Since the launch of IGTV videos on Instagram, it has gained huge popularity among the individuals and businesses on Instagram considering its benefit of presenting the content in the long video format and impact it creates on the audience.
IGTV videos have been immensely popular amongst the influencers who can present the content to their mass audience. It has become an effective rival platform for youtube.
With IGTV, you can post upto 60 minutes (10 minutes for the majority of users) of videos on Instagram. Its increased consumption makes it a convenient method to present your content to your existing audience.
Recently, Facebook has announced that they are going to start monetizing IGTV videos. Just like YouTube, the creators can earn money by showing in-stream ads on their IGTV videos.
That makes it important to optimize the IGTV videos to get the best engagement from your audience.
How to optimize IGTV videos on Instagram?
There are not one but many things that go down in making a viral IGTV video. Here I listed down the best IGTV optimization tips that you can use to optimize your IGTV videos on Instagram. Get the best engagement from your audience and make it go viral on Instagram.
Content
“Content is the king”, that stands true at every level. You have to produce quality content keeping the best interest of your audience in mind.
Always think about what your audience wants from you and not what you want your audience to see. Research about topics around the internet and create IGTV videos centered on those topics.
For e.g. I wrote this blog post because I researched you want to learn how to optimize your IGTV videos. Good content never fails!
Write appropriate title:
The title is the must-to-have element on any IGTV video. The title reflects the content of your video in just a few words. This intimates your audience what the video is about and creates their interest in the content you want to present.
Choose the title having the right keywords that can spark curiosity in the mind of your audience. Some important curiosity keywords you can use in the title are “how to”, “do you know”, “what if”, “X reasons why”, “X ways how” (X is the variable numeric value), etc.
Along with that, add some emotion keywords to your IGTV title to hook your audience like “Amazing”, “Standout”, “Extraordinary”, “Effective”, “Important” etc.
Write descriptive caption:
Write a non-lengthy but descriptive enough caption that explains the content of your IGTV video in detail.
Ask some questions to your audience and encourage them to take action on your video like ‘leave a comment’, ‘share it with a friend’, ‘save to your collection’ etc.
Choose right timing to post
Right timing can make a huge difference in the engagement rate on your IGTV video.
Choose a timing when your audience is most active to gain the benefit of engagement in the early hours on your video.
If your IGTV video gains good engagement in its early hours, its gonna stay on the top of your audience’s feed. This thing goes for all kinds of posts on Instagram. Early engagement is the most important factor that you cannot ignore.
Choosing the right thumbnail
This is the most important of all the tips and tricks as it ensures that your video will keep getting engagement in the long run. Choosing the right thumbnail for your IGTV video grabs the instant attention of your audience.
Make sure that the thumbnail you choose is video-specific and has the right information worded on it. Choose a thumbnail which encourages users to click and watch the IGTV video.
The right thumbnail size for IGTV is 1080 x 1680 with 120px of the border for vertical videos.
The idea of putting a thumbnail is if someone visits your profile and see the IGTV video with thumbnail signifying something similar to his interests, he will most probably click on it and watch.
The right way to install a thumbnail is to put it in the first 2 or 3 seconds of your video and selecting that frame as your IGTV cover. IGTV videos are usually on autoplay and play instantly the moment your followers scroll through it. Using this strategy, you can grab the attention of your audience instantly.
Hook your audience in the first 10 seconds
A little heads-up, “Hello guys, how are you doing? Today I am gonna show you…” is not a very appropriate way to start any video if you want to grab the attention of your audience.
Instead of that, find the most appealing 10 to 15 seconds in the entire video and add it to the initial sequence while editing the IGTV video.
According to several insights, an average user mostly loses his interest in the first 10 seconds of the video. If you can hook your audience in the first 10 seconds, you can stay assured that he is gonna stay to watch your IGTV video till the end.
Utilize the power of hashtags
Selecting the right hashtags for your content can make your content to travel beyond the reach of your existing audience. It can grab some new eyes who might be interested in your new IGTV video.
Always post 25 to 30 well researched hashtags along with your IGTV video to expand your reach and get extra engagement on your video.
Read more:
- How I Generated 200k+ Impressions from Instagram Explore Page
- How To Increase 250+ Real and Engaging Instagram Followers Per Day
- Tried and Tested Strategies To Get 5x Instagram Story Views
These are the important tips on how to optimize your Instagram IGTV that I would recommend to anyone. I hope you have learned something insightful from the blog post.
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