In the last decade, we have seen a lot of technological advancements, particularly in the area of social media. With more and more social media platforms and features developed every other day to keep users engaged on the internet, it can be difficult to keep up with these trends. In this blog post I’d like to give insights in the 5 most common IGTV marketing mistakes on Instagram.

These trends have surely altered and somewhat enhanced the way regular social media users interact with each other. More so, it has proven useful to content creators with reaching a vast audience and becoming more creative. 

The impact of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat cannot be overemphasized, especially with regards to business-customer relationships. In 2018 alone, more than one (1) Billion users were actively engaging in one social media platform or another. 

Instagram, in particular, saw a surge in its number of active users, which meant that digital marketers and content creators had to find more interesting ways to take advantage of this surge. New Instagram features, like IGTV (Instagram Television), business accounts, collaborations, and many others, were introduced to make the platform more engaging and profitable to influencers and brands. However, the downside to this change was a general lack of knowledge to utilize IGTV for business fully.

In this article, we will be highlighting the five (5) most common IGTV Marketing mistakes on Instagram, and how businesses, as well as digital marketers, can address it to benefit their brands.

#1 Sharing Excessively Lengthy Videos

The first thing that got most people excited about IGTV was the ability to upload videos longer than one(1) minute to Instagram. With the new IGTV feature, content creators could upload videos as long as a full Youtube video for their followers, without relying on a Youtube account. However, a lot of these creators went overboard. 

This is one of the most common IGTV mistakes, and you need to understand that it hurts rather than help your brand. Nobody wants to sit through an hour-long video, just to listen to you go on and on about the same message. What you can do is edit your video and message into a two to three-minute-long video, making sure to add as many eye-catching moments to keep your viewer engaged. 

Your first focus should be on making videos short and exciting without compromising on the quality. A viewer shouldn’t feel that he/she is being held there for too long just to get the point of the video. In a nutshell, make it short, engaging, and to-the-point!

#2 Not Having a Schedule or Plan

A lot of business owners and brands record IGTV videos just because they see everyone else doing it. They do not have an objective or cut-out plan. These days you see all kinds of videos on IGTV accounts of brands and business owners. You see boring stories of their personal daily lives. They post videos of when they are feeding a cat, exercising, cooking, etc. Who really wants to see all that?

If you’re on Instagram to create awareness for your business, then you need to step up your game. You need to have a plan and stick to it. What do you really want to achieve with your Instagram TV videos? You need to get your priorities right.

Moreover, most brands that post videos on their IGTV do not have a schedule for posting their videos. Some post once in a blue moon. It is very important that you come up with a schedule for posting IGTV videos and ensure to stick to that schedule. The bottom line is that you need to be consistent and post IGTV videos regularly to keep your brand at the top of the minds of your followers. Let your audience always have something to look out for in your videos. Keep your content fresh, interesting, and engaging. Keep your audience thirsty.

In today’s business environment, competition is fierce. If you are not posting content regularly, you’ll be forgotten in no time, and other brands/competitors will take your place. You can decide to upload one IGTV video every week; the most important thing is that you stick to your schedule.

#3 Improper Formatting

One mistake businesses make that hurts their IGTV marketing is that they use the same video across most of their social media channels. The same video they used for Youtube, include in email newsletters, and publish on Facebook, is the same video they also upload to their IGTV. This is totally wrong.

First off, there is a huge difference between the video formats for Youtube and Instagram. Instagram TV videos take a vertical format. A lot of business owners and brands seem to forget this difference in format, and they just upload their Youtube videos on their Instagram TV.

When creating videos for Instagram TV, you need to be conscious of the format. If you want your Instagram TV videos to get the right results, you’ll need to use the right vertical format. Instagram TV videos are basically recorded on a mobile phone. If you are creating an animated video, you can preset the dimensions before you start making your video. Make sure you maintain a 9:16 aspect ratio.

#4 Overlooking The Basics

When you decide to post IGTV videos for marketing your brand, you need to put the following important guidelines into consideration.

• Title: The title of your IGTV video should be captivating and concise. Also, make sure that the title of your video reflects the content of your video. You cannot have a video with a certain topic and different content entirely. Make sure that your titles are not too long. Your title should not exceed 20-25 characters.
• Cover Image: Surprisingly, a lot of people do not even know that they can add a cover image to their Instagram TV video channel. Ensure that your IGTV cover image reflects your brand. Make the image is clear enough and do not overcrowd it with too many words or phrases.
• Hashtags: Do you know that you can add hashtags to your Instagram TV videos? Well, now, you know. Integrating branded hashtags in your Instagram TV videos helps to increase the visibility of your videos. However, be careful not to overuse them. 5-7 hashtags are enough.
• Call to action: In order to get the best results from your Instagram TV marketing efforts, you need to use a very strong and powerful call to action. Not just for your IGTV marketing, call to actions are an essential element in any meaningful digital marketing campaign. Make sure you include a strong call to action in the description of your Instagram TV video. You can tell your viewers to share your video, make a comment, or even follow your page. If you do not ask them to do anything, they will most likely do nothing.

#5 Do Not Lose Focus

Most brands fail in their IGTV marketing efforts because they do not have a specific topic that they post about. They are all over the place. Your IGTV channel should be super focused. If you decide to post on three topics that are related to your brand, stick with those three topics and let your audience know the kind of video content that they should expect from your brand.

Final Thoughts

Even though Instagram TV is still a pretty new feature on Instagram, it definitely has enormous marketing potential for brands and business owners alike. 

If you have the right plan, and you avoid the common mistakes that most brands make, your business can enjoy maximum benefits from IGTV videos.

Are you ready to start using Instagram TV for your marketing campaign? If you want to get maximum benefits from your Instagram marketing efforts, you should consider using IGTV.