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About Anesha Collins

Anesha Collins is a Wedding and Events Photographer, Cinematographer, Educator, and Speaker currently based in Orlando, Florida that also specializes in video-marketing and content creation. She’s the founder of LearnWithAC, where she empowers small business owners and creative entrepreneurs with the knowledge they need to incorporate video visual presence within their brand. She is also a Moderator for The Rising Tide Society. She was born and raised in Staten Island, New York before moving to Florida. She’s a self-starter (with a lot of initiative), obsessed with being organized, solution-oriented, and a lover of quotes.

Anesha Collins built the visual presence of a well-known promotional company that has hosted over 435 events, with a reach of over 400,000 people and still growing. This company has grown an audience of over 72,000 followers on social media, has been featured on O.W.N. Television Network and has hosted several worldwide tours. Anesha Collins has taught video-marketing on local and national platforms. Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Knot, MunaLuchi Bridal, NFL, The Knots-HowHeAsked, Harness Magazine, Catalyst Co., BlackBride1998, Orlando Magazine and more. She is also the recipient of Orlando Florida’s 2017 & 2018 Best of Weddings Award for Best Videographer & Best Photographer. To learn more about LEARNWITHAC join her community here.

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What is IGTV?

IGTV (Instagram TV) is a stand-alone app that also works within the native Instagram app. IGTV was created by Instagram during mid-July of 2018. IGTV is not the same as IG Stories, so don’t confuse the two. IGTV has cool features like connecting you to your target audience (automatically), which means the followers you already have will get access to your IGTV content. This is different from YouTube where you have to build an audience from scratch.

The fact that you already have access to people who know, like, and trust you, makes IGTV worth taking the time to create content for. It’s also a huge plus for smaller Instagram accounts with less than 10,000 followers.

IGTV also has a neat feature where you can add links to your IGTV Channel content which allows you to guide your audience to where you want them to go. For example, if you have a valuable free download or a new blog post that you want people to read, you can link them to this content using a link in the video-post you’ve created for IGTV.

Related: Are you properly adding links to your Instagram Stories?

How to Use IGTV

After reading that, you’re probably wondering how you can market on IGTV. Right? For starters, you need to see if you have the feature. Some accounts are still in the roll-out phase, so you may not have this feature as of yet. If you don’t, no worries. You’ll be a step ahead by reading this.

How To Setup Your IGTV Channel

After setting up your IGTV account, you will be ready to start uploading videos to your channel. You can use the IGTV Channel app to upload videos or you can upload your videos from the extension option within the Instagram app. You can also customize your channel to your brand’s likeness by using colors, music, and text overlays that match your branding. Here’s how to get started.

Related: 5 tips for Instagram strategies to use for your wedding photography business – you don’t want to miss them!

1. Tap the IGTV Logo

On your Instagram home feed, tap the IGTV logo near the top right corner (next to your DM button). Be sure to have a purpose for the use of this channel. Don’t upload random videos.

Bonus Tip:

• Video Orientation: Vertical
• File format: MP4 or MOV.
• Video Length: 15- Seconds to 10-Minutes Long
• File Size: Less than 3.6 GB
• Vertical videos are best for IGTV, but be open to experimenting with what attracts your audience to watch your content. The aspect ratio is 9:16 for those that want to create more brand connected videos for IGTV.

You can also upload this same video to your business Facebook page. Be mindful of the video quality with loading to your Facebook business page. Also, the file format may be confusing to your audience as it is vertical in orientation and square videos do better on the Facebook newsfeed.

Related: 6 Reasons to Use Planoly for Instagram – click the link to learn more!

2. Select a Video

Click the “+” in the right-hand corner to add a new video. Select a video from your camera roll.

Bonus Tip:

Remember, you have a 10-minute video limit for uploads. Videos longer than 10-minutes will not show up as options to upload on your camera roll. If you have a video that is longer than 10-minutes, split the video into 10-minute increments and consider loading that video as a Series on your IGTV channel.

Related: How can you engage your followers on Instagram? We put together 9 Instagram post ideas from pro photographers here!

3. Use Keyword Titles and Descriptions

Add a title and description that’s relevant to the video you’re uploading.

Bonus Tip:

Use keywords that help the viewer to better connect with your video ultimately encouraging them to watch it. Be sure to also tag relevant Instagram accounts. This will help to bring more attention to your video. I have used up to 30 hashtags on an IGTV video/Instagram post if it warranted to do so.

Related: What are the best hashtags for you to use on Instagram? We put together a comprehensive hashtag list to help!

4. Choose a Thumbnail or Video Still-Shot

Choose a thumbnail from the video you’ve uploaded or upload a cover photo you created from your camera roll as the thumbnail. Creating an appealing thumbnail is important on IGTV. If you want to stay on brand, consider creating a template that you can continue to use, change the text for titles and images.

5. Share with Your Audience

Share With Your Audience and hit publish. Select the “POST” or “PUBLISH” button and you’re done.

Related: The Tools to Maximize Instagram Galleries for Wedding Photographers

WHY YOU NEED TO DEVELOP CONTENT FOR IGTV

Content is important, but the point is that we want our customers to know we exist. Content creators are on primarily on YouTube. People don’t go to YouTube to purchase things, even if the YouTube host links them to products or content to purchase. People go to YouTube to learn, for the “Why” and “How-To’s.” However, consumers definitely go to Instagram to connect and buy. They want to know who is behind the brand, and even better, who is behind the brand. They are more than inclined to buy from you on Instagram than on YouTube.

If your plan is to be in business for the next five years, then your future consumer is Generation Z. Generation Z definitely uses platforms like IGTV and SnapChat. You need to show up; let them know you exist. IGTV is a great way to reach them. While IGTV is still new and has some limitations, having a plan on how to use this app for your business will serve as a great marketing tool to serve your target audience.

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Part 2

Are you struggling with content ideas for your IGTV? You’ve probably come up with a few that didn’t resonate, so you crumbled those ideas and threw them in the trash. Or, you computed someone else thinking that copying them would work for your audience since it worked for them. Here’s the problem. You’re not sharing your story the right way. What does that mean? That means you’re more than likely sharing a lot about you, and making yourself the certain of attention instead of focusing on your audience and how you can serve them using IGTV.

Now that you’ve set up your IGTV Channel, you need to figure out what you’re going to do with it. If you plan on educating your audience, then educate them using their pain-points. If you plan on entertaining them, then share content on your IGTV Channel that they can connect to and like. If you plan on inspiring them, ask your audience where they need a helping hand. These are all great ways to start with content ideas for your IGTV Channel.

Why Storytelling is Important

Author of “Your BrandStory”, Donald Miller hones in on this deeper than I can write about. For the sake of time, it’s important to know that the brain really connects to storytelling. Storytelling can be done in so many ways using video, so this is the best place to start.

When Instagram rolled out Instagram Stories, it forced brands to be more transparent. The brands that are more transparent are the ones that are connecting more. In other words, you don’t have to be perfect to make an impact, but you do have to be intentional and authentic.

Your followers can get more connected to you through content you share such as Company Commercials, Behind-The-Scenes videos, personal content (at your discretion), and more.

How To Connect Authentically on Instagram and IGTV

Generation Z will make up most of our future consumers within the next five years, and this generation is on social media. They are using their smartphones to connect, engage, and buy. Your IGTV content will make you top of mind as they use their smartphone two times more than any other generation to date.

Here are some examples of how to use IGTV:

• Repurpose FB LIVES/Blog Post Ideas
• Give access to downloads
  • Give access to downloads
• Showcase your products
• Highlight A Speical Moment

Video Content Builds Client Trust

As previously stated, Generation Z will make up most of our future consumers within the next 5 to 10 years. They are a super connecting generation and very big on authenticity. Your marketing needs to speak from a place of “How Can I Serve You…” It also needs to have a personal touch. By adding this personal touch, your target audience feels more connected with you and builds even more trust with you.

How are you going to service your audience through content on IGTV? Leave a comment.

Further Read: Introducing Instagram For Wedding Photographers

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Learning how to use IGTV to grow your photography brand on Instagram can help you attract and book clients who are perfect for you.