- Is this really the future of video?
Is that what we're gonna be doing in 2018?
Let's talk about it.
Hey, everybody.
This is Roberto Blake of robertoblake.com,
helping you create something awesome today.
So I just got back from speaking at VidCon.
I am tired, exhausted,
and my throat still hasn't fully recovered yet,
and we have to talk about something that just happened.
So as an entrepreneur
who uses social media in their business,
I am on most of these platforms.
I am on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, you name it.
And I pride myself on creating content
for each of those platforms in a unique and different way
instead of just repurposing and regurgitating
the same content that I put on YouTube everywhere else.
In fact, my entire session at VidCon,
in terms of my solo session,
was all about YouTube content strategy,
and the importance of creating unique
and interesting experiences for viewers.
So with the announcement of IGTV
and Instagram's foray into long-form content
and directly competing with YouTube,
I actually had a few thoughts about this.
This is something that I actually talked a little bit about
in my interview with Marques Brownlee, MKBHD,
and I've been really impressed with the content
that he's actually been creating
for IGTV since it came out.
There are a lot of pieces
to the Instagram versus YouTube debate,
so let's go ahead and unpack some of those.
The first, of course, is the controversial topic
of vertical video, and whether this is the future of video.
Now, while I may not start filming like this anytime soon,
I don't think it's such a bad thing.
I think that we've been accustomed to vertical video
for a long time.
As an iPhone user, I've been using this with FaceTime
pretty much forever.
When it comes the early adoption
of the mobile livestreaming apps like Meerkat
and Periscope and Facebook Live,
I was already used to creating content
in a vertical format,
and a lot of viewers were already used to this.
Then we have SnapChat and Instagram Stories.
This is not anything new, and the numbers don't lie.
People are not put off my vertical video.
What they're put off by is people filming
horizontal video like this,
and letting there be large black bars
in between it and it's not a great viewing experience,
when they're already accustomed
to high quality vertical video,
because again, there have been people
who have been doing this with Instagram Stories,
Instagram Live, SnapChat and other platforms for awhile now,
so it's not really a big deal to embrace vertical video.
It's not a problem.
There are people who have suggested that,
well, Instagram has always been short form content.
It's always been 15 second Instagram stories
or 60 Instagram videos,
but Instagram actually expanded
on the length of content awhile ago.
We got Instagram Live,
where you can go up to an hour.
Yes, that disappears in 24 hours,
and we even went from about roughly,
I remember it was like, we used to have 15 seconds
in Instagram posts,
and then they went to 60 seconds.
So this isn't something really that out of the ordinary
for them to decide, well,
we'll give guys the ability to upload
up to 15 minutes of content,
and for some of you, we'll allow you to post
up to an hour of content.
Even YouTube used to have a time limit
of about roughly, I wanna say,
it was that you could only upload, I believe,
up to 15 minutes of video,
unless you verified your account.
So these are things that platforms have changed
then shifted on in the past.
Even if you're used to short form content,
platforms have been allowing you to expand that experience,
and it hasn't been a problem.
More people have responded to it.
Will YouTubers jump ship to Instagram?
I don't really know if that's a conversation
we even need to be having right now.
I think that it's going to, first of all,
get a lot of people excited
about making content.
I know it's certainly going in that direction for me.
I think the smartest creators will realize
this is a new opportunity to expand their brand,
instead of rehashing the same things,
and to create experiences for viewers,
and take advantage of a vertical format
that will let them experiment,
and where there may not be the same expectations.
One of the other smart things that Instagram did
was they immediately focused on creating search for this,
and a great discovery experience.
It's actually really good.
The overall UI and UX is fantastic.
It's one of the best deployments of a new system
that I think I've ever seen,
when it comes to design elements
and how intuitive this is.
It's really easy and fun to watch,
and to navigate through, and to move on to other content.
So I think that they were really smart
in the way that they approached this.
The other thing that I feel they did very well
was the fact that if you already
are following someone on Instagram,
you're following them on IGTV, as well,
and they went ahead and integrated it
all natively to the Instagram app,
so you're not really starting over.
You already are moving over an audience,
which means if you've been growing your Instagram
for the last year like me,
see, I'm always planning for the future,
then you already have an audience and a following
for when you start posting new stuff to Instagram TV,
so it actually feels really good.
You don't feel like you're starting over from zero.
This is similar to how, if you were on Periscope,
your Twitter followers are already over there.
So you know, they don't have to opt-in twice.
This is actually very practical on Instagram's part,
and I think it does encourage creators to grow
and build on that platform, and so I don't know
that it's about moving people over for Instagram.
I think it's more about having them up it in their priority
and that the content may feel easier to make,
and more accessible than YouTube videos.
I don't think you have to make
nearly as polished video content
for Instagram as YouTube,
and with everybody suffering from burnout on the platform
and also some types of content getting a little stale,
this could be a revival for many creators,
many audiences, and I think it's a good thing.
There are also types and genres of videos
that play out a lot more simply in a vertical format
that makes sense.
I mean, talking directly to your audience,
doing rants, doing story times,
doing motivational content,
I think that all those things
play out just fine on Instagram,
even with minimal or no editing,
which means the accessibility
of making daily content in Instagram
that is going to last,
and is gonna feel really good with regard to IGTV,
it makes total sense to me.
In fact, I'm gonna try and see if I can ramp up
doing a lot more motivational content over there.
Before the end of the summer,
I think we're gonna be on daily motivation on Instagram.
I mean, it might not be that far fetched
that within the next six months,
I might actually put out 500 to a thousand pieces
of unique content on Instagram,
especially if I'm going more on the motivational route.
That means minimal to no editing.
Instagram was also smart enough
to integrate thumbnails into this,
which is going to let people use their skills,
either with photography or design
and apply that here.
I'm actually gonna be working on a project
I was already doing,
but now I'm going to expand it.
You guys may be familiar
with the YouTube Starter Kit.
It is a bundle of download templates
and resources that I made in Photoshop
for YouTube creators to make thumbnails
and channel artwork and things like that.
I had already been working on an Instagram graphics pack,
but now I'm gonna step that up,
and make it more of a priority in my product launches,
and I also am gonna probably do something really interesting
where I'll give a massive discount
to the first 200 people to actually decide
that they wanna get it early.
I'll do some kind of massive discount for that.
So I'm gonna put some information on that
in the description for you guys,
and if you want early access to the Instagram graphics pack,
then make sure you either follow me over in Instagram
and shoot me a DM, or you can go ahead
and you can drop a comment down below.
Tell me that you're looking forward to that.
Some final thoughts on Instagram TV
and where I stand with it.
I don't know that this is a direct competitor to YouTube.
In my mind, it's more of a rival
that could push YouTube forward,
and could also offer more to content creators.
You have to look at Instagram's track record here.
They were almost untouched by the Facebook controversy.
Everyone's like, you'll pry Instagram
from my cold, dead, hands.
Forget Facebook.
And then there's the fact that they pretty much
cannibalized SnapChat when they went after them.
Periscope is all but dead now.
A lot of people prefer to do Instagram livestreams,
versus as far as a mobile experience.
I don't have the numbers on Facebook livestreams,
but I would imagine that's in decline, as well.
Every time that Instagram adopts something,
it seems to win.
I think that they have a very good understanding
of the user base, culture, and the average consumer.
I like that they're a mobile first platform,
but they're also adopting a desktop version,
and you'll be able to upload from desktop.
This could be great in the workflow
of let's say Apple users,
because of things like AirDrop,
so you know, that's something to take advantage of
from a creative standpoint.
I feel that at this point,
if Instagram were to announce,
and we know that they're gonna move toward monetization,
but if they said tomorrow,
you could apply for monetization
and that anybody with 100,000 followers
gets a trophy of some kind,
if Instagram did those two things tomorrow,
then I would be concerned
about people just jumping ship from YouTube,
and going harder on Instagram,
but as it is, I think that people will balance
both of these platforms as a priority.
Instagram, I feel, will move
from what they're saying to monetization.
They'll probably put that in beta soon,
and I feel that by 2019,
you'll see what it really looks like.
I also have my suspicions that Facebook
might also adopt monetization by then.
I don't think they've given up on Facebook Watch
and getting user generator created content out of that,
but I think Instagram is the smarter play,
and I think it'll happen there, first.
I'm gonna be giving you guys some tips
on making Instagram videos for IGTV
and Instagram, in general, growing your following there.
It's something that I've been doing,
and I didn't wanna talk about it
until after I was at 10,000 followers,
so thanks, guys, for helping me grow over there,
and the fact is, I'm focusing a lot more
on the motivational content over there
than I am probably anywhere else,
so if that's something you're into,
don't forget to follow me over on Instagram,
but yeah, I think that IGTV
is definitely a winner.
I don't necessarily think it has to be YouTube's loss,
but I think that YouTube
needs to start paying really close attention
to the pain points of the community,
if they want to hold onto people,
because it might be more advantageous
for story time YouTubers, vloggers,
maybe even beauty gurus and a few other folks
to actually prioritize Instagram and IGTV
in the way that gamers and a lot of other people
have decided to embrace Twitch.
I think that we could finally see more fragmentation
in thee creator community,
and I think that if they adopt some things
from the YouTube culture that work
that we have a better chance
of seeing those things play out.
But I would love to know your thoughts about IGTV,
whether you think it's a rival or a competitor to YouTube,
what your expectations are,
and if you're using it right now,
I'd love to know what your experience is.
I'm gonna be talking about this a lot more
in the coming weeks.
If you guys have questions or tutorials you wanna see,
definitely let me know in the comments section.
Question of the day:
what are you gonna be putting on IGTV?
I'm really curious about what your strategy is.
So let me know.
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As always, you guys,
thanks so very much for watching
and don't forget,
go out there, and create something awesome today,
even if you gotta film it like this.
Take care.