While Instagram's IGTV hasn't taken off as the platform would have liked, parent company Facebook has said it does have a plan to encourage further IGTV usage. That plan looks to involve a new form of IGTV promos, which will now be shown in your main Instagram feed whenever a profile you follow shares an IGTV video.
Now, you can preview IGTV videos in your feed. When there's a new video from someone you follow, you can tap from your feed to watch the full video in IGTV. (???? @HannahStocking) pic.twitter.com/tkYSchB7E8
— Instagram (@instagram) February 7, 2019
As you can see, the new promo option will give IGTV broadcasters a chance to share a clip from their latest contribution within the main feed - users can then tap through if they want to see more. And while it may feel a little intrusive, it could have significant benefits for Instagram as it looks to encourage more IGTV usage.
Instagram is the social platform of the moment, with more than a billion active users and rising fast. The opportunity to have your videos show up in front of that large, captive audience could prove a big lure for those considering IGTV - while the platform itself may not have gained the immediate momentum Facebook would have hoped, the added exposure potential and reach opportunities could get more creators re-considering its potential, and looking to reach a larger audience through the app.
And if more influential creators come on board, Instagram can get more people switching across. It's not an essential video platform yet, but the opportunities that Instagram has to promote IGTV, through both Instagram and Facebook, mean that it still has plenty of ways in which to draw users and build its audience.
Worth noting too, back in November, Instagram added an option to share IGTV content to Instagram Stories.
Now you can share your favorite IGTV videos to your story. Tap the paper airplane at the bottom of the video you want to share. When friends see your story, they can tap the preview to watch the whole video in IGTV. pic.twitter.com/oaatUoOqZY
— Instagram (@instagram) November 1, 2018
Instagram Stories itself is now up to 500 million daily users, so again, IGTV has a huge amount of exposure potential.
It'll still take some time to gather momentum, but given the various options at Instagram's disposal, I wouldn't be counting IGTV out just yet.