With IGTV announcing that they are abandoning their signature vertical long-form format to allow for horizontal video too, many online marketers are cheering.
Instagram’s move will make it easier to repurpose content across multiple platforms, rather than having to edit and even film in a specific format for Instagram’s mobile-only long-form video platform.
So, here are five creative ways that you can repurpose your business’ video content to use on IGTV or vice versa.
1. Tease your main video. Whether it's on YouTube, your website, or another platform, if it's a video that you're driving traffic to, IGTV could be a fun way to tease the main video. It won’t have the fragmented format of instagram stories, and offers the added bonus of a clickable link. Or, even create a shorter version of your campaign video just for IGTV that can drive people directly to your landing page.
2. Reutilise the best bits of your existing videos. If you're not trying to drive traffic, experiment with how your audience responds to your IGTV videos by creating fun edits of your business' pre-existing videos. In some cases you might even consider reposting the whole original video on the platform to see how it performs - just remember to be aware that diluting your engagement across too many platforms is probably not a strategic move.
3. Publish highlights of your Facebook live. You put time and energy into those Facebook lives, so make the most of it by downloading it and editing together those "golden nugget" moments to a more snackable video full of value for your business' IGTV audience. The informal style of Facebook live lends itself perfectly to IGTV.
4. Tease your blog post in a short video. It's not just video content that can be repurposed. Give your old or most popular blog posts some more juice by teasing part of it in an IGTV video. Think about sharing the first couple of tips to video, or just summarise the blog post’s introduction. Place the blog post’s link in the IGTV description and use your call to action to make sure your audience clicks on it!
5. Pull your IG stories into one coherent video. Whether they're living in your highlights or have since expired into the pits of your IG stories archive, give your most popular clips a new lease of life by turning them into slightly longer videos to entertain, inform or inspire your audience. Remember, IGTV still works for vertical video, too. The important thing is to keep the video orientation consistent within one video.
As I mentioned above, IGTV allows you to insert clickable links into your video description. Don’t underestimate the power of this on a platform which usually has you directing your audience to “link in bio”. A clear call to action could see you driving more traffic to your website, YouTube video or other content.
With all of this exciting video formatting news, I thought it was time to recap on the formats and dimensions of video that each platform allows.
Download my free video format cheat sheet to save time on googling video format, size and length every time you’re trying to repurpose your content: download here.