How to share igtv on instagram feed
4 Important Things to Know!
Have you seen the new IGTV algorithm changes in your feed yet?
Instagram recently announced that users will start to see 1 minute previews of IGTV videos in their main Instagram feed, which you can then continue watching over on IGTV.
This may seem like a straight-forward update, but there’s actually a lot of little details changing that you need to pay attention to if you choose to share IGTV videos to the Instagram feed.
From the size of your cover photo to the title of your video, here are 4 important things you need to know about sharing IGTV previews to the Instagram feed:
How to Share IGTV Previews On Your Instagram Profile and FeedPreviously, IGTV videos lived only in your IGTV channel, which made it a bit difficult to garner engagement and views.
To get views on your videos, you had to use captions on regular posts, or link your video on your stories and actively direct your followers to click over to IGTV.
It was a lot of work, and it didn’t seem like people really wanted to leave their Instagram feed to watch a video.
For example, our head of marketing @taylor.loren received almost triple the views on the promo video in the feed for her IGTV video (650+ views), than she did on her actual IGTV video (270 views).
In an effort to fix this problem (and save IGTV), Instagram has introduced the option to share a 1-minute preview of your IGTV video to your Instagram feed.
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“With IGTV previews in feed, we’re making it even easier to discover and watch the latest video content from your favorite follows” explained an Instagram rep to Variety.
But what seems to have gotten lost in this announcement is the fact that if you share a preview video to your feed, your IGTV videos will now live in the grid on your Instagram profile too, with a little IGTV icon in the right hand corner:
This will obviously impact how you plan the look of your Instagram feed, and now you will also have to pay extra attention to your IGTV cover photo, title of your video, posting times, and more (keep reading for those details!).
Should You Share IGTV Videos to the Instagram Feed?
So the big question is, should you share IGTV videos to the regular Instagram feed?
Yes!
Obviously, it will depend on your video marketing strategy and how your IGTV videos fit in with the rest of your Instagram posts, but since you’re investing the time to create IGTV videos, you probably want people to actually watch it.
And sharing IGTV videos to the feed looks like it’s already working to increase views for brands.
If you choose to share a preview of your IGTV video, the video will pause once the 1 minute has finished, and viewers will need to tap the Keep Watching button to continue watching the full video in IGTV.
You can see how it looks at the end of this example from Soulcycle:
In terms of navigation, it makes it so much easier for your followers to find you on IGTV — by just tapping the Keep Watching button at end of your preview, your viewers will be directed to your IGTV channel.
But keep reading to make sure that you account for all the little details, because right now you don’t have much control over what your video looks like in the feed:
How to Share IGTV Videos to the Instagram Feed:It’s super easy to share a preview of your IGTV video to the Instagram feed and your profile.
Remember, you don’t have to share IGTV videos to the Instagram feed, this is totally optional. But it could help you get more views on your videos!
Follow all the usual steps to upload an IGTV video to Instagram, and then at the final stages you’ll find this screen:
All you need to do is move the slider button to blue to opt-in to IGTV Preview. Once you’ve selected that option, a preview of your IGTV video will appear in your follower’s feed, and the cover image will appear in your profile’s grid.
When you post a preview of your IGTV video, the title and description will copy over to the caption. Just keep in mind that any links you included in your description won’t be “clickable.
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If you’ve chosen to post a preview, you can tap Edit Profile Cover to adjust how your IGTV cover photo shows up on your profile grid.
You can also tap Edit Preview to adjust how your IGTV video will be previewed in feed (you’ll only have this option if your video is 9:16. If 16:9, your video will show in full).
This new process for editing your IGTV preview also makes adding subtitles much easier now. Previously, you had to add them quite high up in order to include them in the preview.
Here are 4 things to consider the next time you post to IGTV and share a preview to your feed:
Sharing IGTV Videos to Feed Tip #1: Your Cover Photo is More Important than EverYou’re going to have to pay extra attention to your IGTV cover photo if you want to share it to the feed, because the cover photo not only appears in the feed, but also on your profile for all your followers to see (impacting your Instagram aesthetic).
Not only do you need to think about what your image will be, and how it will look amongst the rest of your grid images, you also need to think about getting the dimensions and composition right!
Let’s start with IGTV dimensions:
Firstly, thanks to a recent update, your IGTV video can now be both vertical and horizontal!
In terms of specs, Instagram recommends that vertical IGTV videos should have an aspect ratio of 9:16, while horizontal videos should be 16:9.
Instagram also recommends that your IGTV cover photos be 420px by 654px (or 1:1.55 ratio).
However, once you share IGTV videos to the feed, your cover image will appear in different locations — like your followers’ feeds and your profile’s grid.
When it appears in the Instagram feed, it will be cropped to 4:5 (Instagram portrait size), and when it appears on your profile grid, it will be 1:1 (square).
So that means that your IGTV cover photo has to work both on IGTV, in the feed, and on your profile.
The best way to ensure that your cover image works in all these positions is to make sure the focus of your cover image (it could be text, a product shot, or location) is positioned within the center of the frame. That way, when your cover image is cropped across the different previews, it will still look good!
Secondly, you need to think about your overall Instagram aesthetic and how an IGTV cover image will impact the look and feel of your profile.
You don’t want your cover image to stand out and distract from the rest of your content because it’s off-brand, so it’s important you plan ahead and make sure it fits in with the rest of your feed.
If you’re planning out the look and feel of your Instagram feed with Later’s visual Instagram planner, we recommend uploading your IGTV cover photo to your Later media library.
You can then schedule a post for when your IGTV is going live to see how the IGTV cover photo will look on your Instagram profile before you post, and ensure it fits with your Instagram aesthetic!
(Just remember to delete the post before it goes live – we recommend using “notification” scheduling for these posts instead of auto publishing, so it won’t automatically go live on your feed if you forget.)
Sharing IGTV Videos to Feed Tip #2**: Know the Best Times to Post**You may have nailed down the best time to post for your regular Instagram posts, and you’ll want to apply those same learnings to posting your IGTV content! Now that your videos can be shared to the Instagram feed, when you post to IGTV matters a lot more.
But you should also account for the fact that watching a video is not the same as quickly looking at an Instagram post.
If you’re sharing an IGTV preview video to the Instagram feed, the goal is to get your viewers to click the Keep Watching button once the 1-minute preview is over. This will bring them to your IGTV channel where they can pick up where they left off and watch the full video.
You should start by posting your IGTV videos at your best times for regular posts (you can find them here), and then test and experiment from there.
Pay close attention to your Instagram Insights to see when your audience is most active online — look out for activity across multiple hourly periods, like 6pm to 9pm, rather than a spike at 7am (when your followers may just be scrolling on their 15-minute commute to work!)
These longer periods of activity could be a good indicator that your audience has time to dedicate to longer video content and will be more likely to engage and watch to the end!
Tip #3: Be Strategic With the Content You Share at the 1-Minute MarkYou know when you’re watching a Youtube video, and something really exciting is about to happen, and then you’re shown an ad?
That is marketing optimization at it’s finest, and the goal is to have you so invested in the video that you’ll keep watching until the ad is over.
You’ll want to keep the same goal in mind while editing your videos for IGTV (get tips on how to edit vertical video here).
Pack the first minute of your video with excitement, and ideally, you would start to create some intrigue or cliffhanger around the 1-minute mark, to get your viewers to tap over to IGTV to keep watching.
This is the moment when your video will be paused and you want to leave a little bit of suspense and entice your audience to tap that Keep Watching button!
If your video is cinematic, think about what footage you’ll share at this marker to draw your viewer in. Similarly, your music will play a big part here to keep your audience captivated!
If you’re talking to the camera for a tutorial, how-to video or guide, you may want to line up your video script with a brief intro with everything the viewer will learn from this video, so they’ll know what’s coming after the 1-minute IGTV preview video.
Spending some extra time planning and strategizing for the first 1 minute of your video storyboard could really pay off when it comes to getting the most from your video preview in the IGTV algorithm!
Sharing IGTV Videos to Feed Tip #4: Your IGTV Video Title Becomes Your CaptionWhen you choose to share a preview of your IGTV video to the Instagram feed, your IGTV title and description will appear as the caption to the video both in the feed and on your profile.
You can NOT edit your caption after either!
This means that you’ll want to think extra hard about what your IGTV title should be. While clickbait-y titles work great on Youtube and IGTV, they would probably look a little weird showing up in your regular Instagram feed or as the only context to a video on your profile.
If you love crafting your captions for each of your posts, this limitation can be super frustrating! But thankfully, your IGTV video caption can be 75 characters long, so you can get a little creative there.
You can also add emojis to your title so they’ll appear as your caption too, but remember that might hinder how your video appears in the IGTV search results.
The good news is that any comments you receive on your IGTV video, whether in the IGTV section of the app or through the feed, will be nested under your IGTV preview.
This means that when people click on an IGTV video from your profile, they’ll be able to see all the views, likes, and comments on your IGTV video!
Instagram is definitely making changes to the way we engage with video, and this new improvement to the IGTV algorithm will certainly help.
Are you enjoying the IGTV previews that are appearing in your feed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Schedule videos automatically to Instagram with Later, the #1 Instagram marketing platform. Video scheduling is available on all paid plans.
Introducing Instagram Video: Combining IGTV and Instagram Feed
Announcement
October 5, 2021
BY: Instagram Business Team
San Francisco, CA
(Update on March 28, 2022 at 7:00PM PT: At Instagram, we are working to simplify how people create and enjoy videos and make Reels a more central part of the experience. Because of our focus on Reels, In-Stream video ads—previously known as IGTV ads—will no longer be supported.
)
Starting today, we’re combining IGTV and feed videos into one format - Instagram Video. We’re also introducing a new Video tab on your profile, where this combined video format will live, to make it easier for people to discover new video content. We love that our creator community has embraced video as a key format to tell their stories, entertain, and connect with their audiences, and that’s why we want to make it even simpler to create and discover videos on Instagram.
Making It Easier to Upload and Discover Videos
IGTV and feed videos will now be one format. You can still upload videos in the same way from the camera roll by clicking on the + sign in the top right corner of the Instagram home page and selecting Post.
We’re also introducing new features like trimming, filters and people and location tagging.
Creators can continue to cross-post their videos through Stories and share via direct message. Using all our surfaces provides multiple ways for creators to tell their stories and engage with their communities.
Video previews in feed will now be 60 seconds long, unless the video is eligible for ads — in which case, the preview will still be 15 seconds.
“As a creator, I think there shouldn't be a divide between video formats on Instagram; feed video and IGTV should be just video. When a person is looking for content to watch online they're never specifically looking for long format or short format, they're just looking to watch videos and be entertained. I'm glad I now won't need to navigate to so many different surfaces to watch things on Instagram.”
- @henrytado
New Ways to View and Analyze Videos
The new Video tab will be the home for this combined video format, making it easier for people to find content from creators they love. When watching videos on Instagram, viewers can tap anywhere on the video to enter fullscreen. They will also have the option to keep scrolling to discover new video content from creators that may interest them.
To make it easier to understand how videos are performing, we’re merging feed post insights and video insights into one combined metric for businesses and creators.
Reach New Audiences with Video Ads
With Instagram Video, IGTV Ads are now called Instagram In-Stream video ads. Eligible creators can still monetize their long-form content, and brands can reach audiences engaging with long-form video. For businesses interested in boosting their videos to reach more people, videos must be no longer than 60 seconds in length.
Video is the home for visual storytelling. We’re excited to see how creators on Instagram continue to make standout content that inspires people to create themselves.
How to upload videos to IGTV
In June 2018, Instagram announced the launch of IGTV, redesigned it in April 2020, and added automatic subtitles in September 2020. The constant evolution of IGTV only highlights its growing popularity and importance in the follower engagement process. Let's look at how to add video to IGTV from your phone and computer, how to enable automatic subtitles, and also offer 9 ideas for your content on IGTV.
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How to upload a video in IGTV
before downloading the video in IGTV, it is important to know several technical features. Firstly, you cannot shoot videos on IGTV, for this you must first shoot a video on your phone or camera. You can upload videos in both horizontal and vertical formats. Secondly, the length of the video for IGTV uploaded from a mobile phone must be between 1 and 15 minutes. If from a computer - up to 60 minutes. You can choose a cover for the video from a fragment of the video or upload a photo separately. We talked about technical recommendations in more detail in our article - What videos can be uploaded to Instagram.
The title of video should briefly convey the meaning of the video or intrigue with an interesting question.
The optimal title length is up to 30 characters. In the description, open the topic, highlight the questions that will appear in the video.
To reach as many people as possible, post a video to your feed (we'll show you how to do it a little later) and optionally include video display on IGTV on your Facebook page. To do this, you need to link your account to a Facebook page, how to do this is described in the article How to link and unlink Instagram to a Facebook page.
How to add a video to IGTV from your phone
In the upper left corner, click on the plus icon and select "IGTV Video". Or, on the bottom panel, click on the plus icon and upload a video from the smartphone gallery and select "Long video". Add cover art from your smartphone gallery or select a still image from an uploaded video. Come up with a title and description for the video, add hashtags.
To reach as many people as possible, enable "Publish preview" - the first 15 seconds of the video will be published in the Instagram feed.
Turn on "Show on Facebook" to add the video to your Facebook Page (for this, your Instagram account must be linked to a Facebook Page).
If you want to add subtitles, click "Advanced settings" and turn on "Auto generated captions". Instagram rolls out this feature gradually, so it is only available in the app and not yet for all users.
If the video consists of several parts, select the "Add Series" function. Come up with a title for the show and a description. You can also add previously downloaded videos to the "Series". The convenience of this option is that when watching a video, a mark is added, by clicking on which the user goes to a separate tab with videos on this topic. If you do not want to post videos in series format, then just skip this step.
How to add video to IGTV from computer
If you want to upload videos up to 60 minutes, use the web version of Instagram. Go to Instagram.com and go to your profile.
Click on IGTV (between the tabs with your posts and tags). Download the video. Select a cover and add a title with a description. Upload the video and cover in JPG or PNG format (minimum resolution 492 x 762 pixels). Add a title with a description.
If you want the video to appear in your feed, check the "Publish preview" checkbox. Check the "IGTV and Facebook Page" checkbox if you want to post the video to Facebook as well (for this, your Instagram account must be linked to a Facebook Page). Automatic subtitles are not yet available on the web version.
IGTV Content Ideas
Stories have been gaining momentum for quite some time, but now they have become one of the most popular types of content on Instagram. How promising IGTV is as well is difficult to judge, but if you need reviews, viral or educational videos to attract and retain customers, then you should include IGTV in your content plan.
Your own show.
Cooking recipes, music show, business coaching, educational guide.
Vlog. You can shoot a vlog or travel video, blog about beauty (make up, nail, beauty treatments, fitness exercises, etc.).
Reviews and guide. This type of content can be linked to almost every topic: a review of technology, a new arrival of goods (for example, for a showroom), a review of cosmetics, new movies, games, and more. Guidelines for using a product or ordering a service.
Humor and challenge. For bloggers, IGTV is a great way to share long videos with your vines or pranks. You can also arrange challenges, for example, for hairdressers - to do a hairstyle in 2 minutes or for makeup artists - to create a complex make up in 5 minutes.
News and trends. You can cover the latest news and evaluate it through the lens of your opinion or experience.
Answers to questions.
Relevant for both commercial accounts and bloggers. You can make TOP-5 main questions from clients/subscribers and sort them out.
Reviews. To build trust and reputation, businesses can upload video reviews of their product to the IGTV channel. For example, a girl takes pictures of your product unpacking and the first impression, a blogger makes a review and shares his impression about the quality of the product or demonstrates its use.
Live broadcasts. If your subscribers are used to the format of live broadcasts in stories, then you can upload them and duplicate them in the IGTV channel. In this way, you can save some useful content, and users can easily find it.
For image and reputation, the company can shoot interviews with the director of the company, an expert in a particular field, which will touch on the main questions and pains of customers. This can also include collaborations with bloggers - a joint discussion of some relevant topic.
Conclusion
IGTV videos are now mainly used by humorous publics and bloggers for reviews. For commercial accounts, this is still a developing channel. But in any case, IGTV has its own audience, so you should use it and stand out from your competitors at the same time.
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What You Need To Add IGTV To Your Instagram Feed
Hello, Igor Zuevich is in touch ✋ Recently we discussed the news of the main IGTV trends . Therefore, now I propose to talk about how to add IGTV to the Instagram feed in order to attract the attention of viewers to your video.
⚡️Initially, IGTV videos could only be watched on a dedicated channel. For Instagram users, this created problems, and they had to constantly give IGTV announcements in posts and Stories. The announcement did not always achieve the desired goal, and the promotion of IGTV was not an easy task. But 2 years ago, it became possible to share a preview (preview) of an IGTV video in the Instagram feed.
⚡️In the Instagram feed, you can post a video with a duration of 1 minute. This is your IGTV preview, which will help promote the video. After watching a short fragment, everyone will have the opportunity to watch the video in full.
⚡️If you want to add IGTV to your Instagram feed, you will have to think very carefully about everything: cover, title, posting time, format and much more.
But the effect can exceed your wildest expectations!
⚡️Do not forget that the design of IGTV should be in harmony with the design of your account and match the general style of the profile.
⚡️The IGTV post in the Instagram feed can be distinguished by the logo icon in the top right corner.
❓Why add IGTV to Instagram feed?
⚡You took the time to develop the script and shoot the video, now you need people to see it. That is why you need to add IGTV for preview to your account, and then show it in stories . If a user becomes interested in 1 minute, he will definitely continue to watch the video already in your channel.
⚡️IGTV posted to Instagram feed will redirect viewers to your channel after 1 minute of watching.
❓How to add IGTV to Instagram feed?
⚡️First, you need to upload the video to your IGTV channel, and then share the snippet in the Instagram post.
⚡️You can only add an IGTV preview if the video is longer than one minute.
⚡️You can post an IGTV preview on your Instagram feed from your IGTV channel. If the channel does not exist, you will have to create it. For example, using the Instagram app.
⚡️If the channel is already created, open Instagram, click on the IGTV logo, go to your profile, select a video, add a cover, description and title. The next step is to publish.
❗️But for your video to hook the audience, it’s not enough just to shoot and publish it in high quality.
There are some other points that you definitely need to pay attention to:
1️⃣Create an original cover
✅The cover is not only the face of your publication. It must match the entire design of the account, in harmony with it. Therefore, the cover should be thought out especially carefully.
⚡️In addition to originality and matching the style of the account, you need to consider the size! IGTV post has format 9:16, of course, the cover must be made the same.
But you should keep in mind that after adding it to the Instagram feed, its format will become 4:5, and in the profile grid - 1:1.
⚡️ Why is it so important to know all these parameters? Yes, because your cover should look beautiful in each of the formats. Keep this in mind when making it.
⚡️To check how the cover will look in each format, look at where the main focus is: for example, a product photo. The accent should be placed only in the center of the cover, then it will look advantageous in each of the formats.
⚡️After that, see if the cover matches the style of your Instagram account. Make it in a certain color scheme so that the cover draws attention to itself and the account looks like a single entity.
⚡️You can see how your account will look with the cover you made for IGTV in apps like Preview. With this application, you can preview how the created image reflects the style of the account.
2️⃣ Choose the optimal posting time
They have already analyzed and found the optimal time for their publications.
These users know when the audience is most active and post based on their observations.
⚡️But there is some difference between regular posts or Stories and IGTV preview on Instagram. After all, to watch it, the audience will have to spend a little more time, namely, 1 minute. This is important in order to understand whether it is worth going to the channel and watching the video in full.
⚡️That's why you should try adding IGTV to your Instagram feed at different times of the day. Start posting previews at the usual time for your posts. But, it is quite possible that you will choose a different time for posting IGTV later.
⚡️In the morning, when there is a lot of activity in the feed, I would not recommend adding videos to Instagram. At this time, people are in a hurry and just scroll through the tape automatically, they are not up to the details. It is unlikely that anyone wants to spend a whole minute watching. And even more so, they will have no time to switch to the IGTV channel and watch the entire video.
⚡️It is better to add new videos when people have time to read posts and watch videos, when they are in no hurry and ready to take in more information.
3️⃣Work on selecting a video fragment to show
✅To make the viewer interested and want to immediately continue watching, you need to interest him, hook him.
⚡️Therefore, it is worth considering what exactly to show in the first minute and what to leave for later. If your video has music, choose the most interesting and intriguing track!
⚡️If your video is a training plan, or it is some valuable recommendations, then you will have to keep within a minute to briefly convey the essence to the audience. This is necessary so that people understand what benefit and value for themselves he can get by watching the full version.
4️⃣Choose the name carefully
✅After adding IGTV to the Instagram feed, the name will be displayed as a caption.
You won't be able to edit the name later! Therefore, you will have to choose it with special care.
⚡️It is also worth noting that you can add a caption to IGTV no longer than 75 characters. Someone adds emoticons, but then the search results may not be correct.
⚡️There are pluses: all user reactions left on the IGTV channel will be reflected simultaneously in the Instagram feed.
❗️I think you have already understood that adding IGTV to the Instagram feed is not difficult, you still need to create a script, plan the publication time, create a cover. But the main thing is to think over a strategy: this is the only way to attract more viewers and increase interest not only in your IGTV channel, but also in your Instagram account.
As you can see, if you already know not only how to add an IGTV preview to your Instagram feed, but also how to get viewers interested in your post, then use your knowledge and my recommendations.
