When IGTV launched we had a debate on this ChurchMag Podcast (#cmagcast) on how churches should approach it. I advocated they immediately jump on it because of its connection to Instagram. My thinking was with an existing user base it was a no-brainer. Jeremy suggested a more calculated approach especially with limited team resources and capacity. One of the things I loved about IGTV then was that it was vertical / portrait only videos. Now that’s changed.
(Side note: Our conversation was about IGTV, but we also spoke about approach to new technologies. If you haven’t listened to that episode already, give it a listen.)
Instagram has announced support for landscape videos. #Cheering crowds with an echo effect. I’m not so sure how I feel about it, though. I loved that IGTV was portrait videos. I did see a few accounts, start videos encouraging people to flip their phones. That was rather annoying.
What This Could Mean
IGTV supporting landscape makes a lot of churches and organizations happy. This means that they don’t have to make or format videos specifically for IGTV. It makes your church can make videos for more than one platform. As welcome as this change can be, I’d like to suggest something.
If your church or organization has been using IGTV already this is a good time to review how you’ve used it. What lessons have you learned?
Like I said in the #cmagcast, I’m still not convinced IGTV will be competition for YouTube. IGTV’s experience is somewhat embedded in Instagram. And, with that, it might not be a great idea to upload hour-long sermons. Consider that most videos and content on Instagram is concise. For brief consumption on-the-go. Consider posting videos that a couple of minutes.
May I also suggest not completely abandoning the portrait videos. There are some weird people, like me out there who still like them. You could still use some of these portrait videos in your Instagram and Facebook stories.
What’s your use of IGTV been like? What do you think this change could mean for your church or organization?
Speak your mind...