Tastemade gets 300,000 Instagram video views a day

“Instagram is going to want to see more videos now that they’re tweaking the algorithm,” said Oren Katzeff, head of programming for Tastemade. “Quality and relevance are going to win out over quantity, and there’s room for high-quality food and travel videos for the platform.”

Tastemade’s Instagram efforts are overseen by the company’s programming and production teams, which employ nearly 12 people. The publisher has an Instagram specialist who is responsible for day-to-day operations, including building and managing a content calendar as well as working with the production team to create unique content for the platform. The way Tastemade is organized, it has “platform programming heads” for each platform it distributes to. These specialists meet to get “weeks ahead” on scheduling content for each platform.

“The way we have tried to train the team is that anyone who touches content creation should be thinking about all of our platforms,” said Katzeff. “But it’s important to also have people more or less dedicated to specific platforms.”

Recipe videos such as this one for “deconstructed pot roast” are getting nearly 100,000 views in less than 24 hours. It expects those numbers to grow as Instagram prioritizes video. The platform recently announced that it will allow users to post longer videos (up to 60 seconds long).

“[The change] will provide publishers with more format options and, therefore, more flexibility with their content and assets,” said Jessica Liu, senior analyst of social marketing at Forrester. “However, publishers will still need to be mindful of the main principle of social media: Who is my audience, and do they want the video format?”

Deconstructed Pot Roast @chef_meach RECIPE BELOW: YOU’LL NEED… 14 oz hanger steak 1 lb thinly sliced russet potatoes 1 cup duck fat 1 Tbsp fresh sage, chiffonade 1 c fresh peas in pods 1 pound carrots peeled and diced 3 cup carrot juice 1 garlic clove, chopped Salt and pepper Smoked sea salt for potatoes LET’S GET COOKING… Season and grill steak 8 mins per side or until desired doneness. Heat duck fat and slowly add rinsed dried potatoes into the fat, once they are done season with smoked sea salt, black pepper and fresh sage. Blanche the fresh peas in hot water and shock in an ice bath. Quickly char them on the grill for color and flavor. Cook down the carrots in butter, garlic and carrot juice, puree and run through mesh until rich and smooth. Spread carrot puree on plate. Then pile steak, peas and potatoes over top.

A video posted by Tastemade (@tastemade) on Apr 3, 2016 at 7:40pm PDT

Right now, sports videos rule Instagram. For instance, the top Instagram video publisher is the NBA, which did 118 million views in February, according to Tubular Labs. But Instagram has always been a popular platform for users to post food and travel images, which is why Tastemade is convinced that food and travel videos will also work on the platform.

“There is a natural aesthetic of what works well on Instagram with images that you can duplicate with video,” said Katzeff.

With Instagram’s rule changes, Tastemade plans to experiment with different video lengths and shooting styles, he added. “It’s still early, but the audience is growing rapidly. We look at it like we did Facebook: Last January, our Facebook view count was 5 million; now it’s over a billion.”