There is a new kid on the video block, it’s called IGTV. Yes IG here stands for Instagram, you know that small photos and video social network that is owned by Facebook?
What is IGTV?
In layman’s terms, IGTV is Instagram’s new video platform, focusing on vertical videos that can be up to 1 hour long.
Another Social Network?
Well yes and no. It’s more like another App. The beauty of IGTV is that it will help you build off your existing Instagram following. So people with their thousands or even millions of followers already have that audience on their IGTV channel.
To start uploading, simply log into your Instagram account, and “create a channel”.
It’s clear that Instagram (and by association Facebook) is taking on video industry giants; YouTube (and Google), with this move. Obviously, with the failure of platforms like Vine and the limited growth on Vimeo or even Dailymotion, only time will tell what happens.
Instagram has a huge user base, so IGTV is essentially gifting these potential users, giving them a huge chance to succeed and actually compete with the big boys. It’s like they are a new recruit with a lot of training and “new” equipment, but not much experience. (well…almost, since Instagram does have videos)
Vertical Videos?!
With today’s mobile first approach, the vertical video (tall) format has become quite popular. Some true video enthusiasts will cringe at the mention of this, but alas it’s where the world is heading.
Our resident video expert TJ Tech had this to say:
I am thrilled with the challenge of vertical videos. It may not be for everyone, but it’s an exciting time for video.
For Content Creators
Should content creators jump ship to IGTV? Erm… No!
IGTV is new… it was literally born yesterday. IGTV doesn’t have any revenue sharing system in place at this point. Revenue sharing is is the primary way creators make money via YouTube, i.e. they share the ad revenue (same applies to Vimeo and others).
Nobody should be exclusive to one platform, eggs… basked… you get it, as many people have been affected by YouTube’s policy changes in the last couple of years. IGTV does give you another avenue to share your content, and the beauty of it is that it’s a different style of videos.
IGTV might be more concentrated on vloggers, events and updates. As we said, it’s still a new platform and all’s we can do is wait and see where it goes.
Still, there is always cause for optimism, and It’s great to have such platforms get pushed into the world and see what people make of it.
