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‘How to use IGTV’ and Things You Need to know

By Dileep Gupta

June 22, 2018 5 min read

Last update on: June 22, 2018

Instagram is ready to compete with YouTube. Yesterday in a flashy event in San Francisco, the social media giant launched its standalone app for users to upload and view long form vertical videos – IGTV.

Content creators using Instagram as their marketing model now have a reason to rejoice. While they earlier only had the freedom to upload videos that were 1 minute long on the social media platform, can now upload videos of upto 60 minutes long.

With more than 1 billion active users on Instagram, the platform is ideal for creators looking to reach more audience.

While IGTV app is a move to compete with the popularity that YouTube has found for itself – both from content creators and users – the launch comes as a well thought of strategy to act on the direction that the digital video market is taking.

Validating the potential of the industry in their blog, Instagram passed some statistics – “By 2021, mobile video will account for 78% of total mobile data traffic. And we’ve learned that younger audiences are spending more time with amateur content creators and less time with professionals.”

Let’s talk Specs

Tech Specification of IGTV Videos

Video Type – MP4
Length – 15 seconds to 1 hour
Aspect Ratio – Minimum – 4:5 Maximum – 9:16
File Size – Maximum for 10 minutes of video – 650MB. Maximum for 60 minutes video – 5.4GB

Even though the platform is just a day old, the acceptance that it is getting in form of video uploads is huge. But is the traction a hype or a stable happening is a question whose answer is what the content creators are also seeking (but in a different context) – Monetization.

So…. What About Monetization?

Although Instagram is trying to compete heads-on with YouTube, the brand will not be able to come close until it thinks of a monetization plan for the creators. For the celebrity content creators, it ultimately boils down – What will I get if I upload an hour long video on IGTV app?

While, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom mentioned that there is no monetization plan as of now, but he sees IGTV becoming a platform to show advertisements.

What Does it Mean for Businesses?

IGTV is a brand new outlet for businesses to promote themselves among millions of daily active users. Whether you are service based like a mobile app development company looking to make yourself a household name or you are an e-commerce platform, posting your brand story that stretches beyond a minute would only do your business good.

Now that we have covered all there’s to know of IGTV app, let us help you with the steps of uploading a video in IGTV.

How to Upload Videos on IGTV

Here are the steps to the process that will make your brand popular –

How to upload videos on IGTV from Mobile

Once you have created a channel on IGTV, follow these steps –

On the main IGTV screen, tap on the profile icon to see your channel. You can either click on the ‘Plus’ sign on top-right corner or click on ‘Upload Video’.
Give rights to IGTV to upload video from your device.
Fill details about the video and edit the cover.