Tips: How to go Instagram Live and Upload Videos to IGTV

As digital events are becoming more and more popular during times where meeting physically tends to be complicated, we wanted to give you some quick advice on how to master your Instagram Live and IGTV.

1. When you go LIVE

First things first, adjust your Instagram Live settings

Before you jump into your Instagram Live, it’s a good idea to check your settings are exactly as you want them to be.

To access your Instagram Live settings, open the Instagram Stories camera and swipe across to the “Live” mode. Tap the wheel icon in the top left-hand corner to open your controls. From here, you can select who you’d like to be able to view your stories (and Instagram Live), who can reply, where it automatically saves to, and also how it can be shared.

Secondly, it's important to Filter Out Offensive Comments

If you’d rather not see inappropriate words in the comments on your Instagram Live, you can automatically hide offensive comments, and manually filter comments that contain specific words or phrases. This is something we really recommend doing, especially if you’re a large brand with a lot of engagement.

Open your Instagram settings, scroll down to “Privacy,” select “Comments,” and then toggle “Hide offensive comments” from “Off” to “On.”

To filter out comments that contain specific phrases, toggle “Manual filter” from “Off” to “On” and then type the words or phrases you wish to filter out separated by commas.

2. How to go LIVE

Step 1: Open the Instagram Stories camera and swipe across to the “Live” mode. You will be able to see how many of your followers are currently active in the Instagram app, which is a good indicator of how many people will receive an in-app notification if you go live straight away.

Step 2: Tap the “Live” icon to start your broadcast, making sure you have a strong and stable internet connection.

It’s a good idea to give your followers a few moments to join before jumping right into the focus of your live session, so consider having a holding screen or making some small talk for a minute or two.

Step 3: Once your Live is underway, you can choose from a number of features to make your broadcast more engaging:  

#1: Share questions from your viewers to the screen by tapping the question mark icon. Note – You can only share a question once a viewer has submitted it during the broadcast (via the question box).

#2: Send a Direct Message to someone about your Instagram Live by tapping the paper plane icon.

#3: Invite someone to co-host your Instagram Live by tapping the faces icon.

#4: Apply an Instagram Stories filter to your broadcast by tapping the filter icon. It’s a good idea to decide which filter you want to use in advance, so you can find and apply it as quickly as possible!

#5: Share an image or video to your broadcast screen by tapping the camera roll icon in the right-hand corner of the screen. When you add an image or video from your camera roll, your video live stream will move to the top right-hand corner of the broadcast screen, on top of whatever media you’ve chosen to share.  

#6: Tap “Comment” to add a comment to the live stream. You can also pin a comment to the top of the feed by tapping and holding it.

Step 4: Once your Live is over, tap “End” in the top right corner and then “End Now” to confirm. From here, you can then upload to your IGTV and add a cover photo.

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Now you have all the tools in hand to do a great Instagram Live!