One of the biggest current trends in social media marketing today is video.
I’m sure you have noticed!
Social media video marketing is part of a powerful social strategy for Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter, and you need to put as much thought and effort into creating high value video content as you do for any other type of social marketing post.
Marketers are engaging audiences with video content more all of the time, and it is estimated that by 2019, video content will be part of the driving force behind more than 80 per cent of search engine traffic in the United States alone.
As such, social platforms are being optimised so that they support more video content in the newsfeeds of their users to further engage followers.
Facebook and Snapchat have each now exceeded a staggering 8 billion video views a day.
YouTube has more than a billion regular users.
Any brand should be creating and promoting video on social media as part of an overall social media marketing strategy.
What is social video?
Video for social media marketing can be a commercial for a big sporting event, a movie trailer, an infomercial, or a raw live stream – plus anything in between! It is simply digital video that is crafted specifically for social media audiences.
Using video for social marketing
Contrary to popular belief, video marketing isn’t just for big brands with big budgets.
Even a sole trader operating a small business can benefit enormously from the opportunity that video marketing provides for expanding your reach and generating more shares.
NOTE: All you need is a smartphone and some imagination.
Great video content will be shared on social media – if the videos you are creating are not being shared by your audience, you need to tweak your approach to make them more valuable and more appealing!
Gone are the days when YouTube was the only (or even the primary) platform for sharing video content. From Facebook to Instagram, Snapchat to Twitter, video content is being embraced by audiences – from simple movie previews to videos offering informative tips and hints or sneak peeks behind the scenes.
By far the most popular videos on social media are short-form: like everything else on social media, short-form video is brief and “snackable” – it doesn’t require too much time or focus, so audiences don’t become bored or overwhelmed and stop watching.
Short videos of anything from a few seconds to no more than two or three minutes suit the short attention spans of social audiences, fit into their busy lives, and offer content that is easy to consume if it is interesting to the audience.
Additionally, most social media users view content via mobile device and on the go; the briefer the content, the better it will be received.
Why use video marketing for social media marketing?
- Video boosts engagement, conversation, and sales
- Video builds trust in your brand and customer loyalty
- Video demonstrates high return on investment
- Video is popular among mobile users
- Video is a great learning tool
- Video is easy to consume (when it is short)
- Great video encourages social sharing
- Video, when curated well, is great for SEO purposes and ranking on Google
Types of social video you should share:
- How-to videos
This is perhaps the highest-value video you can offer your audience.
Show your audience how to conquer a challenge, solve a problem, use your product, or offer any other helpful hint or tip that relates to your brand or its niche.
Make it about your audience – not you! Deliver your message in its simplest form – don’t complicate things – you can deliver valuable information in a very short space of time if you approach it well.
- Showcase a new product
Promote new products in a fun and non-pushy way by appealing to the natural curiosity consumers have.
A video-reveal of a new product is creative and alerts audiences in a “first to know” way, which makes them feel like they have an edge over others.
Make your video promotions about people that use the products rather than about the products themselves.
- Showcase an event
Use video for social media to share content that is created specifically for an event or a particular season – Christmas, Mother’s Day, New Year, Valentine’s Day, spring and so on, as well as industry events or events your business is running.
- Showcase your skills
Entertain your audience while also showing why you are an authority in your field.
Show your audience what you can do for them to their benefit – but remember, it’s a delicate balance between making it ultimately about them (which you should) and making it all about yourself.
- Sneak peeks
It can be fun for your audience to be given a sneak peek behind the scenes of your brand, business, or industry.
It personalises your brand and your team, and is great for engagement.
You could take your virtual audience on a tour of your office, give them a glimpse of a new product or location, and show them an event you are attending, or offer any other short video to give a real sense of who you and your brand are.
Note that social video needs to be optimised for its channel – each social media network has its own unique audience, and this needs to be reflected when you create videos for specific platforms.
A video for Facebook will require editing to be ideal for Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat, for example.
Different factors make a video shareable.
Video should be high in value to its audience, tell a story, and induce emotion. And particularly when the video is a live feed, it needs to be authentic.
Social media videos need not go viral to be a success – it just needs to be shared among your target audience. It’s worth noting that Millennials (current age 18-33) spend more time watching video on their devices than they do watching television – this is a key audience for social video.
Social video and the return on investment
- 500 million Facebook users result in 8 billion daily video views with 100 million hours of video watch time daily.
- YouTube has more than 4 million daily views; a third of the internet users also use YouTube.
- Website conversion rates have increased for more than 70 per cent of businesses that use social video.
(Source: Hootsuite)
So what’s the key to success?
The key to success in social video is to have specific goals and track your success.
- Do you wish to use video for recruitment?
- Or is it going to be best used for you for lead generation?
- Do you want to build brand awareness?
By having clear set goals and tracking results with analytics, you can determine what works, what doesn’t, and refine your strategy to suit.
Most of all, your videos must be created with your target audience in mind – give them what they want to see.
Like with all marketing, it needs to first and foremost be about your audience.
Modern brands should be anticipating that their social media followers expect some video content from them.
In no way are more traditional text and image-based posts dead; social media video marketing is simply yet another important piece of the puzzle now and into the future.
From the who’s who of your team to your company culture. Lifting the veil on your business can attract new customers and cement the loyalty of existing ones.
Want some other keys on how to do Social media well?
It’s on our blog!
- MUST READ #1:
Want to do social media extraordinarily? Here’s a comprehensive checklist
Building and managing a positive and effective presence on social media for business is an immense undertaking.
There is a lot that needs to be done, and it can be difficult to keep all aspects of social media marketing working well.
One of the most valuable tips for social media marketing we can offer is to make a checklist to follow, and this can help you immeasurably.
- MUST READ #2
Social media automation: Are you getting it right?
As a business person, running your social media marketing profiles is incredibly important.
Yet doing it well can be very time consuming. Updating your profile, coming up with and creating content, sharing content, responding to followers, and otherwise managing your social media for business can become almost a full time job in and of itself.
Social media automation can make life much, much easier.
- MUST READ #3
Pros and cons: Networking for business on social media
Social media has changed how we do business in ways that would have been unimaginable even just a decade ago.
It has transformed how we learn, how we communicate, how we conduct meetings and events, how we interact with others, how we receive and respond to news, and so much more.
Networking on social media for business is one of the biggest ways social media has changed the business landscape.
>>> Meanwhile, did we mention we have a free LinkedIn eCourse?
4 Week LinkedIn Optimisation Course: Not only do we share a bunch of valuable, relative and useful info on our blogs, but we’ve got a free LinkedIn eCourse to help you get the most out of this platform especially for B2B enterprises.
If LinkedIn is your preferred social media channel, take a look at this course to raise your profile, generate leads and boost your business – so LinkedIn can start working for you.