There’s just no stopping Instagram – the social media platform that made professional food photographers out of us all and that recently hit 1 billion monthly users. Now, in addition to photos, stories and 1-minute videos, users (and, notably, brands) can create long-form videos with IGTV.

Here’s what IGTV is:

  • A stand-alone app and also a feature within the Instagram app (you can easily toggle between “regular” Instagram and IGTV)
  • An outlet to produce and view long-form (i.e. up to one hour), full-screen, vertical videos*
  • Made up of “channels” (here, the creators are the channels)
  • Similar to old-school TV – a channel plays as soon as you open the feature or app (kind of like when a TV show is already playing when you power on your television set)
  • A competitor to YouTube

*Video length can be as short as a few seconds. For several accounts, the maximum length might be 10 minutes. That’s still pretty long for a video.

Find more details about IGTV here.

With tips galore, there’s no doubt that brands and personalities already are hopping on the IGTV train. Some are doing some pretty impressive and creative things, too.

So, is IGTV right for your brand? Before you whip out your phone and start producing content, ask yourself a few questions:

  • Do we have engaging, visual content that merits a longer form video outlet (that we’re not using anywhere else)?
  • If not, is it feasible to develop such content? Can we get creative?
  • Are we prepared to develop more than one or a few videos? Can we develop a strategy for IGTV so that our channel doesn’t go stagnant?
  • How are we using our Instagram account now? How can IGTV complement our already existing Insta-efforts?
  • What’s our overall social media strategy?

Did any of these questions give you pause? In all honesty, they should. Remember, it’s OK not to be an early adopter of the latest social media tool. I’m often a big advocate of taking a step back, monitoring how an outlet is received and taking note of best practices that are developed with time.

.. and those are my thoughts on that. With #NoFilter (Sorry. Had to.).