What are the Pros and Cons of Using IGTV in your marketing strategy?
This week’s question is from Andrea Nicole Long:
Thanks again for the wonderful information! I’d love to hear your pros and cons so far in regards to IGTV.
Here is a chart of the pros and cons of IGTV that we have discovered after using the feature for about two months now. Leave your own thoughts in the comments of this post.
| PROS | CONS |
| It’s easy to use | Editing vertical video with good production values is harder. We talked about the tools we are using in Episode 102 |
| You can upload your IGTV episodes to Facebook seamlessly | Unfortunately, the watch stats for each platform are separated and you will have to add them up (EXTRA: Facebook is performing better for me right now than Instagram) |
| There is a link for each of your episodes. Go to Instagram.com, click on your profile, then click on the IGTV navigation, then the episode you want to share. Copy and paste the link from the navigation bar. (PS. You can also upload episodes and your thumbnail here) | When IGTV lanched, you could click on the three dots and get an embed code. That was removed pretty quickly. You can still get an embed code from the Facebook post though. |
| Instagram has three features to promote your episode:
Swipe up in stories Notification bar at the top of the mobile app Carousel cards in the mobile app |
Some users are complaining that these features are annoying, so we will see how long they last. |
IGTV Creator’s Handbook
Instagram has created an IGTV Creator’s Handbook that goes over the basics of putting together an IGTV episode. Click on the link above to check it out.
See past episodes of Keeping Up With Kamichat on my IGTV channel.
Social Media Roundup for this Week (August 27-September 3)
All of the networks are slugging it out for more growth and have added a number of new features in the past few weeks. Here are the ones most interesting for communicators, inclusing social media marketers and public relations professionals.
Instagram continues to boom, especially its Stories feature, with 400 million daily users. Facebook Stories are now twice as popular as Snapchat stories, Advertisers are following along, with ad spending growing four times faster than Facebook.
But they aren’t sleeping on the job. Instagram is adding features to bake in more transparency and security into its app before they get hit, like Twitter and its parent app Facebook, with criticism about transparency.
About this Account – Learn more about large accounts in their Instagram profile. Tap the menu and select “About This Account.” There, you will see the date the account joined Instagram, the country where the account is located, accounts with shared followers, any username changes in the last year and any ads the account is currently running.
Verification – Celebrities, public figures, and other notable accounts can also now apply to have their accounts verified. To request verification, go to your profile, tap the menu icon, select “Settings” at the bottom and then choose “Request Verification.” You will need to provide your account username, your full name and a copy of your legal or business identification. This information will not be shared publicly.
Third-party authenticator apps – Instagram is adding access to third-party authenticator apps, such as Google Authenticator, to securely log into Instagram.
Bonus Content
College Virtual Communities
https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/24/technology/instagram-college-community-feature/index.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/24/facebook-instagram-testing-college-community-feature.html
Instagram hopes to lure more college students to the platform with a feature that makes it easy to connect with classmates. The company, which is owned by Facebook, confirmed on Friday that it is testing a tool that allows students to join a virtual community of peers and exchange direct messages with them. This test came four days after dating app Tinder rolled out Tinder U, an iOS-only feature that allows users to limit their search to classmates or nearby campuses.
Watch Party in Groups
Facebook now allows you to create a realtime Watch Party in your group with videos that have been already shared on your’s or other’s business pages. You can’t upload a new video in the playlist, only ones that have already been posted to a page. Click Watch Party when you are making an update and add videos. People will be notified, and you can add more videos, even once it is started. If the admin of the Watch Party closes the tab it will end the watch party, so be aware. You can then watch and comment with a group in real time.
Bonus Content
Facebook API continues to be locked down
Just an FYI, you can no longer auto post your tweets to your Facebook profile, not even with IFTTT or other tools. If you have been using a personal profile as a business page, this may have put a crimp in your style. It’s time to launch a business page.
Dating Feature being tested by Facebook employees.
Facebook is looking to get into the dating game, perhaps to lure younger users back to the platform?
Messenger Kids expands
Facebook has added a new feature to its under-13 chat application Messenger Kids, which makes it easier for the children to add their friends on the platform.
Things in Common Label
Facebook is testing a things in common label to indicate what you have in common with people whom you are connected with.
Talent Show
Facebook is working on an idea called Talent Show which allows users to compete by singing popular songs then submitting their audition for review. The development would offer Facebook another way to take advantage of its more recently acquired music licensing rights. It is similar to Music.ly and other apps like Smule and could attract a younger audience.
Snapchat Fights to Stay Relevant
Ariana Grande's ‘Sweetener' Snapchat Lens
Ariana Grande’s Sweetener album merchandise is only available on Snapchat through a custom face Lens that reveals Grande’s new merchandise. Fans can try it on before actually buying it, and then purchase from the app. Sweetener is Grande’s fourth studio album and was released on Aug. 17. So far, the album is on track to be No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
LinkedIn continues to make changes to its app.
New Group Experience Coming Up this Month
LinkedIn is relaunching its group experience to bring it back into the app more centrally. New LinkedIn group features will allow the group updates to appear in the notifications bar, but they are removing group moderation (temporarily) and the ability to send an email to the group once a month. As you can imagine, group admins from popular groups are not too pleased by this.
Ask For A Referral
LinkedIn launched an “Ask for a Referral” button next to job listings where you know people who work at the company. You can then send your connections a message through LinkedIn, asking them to recommend you for the job in question.
Bonus Content
Sales Navigator got a Refresh
Sales Navigator now integrates with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics (the CRM of its parent company) to provide managers and sales representatives with a more effective way to understand and manage their sales pipelines and add deal and contact information from their customer-relationship-management systems.
YouTube
Copyright Match Tool
YouTube is launching a new Copyright Match Tool to allow creators with more than 100K subscribers to track when other people upload your content. Creators can then request a takedown of pirated material directly from the tool.
YouTube Audio Library
YouTube has updated its YouTube Audio Library with new, copyright-safe songs that you can use in your YouTube videos. This resource is a free way to add some spice to your videos.
Upcoming Events
September 13, 2018 (All Day)
Join me next week at the H/IMA Interactive Strategies Disrupt Conference in Houston, Texas. You can use my code SMBHOU to get $100 off of your registration.
September 14, 2018 (8:30-10:00am)
When building your personal brand isn't your day job. Free event and live stream with the Houston Social Media Breakfast at Canopy.