“Don’t wait for things to be perfect, just start,” with Zoë Berry and Victoria McHugh

“Don’t wait for things to be perfect, just start,” with Zoë Berry and Victoria McHugh

Back in February, I recorded this wonderful conversation with Zoë Berry and Victoria McHugh, who are both professional organisers here in Edinburgh. I think it was before any of us had even heard about the coronavirus – it feels a little bit like a lifetime ago. I hope you’re all able to enjoy this conversation, knowing the context it was recorded in. Stay safe, and if you can, stay home!

We talked a lot about organising and what it was like when Zoë and Victoria came to my home and office. But we also talked about marketing, including the best times to post in Facebook groups, and the Instagram phenomenon of tap to tidy.

Today’s episode is sponsored by my Instagram MOT. This 20-point checklist will take you through all the most important things you need to get right in your Instagram marketing. Click the big yellow button to sign up for the free training and download the checklist. 

Zoë has been running Life Edit, a decluttering and home organisation business, for just over 2 years. Victoria launched The Secret Tidier in April 2019, she’s a professional organiser and declutterer. They met on a course for people who needed decluttering help. It was full of people looking terribly worried they were going to have to express their issues with clutter and confess their sins. Zoë looked across the room and saw an extremely organised looking young lady with all her pens, notepad and water bottle laid out nicely and thought, “yeah, you’re another professional.” They’ve been working together ever since.

What does a professional organiser do?

Marie Kondo has brought the world of decluttering and professional organising to the forefront of people’s knowledge recently, if you asked somebody about five years ago, what a declutterer did, they would scratch their head and look at you quizzically. Since Marie Kondo’s book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying*, and Netflix show people have started to understand what Zoë and Victoria do – in a nutshell they help people organise their homes.

Of course, having somebody in your house going through your belongings can feel slightly overwhelming and it can make people feel a bit exposed or vulnerable. So every job starts with a free consultation with the client before the actual declutter. It could be a cupboard, a room, the garage or the whole house that the client wants to tackle. They have a very flexible approach, listen to the client and work to whatever they want. They are happy to take the client’s timeframe and budget into account.

Building a good with relationship with their client is important. As Zoë puts it, “The tiding is great, and the finished product is lovely, but actually going through that together can be really quite emotional.” Possessions can trigger a memory or a feeling, and part of the reason they work really well together is one of them can carry on in the background while the other person is just letting the client have a moment or work out where they want to go next.

Since Zoë and Victoria’s visit to my house if I just need a five-minute 10 minute break from the work I’m doing or I’m feeling a bit anxious and stressed then I tidy my desk. It’s very satisfying and it’s made a difference in my ability to work consistently. Before I would have gone and made a cup of tea or been distracted with something like Instagram Stories. Now I tidy and then I go back to work. It’s been helpful and I have a nice space.

“We are friendly and we’re not judgy. I think that people can worry. ‘Oh, gosh, a professional organiser. They’re going to come along with white gloves tut at everything and tell me that I’ve been doing everything wrong. That’s absolutely not how we are.” – Zoë Berry

Instagram and Facebook groups

I know word of mouth has been great for Zoë and Victoria, but I was keen to find out what other kind of marketing works for them.

When Zoë first started out, she paid for an editorial in MADE (Mums and Dads Edinburgh) magazine. They’ve featured in a few other publications just because of knowing the right people, for example ION magazine. They were also in the Herald luxury magazine recently. Apart from paying for that first editorial, neither of them has ever paid for marketing.

They make a conscious effort to ensure their online presence is as approachable as possible, mainly use Instagram and Facebook,

As they have 2 different businesses and personalities, they have different approaches to marketing online. Zoë likes to concentrate on showing who she is and connecting with people by saying “Look, I’m a real person.” Victoria likes to showcase before and after pictures to highlight how passionate she is about decluttering.

I think Tap to Tidy Instagram Stories would be fantastic use of before and after pictures. On Instagram Stories you tap to say you’re done, and it takes you to the next picture. Write text on the first picture saying “Tap to Tidy” then when it takes you to the next picture it looks like you’ve magically tidied it. A great way to engage people on Instagram Stories.

They have also found Facebook groups useful for marketing (although Victoria admits she doesn’t use Facebook much). Edinburgh Gossip Girls (EGG) is a group for women, who are often running their own businesses, and are very keen to do word of mouth recommendations. It gives you a little bit of credibility if a client recommends you in the group. They use other Facebook groups like West Lothian Woman and East Lothian Ladies. Joining the groups has been incredibly helpful for them. You can usually do a specific post about your business every month, as well.

The best time to post in Facebook Groups 

They’ve discovered posting on a Sunday evening creates a huge amount of interest compared to doing it on say a Thursday morning. Having pictures also makes a huge difference. I think Sunday is such an opportune time for them to market because people are relaxing at home, maybe they’ve been meaning to declutter all weekend and haven’t got around to it.  Zoë and Victoria are then offering a great solution.

When you’re thinking about the best time to post content on social media. Think about your ideal customer and what does a week in the life of your customer look like? Physically where are they in the world but also where are they emotionally? Where are they feeling? What can you do to help them resolve and find solutions to their problems?

 

Tips for running a business

Lastly, I asked them both the thing they would most like to share about running a business.

Zoë’s top tip – “You never know where you’re going to going to meet your next client. Katie’s a really good example of that. We went to her Business Gateway course because we wanted to learn about Instagram and she ended up becoming one of our clients. From my point of view, you have to live and breathe your business. If you are self employed, you never know where that next client is going to come from, always be ready to talk about it your business”.

Victoria’s top tip – “Don’t wait for things to be perfect, just start. I started small, put a few things on Instagram, practiced on family and friends, went to courses. Then I met someone that I now work with (Zoë) which has opened loads of business opportunities for me. You’ve just got to start somewhere and trust your gut.”

Get connected

I could have chatted to Zoë and Victoria all day. If you want help with decluttering have a look at the Life Edit website and The Secret Tidier website, or conect with Zoë and Victoria on Instagram.

* Links marked with a star are affliate links to Bookshop.org. When you buy through these links, a small portion of the cost of the book goes to supporting your local bookshop, and a small portion comes to The Whin. The books won’t cost you any extra!

Creating your Pinterest marketing strategy

Creating your Pinterest marketing strategy

Are you ready to start driving a whole heap of traffic to your website? In this podcast we’re going to talk about how you can really work with Pinterest as a marketing tool. We’ll look at some specific strategies you can implement to connect with your customers exactly as they need you.

This episode is sponsored by my Instagram MOT. This 20-point checklist will take you through all the most important things you need to get right in your Instagram marketing. Click the big yellow button to sign up for the free training and download the checklist.

Why Pinterest is a great marketing tool

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been delivering workshops on Instagram and Pinterest, where I teach people the basics of each platform and help them get started. What I find consistently is that people have no idea HOW they can use Pinterest to drive traffic and build their audience. I think we, in the Scottish business community, are seriously underrating the value of this platform.

In contrast to other social media platforms, Pinterest is actively looking to put new and interesting content in front of users, not from their friends and family, but from businesses and content creators. In addition, every single post on Pinterest has a link – a link to your website, your Etsy shop, or wherever you want. On Instagram you can’t even put links on your posts! On Facebook you get penalised for adding them. Pinterest is the opposite – it loves your links. The whole platform is designed to drive traffic to your website.

Make sure you have a listen to episode 25. We looked at a very quick and easy starter strategy for anyone with limited time hoping to get started on Pinterest.

Pinterest marketing stratagy

In this episode we’ll be focusing a little bit more on strategy and some of the more detailed work you might invest time in, in order to really start seeing results from Pinterest. Bear in mind, of course, that Pinterest is a long game. Pins have a life cycle of months, rather than minutes, so you need to have a bit of patience, and keep an eye on how things are building over time. This isn’t a quick and easy step-by-step, instead I want you to think about your strategy here, and how it connects to your long-term vision and business goals.

The key things to consider for your Pinterest strategy are;

  1. Understand how your customers are searching Pinterest
  2. Develop Pinterest boards which meet the needs of your audience
  3. Create content on your website which meets your customers’ needs
  4. Make your brand visible on Pinterest

Listen to the podcast for more details on each of the above points.

Get connected

If you have any questions bout Pinterest stratagy you’d like me to answer send me an email. I’d love to feature some listener questions in future episodes! And of course you can subscribe to Whin Big on Apple Podcasts, and leave us a review.

“It can’t be a business, it’s a community group,” with Jess Brown

“It can’t be a business, it’s a community group,” with Jess Brown

Meet Jess Brown, founder of the global Japanese language community Nihongo Connection. Jess shared the story of how the conversation clubs began. We talked about how you can change and improve on your offerings while still serving your customers. Key to her success has been her focus on finding ways to help and teach her audience instead of constantly promoting paid for services. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Today’s episode is sponsored by the Instagram masterclass. It’s a full day workshop in Edinburgh for business owners and social media managers, it covers everything you need to know to run an effective Instagram account for your business. Tickets are on sale now, click the big yellow button below for all the details.

Jess has been running her Japanese conversation community online and offline since 2014. It became her business around the end of 2017. Her community was born when Jess came back from Japan and sought out Japanese lessons wherever she could find them. Frustrated that they were just teaching from textbooks and speaking English the rest of the time, she suggested to her fellow classmates they meet up in between classes and help each other learn. When a Japanese friend found out she wanted to come along to chat and help people practice. She invited another friend, six months down the line Jess had a Facebook group set up telling people about the conversation events and around 30 people were showing up, including native speakers.

It’s developed from there into two groups. One is a conversation group, for people that speak a little bit of Japanese, and want to develop. The second group is where people can come and actually learn Japanese.

Turning a community group into a business 

I was fascinated to learn how it transitioned from a community of people coming together to have a chat into a business. Jess won a session with a business coach who she thought was going to help her launch an entirely different kind of business. But during the call, the coach discovered Jess ran a language group in Edinburgh, 30 people a week were coming to events and the Facebook group had around 400 members, She suggested monetizing the group and growing it. Jess was reluctant at first because she wasn’t sure how to monetize a free group, especially a community group. The coach opened her eyes that group members could be online customers and she could help people from all over the world with their Japanese.

Now the group has around 800 people. Jess makes sure they are the right fit for the group. People that are encouraging to the rest of the community, take part and want to make progress. She runs online conversation clubs via Zoom, people from all over the world turn up to take part. There was increasing demand and she had to find a balance that met the needs of the online community. She started an online membership plan and gets to know her members really well. The idea is the same as the Edinburgh group, they only speak in Japanese when online.

As well as online and in-person conversation, Jess also runs Japanese Language boot camps in Edinburgh. Perfect for people that are studying Japanese because they want to work in Japan! Or, people that want to feel more comfortable when they travel to Japan. The boot camps are aimed at people taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). These too have developed over time in response to feedback. They used to be fully residential but now there are more flexible options. Additionally, they’ve grown to cover every level of the JLPT and a beginner boot camp. As your business grows over time, make sure you’re always paying attention to what your customers are asking for – it’s far easier to market something when you know there’s a demand.

“I decided okay, I think I want to go out on my own be self employed. You know, become an online business owner of some description, but I didn’t know what it was going to look like.”

Using social media platforms to provide value and resources

Jess uses Twitter as there’s a lot of Japanese language accounts where she shares vocabulary and tips to help her audience. She also has Pinterest and pins things in there. She has boards for her own blog posts and for other interesting blog post. She has images labelled with Japanese words. She recommends Pinterest if you want to learn vocabulary quickly because it’s fantastic for that.

She runs a Japanese conversation challenge on Instagram. Every month she invites people to come and chat in Japanese for a whole week. They complete a little 10 minute task every day. It helps people recognise where they can go for resources or for conversation and it also introduces the membership.

Each platform has it’s own unique features, and Jess has done a great job of finding the ones she can use to help and connect with her community. Think about how you could do the same in your business.

Marketing a language school

Jess told me that a lot of her customers find her, and she doesn’t feel the need to work hard at converting people into customers. So I asked how she decides what’s working and what to post on Instagram, for example. She concentrates on just trying to get people using Japanese. She does this by posting things that will make them ask questions or by encouraging them to answer questions. She uses her Instagram Stories to play games, people can continue the game by direct messaging her. She then shares it on her feed. It’s a really fun way of getting to know people and creating a loyal following, people end up playing against each other in the posts. It’s been effective for engagement, gets her community involved and encourages them to talk.

Jess also shared her best tip for marketing her business. “Don’t chase all the things.” She kept finding so many ways of doing things and tried to do them all, but just wore herself out. There are loads of Japanese language teachers on Instagram and Jess looked at the way that they were doing things “I looked at what worked, but then it needed to be done with my stamp on it.” She likes playing games and having fun. Incorporating this into her posts and marketing has worked for her.

“I’m just trying to get people using Japanese, you’ve got to use it or lose it”

Get connected

I loved talking to Jess and finding out more about Nihongo Connection. Improve or start learning Japanese by connecting with Jess on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Start Marketing on Pinterest in 30 minutes

Start Marketing on Pinterest in 30 minutes

Have you been making excuses about why you can’t marketing your business on Pinterest? In this podcast I will give you a super quick, 30 minute process you can follow to get some content up on Pinterest and start driving traffic to your website. We’ll look at setting up your account for your business, how to create awesome graphics in minutes, and how to write descriptions and create boards that will get you seen by your customers.

Should you use Pinterest as a marketing tool?

I did a little poll on my Instagram recently asking people if they thought Pinterest was a good marketing channel, and if they were using it already. 57% reckoned Pinterest was a worthwhile channel but 2 out of 3 weren’t actually using it!

I asked people WHY they weren’t using it if they thought it was worthwhile. Not having enough time was a big one. Not knowing where to start was another. For everyone who voted in my Instagram poll, this episode is for you!

The beauty of Pinterest as a marketing channel is that every single Pin (every post you create) can link back to your website. Unlike other social channels, you don’t get penalised for the links, because they’re a core part of what the platform is for!

Step 1 – What content should you share on Pinterest

Go onto your own website and work out what links you want to share – where do you want to drive traffic? If you write blog posts, create videos or podcasts, or share case studies of your previous clients, these are all great pieces of content to share. If you’re a product-focused business, you want to choose which collection or which pieces you’re going to start with. In this 30 minute process we’ll be putting together just a handful of Pins, so pick your five favourites.

If you don’t share a lot of content on your website, and you don’t sell products, you want to think about maybe a gallery you have, or one or two specific services you offer that have their own pages on your site which you can talk about. It’s got to be something specific, not your homepage, or your enquiries page, or even a list of all your services. Find at least one thing you can talk about specifically.

Step 2 – How to create Pinterest graphics

Once you’ve chosen between 1 and 5 links to your site, go to Canva. Hopefully you’ve used this tool already, but if not, don’t worry, it’s easy to set up and get started. Canva is a free tool which lets you create social media graphics based on templates. It’s the quickest and easiest way to create your Pinterest graphics. Listen to the podcast for more details on how to create your Pinterest image.

Once you’ve created your first image, download it to your computer, make a copy on Canva and change up the content for your next Pin. If you’re linking to different pages, you’ll need to change the image and the text. If you’re pointing several Pins to the same piece of content, you can create two Pins with the same text but a different stock background. Or two with the same background but different headlines. These will work like little experiments to help you figure out what kind of headlines and images are good at attracting your audience.

Go through all your links, make 5 images and get them all saved to your computer.

Step 3 – How to set up a Pinterest business account

Sign into your existing Pinterest account and take a look at what’s there already. You can choose to create a second account for your business that’s connected to the one you have already. Or, convert your existing account into a proper business one. Click on the three dot menu in the right hand corner to either edit your settings or create your separate business account.

If you have boards on your profile already that are just personal ones, you can make these secret and hide them from others. If you have boards you’ve worked on as examples for clients, you can change the titles of those boards, to remove the client’s personal details, and keep them for now. If you don’t have any boards, that’s fine. Take a couple of minutes to put your business’s logo and a quick description onto your Pinterest profile, so everything looks professional and ready to go.

Step 4 – Creating a Pinterest board for your Pins

We’re going to start with one board that encapsulates all the content you’ve prepared. If you create five different boards and put one Pin on each, each board will look empty. One board with five Pins looks way better. Give the board a name which reflects the way your customers search for your content. Maybe it describes the product or service. Maybe it describes the type of content you’ve been creating. Try and guess what your customers exact search terms would be and use those to name your board. You can change things later, so it doesn’t have to be the perfect name!

Step 5 – Choosing the right titles and descriptions for your Pinterest Pins

Once you have your new Pinterest board, you’ll see a plus button. Click the plus and choose create Pin. Then upload one of your images from your computer and paste in the web address for the page you’re wanting to promote. The hardest part of step 5 is figuring out what to put in your title and description. Again, you want to think about what your customers might be searching for and include as many of those keywords as you can. Experiment with different structures, different kinds of titles and so on in each of your Pins to see what works. My only instruction for this is that the first sentence of your Pin should include your business name. Make sure it’s incredibly clear right from the beginning that your Pins are from a business and they can get through to the really useful stuff you’re sharing. That’s why we put your logo or web address on the image, and that’s why you put your business name and a call to action in the first sentence of the description. 

Now once you’ve done that for your first Pin, it’ll be much easier for your second. You can copy and paste your description from one Pin to another, but make sure you change it up so that you’re not duplicating things exactly. Try different keywords or a different tone of voice. Put numbers in some Pins and not in others. Adding in little variations will give you an idea of what works best, what gets people to Pin your content and what gets them to click through to your website. That’s what you want to start looking at next. 

Get your Pinterest questions answered

Check out my Pinterest boards and please give me a follow! If you have any Pinterest questions drop me an email! I’d love to hear from you if you have any feedback. And of course you can subscribe to Whin Big on Apple Podcasts, and leave us a review.

“The community has grown authentically, I just brought some people together,” with Kim Wilson

“The community has grown authentically, I just brought some people together,” with Kim Wilson

Meet Kim Wilson, personal trainer and founder of the Athena Army. Kim and I talked about choosing not to use Twitter and TikTok, saving for your tax bill, and what it’s like to run a purpose driven business with a community that builds itself.

Today’s episode is sponsored by the All-in-Whin Marketing Method. I’ve been working hard at updating my signature course for 2020, and it’s now open for registration! Click the big yellow button below to get all the details.

Kim started Athena personal training in 2017. It’s grown exponentially over the past year. Especially when Kim started running her own competitions. Kim hosts “mock meets” so people can try out a powerlifting competition. Great for people who’ve never competed in powerlifting before because the atmosphere is a bit less pressured and more relaxed.

So far, they’ve been primarily female and that’s where the Athena Army concept started, although men are welcome. We joked about encouraging more men by bribing them with Mars bars, fitting because that’s the Roman God of war but then Kim would have to change the business name to Minerva, for the Roman Goddess of war in order to match.

“Lifting to me, is a physical representation of mentally overcoming myself.”

Finding your target customer

Kim’s target customers mostly women who want to become physically and mentally stronger.  When she started training, she quickly noticed the correlation between physical and mental strength. She realised there are many people out there that need an outlet for whatever’s going on in their life and heads, she compares it to a form of mindfulness and that’s what she teaches her clients.

She feels people tend to go for a coach that they identify with. Kim thinks that’s why a lot of women who want to get into powerlifting happen to come to her and that’s why the Athena Army has been dominated by women. She attracts people effortlessly because she’s focused on doing her own thing and helping people. She doesn’t invest much energy in comparing herself to what’s happening around that.

I agree people can get hung up on opinions. Unless it’s your ideal customer others opinions don’t really matter, especially when it comes to marketing choices. Kim has done a wonderful mini film for Athena (assisted by Jodie Mann). It’s not your usual clichéd promo video and she was able to get some of her Army involved.

Creating a community

Kim likes to actively foster a community spirit amongst her clients. She started a WhatsApp group to bring everyone together. She encourages members to share their training videos and support one another through the group.

At the gym she hosts group coaching sessions, they are intimate because she can only coach four people at the same time. The Athena meets events happen every 6 months and are important for bringing the community together. It’s like a networking and social event at the same time. The WhatsApp group, group coaching and Athena meets have all it’s all helped foster the community. 

Instagram has also played a part, people tagging each other and embracing the #athenaarmy. When you walk into the gym at a certain time in the evening, you will see Athena tops everywhere. Kim finds this fantastic because it’s just grown authentically around a shared vision and purpose.

 

“I just brought some people together. And they all have the common goal of wanting to be; fitter, stronger, healthier, physically, mentally. Whatever it is, it makes them feel like they belong, and that’s the most important thing.”

TikTok and small business marketing

Kim has two different Instagram accounts. One for her personal lifting journey and the other one is focused on the business, community and her lifters. Separating it is a good idea so Kim can talk about her own stuff without feeling like she’s overwhelming people who just care about the business and the community. When it comes to the business Kim doesn’t like talking about “me” and prefers to talk about “we”, because it’s not just about her it’s about her community.

She also uses Facebook but not as much as Instagram. The Facebook page is very business focused rather than personal. She feels the older generation and people in other countries still prefer to use Facebook.

We also chatted about the social media platforms Kim doesn’t use Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok. The latter is one of the newest platforms used primarily by high school and University students, but those users will grow up and stay on the platform. The first time Kim heard about TikTok Gary Vee was talking about it which made her think it must be relevant. Stay tuned for our upcoming episode on TikTok! Make sure you’re on the email list so you’ll be the first to know it’s available.

Never stress about your tax bill again

I asked Kim what the most useful thing she’s learned since starting her business. A friend advised that with everything that comes in, put 20% away in a savings account. It’s not yours, put it away, that’s your taxes. She’s done that every day ever since and it’s been the most useful thing when it comes to longevity.

Getting an accountant has also been useful, it’s saved her a lot of time and taken away a lot of stress.

Muscle Think Tank podcast

Kim also does a podcast called the Muscle Think Tank in collaboration with Steve from Bio Strong. They talk about everything gym related. Kim’s aware running a business can be quite a lonely place especially if you’re running it by yourself. It’s nice to have projects like a podcast where you can chat to someone in the same profession.

Get connected

I loved learning more about Kim and the Athena Army. You can find all Kim’s details on the Athena Personal Training website or connect with her on Instagram.

An Introduction to Instagram TV

An Introduction to Instagram TV

Are you curious about this whole IGTV thing? In this podcast I’ll be helping you finally figure out what’s going on with Instagram TV and how you can get started. We’ll cover the basics of how to create your channel, and how to upload and promote your very first video. I’ve also got a whole load of examples to share of really effective content, which you can adapt and use to show off your own business.

Today’s episode is sponsored by the All-in-Whin Marketing Method. I’ve been working hard at updating my signature course for 2020. The next cohort is now open for registration. If you’re an ambitious, purpose driven business owner, and you want to improve your marketing, this course is for you! To find out more click the big yellow button below.

Vertical Video

When IGTV was first introduced, only vertical videos were supported, meaning you had to upload videos which were tall and thin, instead of short and wide. This was a massive contrast to the way other video platforms expected your to display content. However, Instagram users are holding their phone vertically already, to scroll through their feed and to view Instagram Stories. When they introduced this NEW platform, Instagram decided to keep the user experience as cohesive as possible. As of today, IGTV now accepts landscape videos as well, but most content creators are opting to stay with the vertical format, as it creates that seamless experience for their viewers. I’d advise you to stick with vertical video too.

How to create your own IGTV channel

It’s pretty straightforward to do, once you have your first video ready to go and saved to your phone. Open up your Instagram App and tap on the magnifying glass icon to get to your Explore page. Near the top, you’ll see a little icon that says IGTV, which will take you through that part of the platform. You’ll be able to see your top recommended video plus lots of other suggestions you can browse based on your interests and who you are following.

In the top right-hand corner, you’ll see a + button, and this is where you can upload your first video. The act of uploading your first video will create your channel. You can also go to Instagram.com/tv and do it from your browser too. You’ll then be able to do future uploads the same way, or you can do them from your computer.

Once you have your first video uploaded, you and other users will be able to find all your IGTV videos on your profile. If you tap on your profile picture, in the app, you’ll see that below your bio and story highlights, there are now three tabs where there used to be two. There’s a new one in the middle for your IGTV channel, where people can scroll through all your videos.

Promoting your IGTV videos

When you upload a video to IGTV, you have a number of different fields to fill in, and ways to promote the video. For example, you can and should share your IGTV videos to your feed. It’ll show the first 60 seconds, then the video will stop, and your audience have to click through to IGTV to see all the rest. The caption is simply made up of your video title, and then a divider dot, and then your video description. That means if you want your feed post to have hashtags, you have to include them in your video description, or else comment on the video as soon as its posted with a list of all the hashtags you need to include.

You can also share your full IGTV video to your Facebook page. Make sure your Instagram account and Facebook Page are connected properly if you want to do this one! 

How to upload an IGTV video

Click on the thumbnails in the gallery below to see full sized screenshots of all the upload screens for IGTV. Taken in Google Chrome and Android – other browsers and devices may vary!

How to create IGTV videos

As always, I love to include listener questions in my videos! Today’s comes from a follower over on Instagram:
Do you record your episodes natively on the phone or through an editing workflow? – David
There are lots of different ways you can put together your IGTV content, and it really depends on what you want to achieve. Let me give you the specifics of what I’ve been doing so far. First I record all the video clips on my phone, with the help of a mini tripod and a full sized tripod in some cases. Then I save all the video clips to a folder in Google Photos which helps me keep them organised and separate from all the other videos and photos I’m recording. Once I’ve got all my footage, I then download all the clips to my computer and drag them into Adobe Premier Pro – this costs about $20 a month. If you need something free you can get great results using ShotCut or iMovie instead. Also at this stage, I’ll head to Ben Sound or Free Music Archive to find some royalty free music to use. After editing and before I’m ready to upload I get my subtitles sorted. I’ll upload the final cut of the video to an amazing captioning service called Rev.com – It costs just $1.25 per minute of video. For videos less than 5 minutes, I typically get my subtitle files back in less than an hour or two. Subtitles are pretty essential for social media videos, so its well worth the tiny investment needed. Then I upload the subtitle file into Adobe Premier Pro where I can overlay it onto the video. I then export the final, subtitle video, and use the web browser to upload it into Instagram.

Examples of great IGTV videos

Find more on my Instagram profile @thewhinco – look for the wee circle near the top with “IGTV ideas” underneath.

Get in touch

I hope this inspires you to get started with IGTV. When you do, make sure you tag me @thewhinco, or drop me a message to let me know – I’d love to see what you’re getting up to.  You can email me if you’d like your question answered in a future episode, and of course please subscribe to Whin Big on Apple Podcasts.