Instagram takes on YouTube (GINGERBEARD Media News)
At a launch event in San Fran overnight, Instagram announced two things.
The first was an internal pat on the back;- 1 billion active users and the second was the real point of everyone being there.
Instagram launched their new platform; IGTV.
Head Beard Bruce provides his view on what this new platform means for business owners.
Overview
So firstly the platform is both new and integrated. IGTV will be found in the next update of Instagram (reportedly being rolled out in the few weeks for both iOS and Android users), but it's already available for download as a separate app.
This move assumably comes from parent company Facebook, who split out messenger as a separate app from their main platform.
If you want to upload to the platform then setting up an account is simple and it'll link to your existing Instagram profile. From there you can upload videos of 15 seconds to 1 hour in length, although you'll need a large following to reach that limit. For us mere mortals, 10 minutes is likely to be the longest we can upload.
And once the main instagram app updates, you'll actually have a button at the top right to view IGTV, and pages you follow that have an IGTV channel set up will show that through an icon in the same line as story highlights.
Why The Change?
Instagram identifies that the younger demographic is removing itself from TV. In fact in the last 5 years, teenagers have dropped from the box by around 40% - which is massive.
Online content allows them, and anyone else to find something that really speaks to them - individualised content. And just as YouTube has found it's place with content creators, so will IGTV.
Instagram also believes there is not only a gap in the content market, but also the way in which video is delivered. TV, movies and YouTube all occupy the 16:9 format - landscape. But with mobile video continuing to increase its viewership, platforms have failed to adapt to the 9:16 portrait format.
Infact, it was Instagram's own stories that probably help drive the change;- they report that in the last year alone, we're watching 60% more video on their app. That's part driven by ease - it was integrated into something already integrated into our lives, unlike Snapchat, and secondly, we dont have to rotate the phone, it displays how we naturally hold our phones, unlike YouTube.
What's The Impact For My Business?
Firstly, the simple spot - there is the opportunity to communicate longer content to your existing audience. You can now use new or existing video to promote your business through IGTV, and unlike Stories, it won't disappear or be so time limited.
Side note, talking of time - wondering why 10 minutes is the longest length for most users videos? What happens if we were to take a look at where YouTubes best monetisation point comes in.... you guessed it - at 10 minutes!
Advertising within the platform doesn't exist. But you can be guaranteed it's coming. So there will be in 6-12 months, the opportunity for businesses, perhaps your business, to advertise itself within a 'show'. The easiest format of this would be through pre-roll ads or potentially ones part the way through, breaking up the content;- again just like YouTube.
Why would you use this method? Targeted audience. Most successful Instagram pages are dedicated to a specific topic - so with this it would be easy to line your advertising content up with a specific audience. And when it's linked to Facebook's existing marketing platform - you can expect something very powerful, and profitable for Facebook.
Finally, this seals the fate of the 'content creator' and social media influencer as 'proper jobs'. It is no longer just YouTube who provides an opportunity for digital creators to make a living. Gone of the days where YouTube and then Twitch offered this, predominately to gamers. IGTV offers a whole new audience of creators the opportunity to create a business for themselves, and as business owners we have both opportunity (to link up with these people to help drive our business) and threat as they seek out new ways to disrupt traditional business.
The Challenges
As Head Beard Bruce discusses in the video, the challenge will actually be in producing the content.
For many businesses, including our own, to save production cost we repurpose/use content for different platforms. But the switch between 16:9 and 9:16 can cause some technical difficulties - you will lose a lot from the side of your shots and these could be important.
So in the long-run, businesses will have to consider where they are using their content prior to shooting, and plan shoots around this, and may consider double-shooting specifically for IGTV if they are trying to use the same content across all platforms.
Let's Wrap This Up
We hope this article and video have been of interest and use to you. If you're interested in discussing these sort of topics further then I would suggest joining up to our Facebook Group;- How to Shoot Video For Your Business, and obviously if you'd like us to get involved in delivering professional marketing videos for your business, then we'd love to have a chat.
Until next time,
Beard Out
