It was June 2018 when Instagram decided to launch IGTV. What started as a separate app soon became an additional feature to the existing Instagram platform. By now you’ve probably seen the feature at least once or twice – that is, if you are on Instagram. But what can IGTV mean to you, as a hospitality brand? What can you do for your restaurant, café or hotel with this additional feature? It’s time to look at some examples and brainstorm about a couple ideas.

What is it, exactly?

IGTV is Instagram’s very own video platform. To make it a bit easier: it’s a video platform they created to fight against YouTube. But Instagram understood they’d never be able to battle against YouTube when it comes to normal videos. YouTube has been long established and has an immense amount of active daily users that are unlikely to move away from the platform for something exactly similar.

So Instagram decided to make use of the fact that they are a mobile platform and made IGTV a vertical-video platform. That means that videos on IGTV are shown vertically, in ‘portrait mode’ instead of ‘landscape’. This makes IGTV 100% focused on smartphone and tablet users. An interesting choice which made them indeed stand out from the video-platform-crowd (or from YouTube, really). The difference with Instagram Stories is that IGTV, like YouTube, is meant for longer format content. No short 10 second videos.

What are people using IGTV for?

IGTV seems to be used mainly by brands and creators. It’s not a place where people randomly post videos on, they use their own ‘Instagram Story’ for that. IGTV is a more curated platform. Yet your videos don’t have to be in 4K, people still accept and expect a bit ‘lower’ quality on IGTV. So that’s perfect if you happen to use your smartphone for your brand’s Instagram account.

IGTV hasn’t hyped as much as they had hoped, that’s clear. Instagram Stories are still more important and used more actively by their users. That doesn’t mean that IGTV should just be forgotten about. Will it crush YouTube? No. But should you ignore the platform all together? Probably not! Right now there’s still lots of space on IGTV to experiment. And since not all brands are on it or trying to use it, the platform has a lot of potential to bring you new clients. The chance of your content being viewed by people outside of your current following is, thanks to the lack of a big amount of competition, quite high.

Content ideas

I went to look at a variety of big Instagram accounts. As it turned out, there’s lots of brands who are not using IGTV (yet). McDonalds? Nope. Starbucks? Nope. Five Guys? Nope. But then there are smaller brands who are using the channel. And the views on their videos are quite incredible. (You can check the channels corresponding with the pictures underneath by clicking them)

So to get some inspiration, I looked at a few different accounts. A supermarket, a Dutch tv baking show, an online food blog, Marriott, Lonely Planet and a restaurant. The types of content:

• Baking tips
• Recipe making-of
• Cooking tips
• City guides
• Behind-the-scenes staff videos
• Win contests
• Try-outs I love this one: https://www.instagram.com/tv/BpJq9lsic3y/

But what else could you do?

• Show the property and/or restaurant
• Introduce the staff
• Interviews
• After movies from events
• A trip around town
• Highlight neighborhood events – go there and film it, like a vlog
• Make it a news channel
• Highlight the products you use, tell more about the products

Leverage your content

Make your content even better by featuring influencers in it – so they can direct their followers to your IGTV – or… being in the content yourself! IGTV is a perfect spot for ‘authenticity’, to show your own face. And that’s what social media users want nowadays. They crave transparency. So why not give it to them?

Please help me to do this!

Can’t keep track of the latest features on social media? Feeling lost or like a complete dinosaur? Then check out our Tremento Tribe Membership. This membership will help you to get things streamlined and improved. You’ll get a personal success coach which will guide you to become better and better and better, on your own. No more hiring graphic designers or ad companies: we will teach you how to do it, on your own, and give you plenty of content ideas to never get stuck on creating new posts!

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I’m trying my very best to put out content that helps you, the owner, designer of manager of a hospitality brand, to bring your business to the next level. All posts on Tremento are created with hospitality brands specifically in mind. Articles talk about practical tips and inspiration for social media, design, photography and more.

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