branded hashtags that only you post to.

For example, I’m using the hashtag #biblestudyforparents to collect the series of posts I’m launching next week. The IGTV videos shows up as the first post in the series: www.instagram.com/explore/tags/biblestudyforparents/.