3 Ways To Upgrade Your Live Video Cover Image

FREE GUIDE: HOW TO GROW YOUR LOCAL INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING

In today's video, you'll learn:

• 3 quick ways to upgrade your Instagram live video cover image
• One trick to get the most important part of your image visible on your feed
• What to do if you forget to make a pretty cover before you go live

If you've ever gone live on Instagram and shared it to your feed, you've likely struggled to find a cover image from your video clips that isn't reeeeaaallly embarrassing. It's at this point you realize you forgot to smile or that your "talking face" wasn't all that flattering that day. Don't worry I've got some simple solutions for you in this video.

Your cover image is the image that shows up on your IGTV or Instagram feed when you publish a live video. So why would you need to upgrade it?

After you go live, Instagram allows you to scroll through all the clips of the video to find the one perfect frame to use as your cover photo.

If you're anything like me, it's at this point you realize you don't make the best faces when you're talking on live video....

Maybe you realize you look like this...

Or like this...

So this is when you'll start to kick yourself for not remembering to smile more at the beginning or end.

But after A LOT of fails with this, I finally got smart enough to trick the system.

1- TAKE A SELFIE

The first and most simple way is to take a selfie before you go live. This way you're in the same spot, wearing the clothes, and your hair and makeup are all the same.

After the live video instead of choosing a still frame from the video, you upload your own cover image and you'd just upload that selfie. Easy easy.

2- CREATE A GRAPHIC IN CANVA

The second way is to create a video cover inside Canva. This is still fairly simple but makes your live video pop a little more in your IGTV or Instagram feed.

Canva is great because it already has an IGTV or Instastory sized template you can use. You can start with a blank template or use a pre-made one and use your own brand colors.

Type out the title of your live video or topic on the graphic and you're all set. Export it and after the live video, you can upload this graphic as your cover image.

The great thing is once you have a template in Canva, you can keep re-using it each time. No need to re-invent the wheel... keep the same template and change out the text or any photos you used!

3- DO A COMBO (SELFIE + GRAPHIC)

The third option essentially combines the first two ways of taking a selfie and creating a graphic inside of Canva. I like to take a selfie before I go live, then upload that selfie into Canva. Then I make a graphic with a title using that same selfie.

Anytime I schedule a live video I just make sure I have a 10-minute time block on my calendar to take a selfie and create the graphic in Canva. The more you do it, the better and faster you get, so you may want to give yourself a little bit longer the first few times.

FORGOT TO TAKE YOUR SELFIE?

Now, let's talk about one problem that may come up-- Let's say you go live and you FORGET to take your selfie ahead of time or make your graphic ahead of time. And you realize this right when you end your live video and are ready to publish it. You go to select your cover photo and you realize you don't have anything ready.

It's totally OK.

Download your video and save it to your phone. In fact, I recommend doing this anyway with any live video just so you don't lose it and in case you ever want to repurpose it.

At that point, you can exit Instagram. Your video is saved to your camera roll.

Then you can take your selfie or make your graphic in Canva.

Go back into Instagram and create a NEW IGTV. When you do this, upload the video you just recorded and upload it back into IGTV. Select your new cover and you're done!

KEEP READING:

If you liked this video, you may also like last week's video where I shared 4 mistakes to avoid when you go live.

FREE GUIDE: HOW TO GROW YOUR LOCAL INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING

Don't forget I have a free guide all about How To Grow Your Local Instagram following. Download the guide here.