There’s no doubt that social media video is an important part of a successful, long-term content marketing strategy. After all, video content is what is driving the Internet today to a great extent. And it will continue to do so.

Look around, and you’ll find that more and more brands are using video to connect to their target audience and build a relationship with them. Which just wouldn’t have been possible with traditional content.

What makes video even more important for content marketers is its rising growth on social media. Video shares and views across various social platforms have only increased over the years.

social media video views

Social media users today are consuming video content more than before, especially on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and of course YouTube. Which means that the demand for social media video content is ever increasing, even though it is still at a budding stage.

The Rise of Social Media Video & What It Means for Businesses
No matter what size your business is or what niche you are in, if you haven’t taken social media video seriously, it’s about time you do. Because if you’re not leveraging social media video marketing to grow your business, you are clearly leaving money on the table.

Go ask any avid Facebook or Instagram user about the importance of video, and he/she would agree that it is an integral part of their online social networking lifestyle. Given the growth of social media video, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many businesses today are experimenting with branded video content.

If you were unaware of the fast growth of social media video, then you should take a serious look at the numbers, which continue to rise day in and day out.

93% of videos on Twitter are accessed on the go, from mobile devices.
Views for branded video content on YouTube have almost doubled over the last 3 years.
Facebook has seen a huge 258% increase in branded video views from 2016 to 2017.
When compared to a photo tweet, a video tweet has 6x higher chance of getting retweeted.
Facebook Live videos receive 10x more comments than a regular video.
social media video shares

Video content is in demand on social media networks primarily because its ability to connect to Generation Y and Millennials (18 – 33 years). From a business point of view, social media video content can help brands connect with this young and growing audience on an emotional level. Which can in turn help them convert more social media users into buyers.

According to a study conducted by Web Marketing Video Council, a staggering 60% of brands are actively using social media video today. So there is every chance that your competitors are already leveraging social media video to promote their products, grow their brand, and drive traffic to their business site. So why not you?

When compared to regular marketing content, video definitely has an edge. It is much more memorable and people find it easier to engage with it. It’s a win-win situation.

Now, the beauty of social media video is, it only works for those who care to create attention grabbing content. The sort that makes your audience stop scrolling, sit up and take notice.

This means poor content and unethical marketers are out of your way. In order to succeed, all you need to do is put in real effort to produce and market the best video content — without worrying too much about the competition.

In fact, when done right, your social media video content can actually act like a funnel that helps you win more business by letting you:

Catch the attention of your target audience
Connect with them using valuable content
Pitch them a relevant offer by the end
Convert them into a lead or sale
customer journey

Having said that, let’s now look into a few social media video marketing tips that can help you grow your small business.

7 Social Media Video Marketing Tips
Tip #1: Upload Native Video Content
Facebook is a great place to share videos and engage with your target audience. However, when doing so, try to upload and share native videos on Facebook instead of posting direct YouTube links. Why? Because it has been found that native videos perform 10x better on Facebook when compared to YouTube links.

In an extensive study conducted by Quintly, where they analyzed 167,000 FB profiles and 6 million posts, it was discovered that Facebook native videos received 478% more shares and 110% more interactions.

video shares

This clearly indicates the fact that Facebook is prioritizing native videos uploaded to its platform over external video links from sites such as YouTube.

There could be two possible reasons why native videos are performing better:

Native videos begin to play automatically as you scroll down your feed, while YouTube videos need to be manually played.
Native videos play inside Facebook’s environment, while YouTube videos play on an external page causing users to leave the Facebook platform in order to watch the video.
Both of these factors play a huge role in improving the experience for a regular Facebook user. Which makes native videos valuable not only to users, but also to Facebook.

Tip #2: Share Short, Value-Oriented Videos
Want more engagement from your social media video? Then try creating short, useful videos. When done right, these videos can help your brand attract the right kind of attention, spread brand awareness and even improve your organic reach. We produce short video marketing tips for our users.

Is short form social media video being used widely? Of course. Just look around you’ll find a range of video formats being produce and shared on various social media platforms. Right from those 60 second videos on Instagram to the informative 2 minute videos on Facebook. Short videos are popular because they work.

According to a research done by Hubspot, here the most recommended time frames for social media video to get the best results:

Instagram videos: 26 seconds
Twitter videos: 45 seconds
Facebook videos: 1 minute
YouTube videos: 2 minutes
Now, the question is, what makes short videos tick? While there are a number of reasons as to why short videos are popular, one of the most obvious ones is the fact that they are “bite sized” or easy to “snack”. They don’t consume much of your time and deliver or over-deliver on their promise right away.

Successful social media content revolves around instant gratification, because that’s what the users are demanding. Social media users today want to…

Consume content without wasting much time
Keep track of the latest happenings around them
Be informed on trending topics of their interest
Get entertained there and then before moving on
Short videos are perfect for people who are looking for useful information but are too busy to spend a lot of time on it. They want to consume it on the move, while they are on their mobile devices. No wonder 80% of the social media content is being consumed via mobile devices.

One of the most effective ways to leverage the power of short social media video content is to focus on creating instructional or how-to videos that shed light on the workings of your product or help viewers understand how you have the solution to their problem.

A good example of this strategy would be the Instagram videos produced by popular ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s. They have successfully managed to use short and to the point recipe videos involving their own products. Each video touches a pain point of their target users and doesn’t last more than 30 seconds.

This simple yet effective approach to social media video has helped Ben & Jerry’s:

Keep the viewer engaged and have them come back for more.
Build a stronger relationship with their existing fans.
Increase social shares and add more followers to their Instagram account.
The bottom line is: creating and sharing original video content can be less intimidating, more fun and even more productive when you focus on taking the shorter route.

Tip #3: Make the First 10 Seconds Count
According to a consumer study done by Microsoft, it was found that the human attention span has dwindled to 8 seconds from 12 seconds back in the year 2000. Which is lesser than the attention span of a goldfish.

average attention span

The point is, you need to do whatever you can to grab the attention of your viewer within the first 10 seconds (or less) of your video.

When you are designing the content of your video, keep in mind that a certain section of your audience may leave abruptly in the first few seconds. Which is why you need to write a script that makes them want to stay till the end.

In a research conducted by Vidyard, it was found that you tend to lose most of your audience within the first 30 seconds or less. So your job is to give your audience something that they can hold on to. The opening of your video should grab the attention of your viewers so that you are able to bring out the real potential of your video.

Whether you show something highly interesting in the beginning or deliver immense value right away, it’s your choice. The idea is to stop social media users in their tracks and keep them interested.

If you are not able to capture the attention of your viewers in the first 10 seconds, you can easily lose a ton of viewers as they scroll down their feed, looking for another video. If your video fails to engage your audience right away, chances are that one third of viewers may slip away.

Also, do not forget to add subtitles in your videos. You see, almost 85% of the videos that are being autoplayed on social media are viewed without sound. This is understandable given that most users check their socials in public, they obviously wouldn’t want to draw attention to what they are watching. So, be sure the subtitles in your social media videos are readable.

Tip #4: Focus on Telling a Story
People have always been averse to hard selling. It doesn’t matter what product is being sold, we generally don’t like to get bombarded with cold calls or see television ads that are irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, hard selling is not as effective as it used to be.

Things are changing, people are changing. Today, it’s all about who can tell the best story and engage their audience. That’s right, storytelling has turned into a new and powerful sales pitch that is getting real world results. And video is helping us tell better stories.

social media storytelling

When you’re indulging in social media video marketing, the rules remain the same. You need to give immense value and make sure your video content is filling a need. Storytelling helps you do that. It lets you connect with your target audience.

In order to truly make your audience feel your video content and take action that you want them to take, you need to produce psychological mood swings that brings out their emotions. And make them take action.

Here are three basic steps that you can take to implement storytelling via social media video:

Introduce the right kind of characters to create a bond or a connection with the viewer
Add an angle that helps you grab and keep the attention of the viewer
Have a resolution to help viewers understand what you want to convey with the story
When you focus on storytelling the right way, you add value to your social media video content. Which in turn helps you create a strong brand that your audience can relate to. It also delivers a proper message that not only gives them clarity but also strike their emotional chord.

The idea is to create social media video content that showcases your brand in a positive light. Your brand has a personality, which you can bring out using storytelling.

Tip #5: Add a Call to Action
When you’re marketing on social media, it’s important to have the right strategy. Social media video may not be the only weapon in your social media marketing arsenal, but it is definitely a major one. Which means you need to put in serious effort into creating video content that is not only worth watching but also worth sharing.

However, in order to get a good ROI from your social media video marketing efforts, you need to have a strong and clear call to action embedded in it. Because if you are not encouraging your audience to act, then what’s the use of creating social media video content for your brand?

In order to create an effective call to action, you need to first identify the objective or goal that you are trying to achieve. Once you are clear on it, it will be easier for you to get people to take action.

For example, if your end goal is to gather more leads and convert them in the back end, then you should:

Create social media video content that leads people towards giving your contact information
Have a call to action that clearly explains the benefit of providing their email address or phone number.
If you’re creating social media video content for Facebook, then you’ll find it easier to add a proper call-to-action within your videos. Facebook knows the importance of having a CTA and it supports businesses that want to get their target audience to take action.

The whole process of adding a CTA to your Facebook page has been simplified. As soon as you add your video to Facebook you’ll have an option to add a call to action.

Facebook call to action

Facebook offers you a number of CTA options such as…

Learn More
Sign Up Now
Book Now
Shop Now
If you want your target users to view more of your videos on your website, you can direct them using the “Watch More” call-to-action link.

Tip #6: Leverage Your Current Assets
If making social media video looks daunting to you, then please understand that you can always get started with what you already have. In other words, you can use your current assets that can be converted into interesting social media video content. Or you can always employ the help of a social media marketing agency like ours to point you in the right direction.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Tap Into Your FAQ Page
When you’re creating social media video, you want to ensure that your content touches the important points or answers burning questions. What better way to find topic ideas than your own FAQ page? Customer queries can prove to be a great starting point. They are a proven goldmine of ideas.

Initially, you may want to pick one question and then see if you can create a short social media video around it. There are three reasons as to why you should leverage the FAQ section of your site:

a) Since you are choosing your topics based on questions that your audience already has or is searching for, your video content can easily attract the attention of the right users.

b) You are basically proving to your audience that you know their needs and their queries. You’re telling them that you can help them. This not only makes your social media video content worthy, but also helps you establish real credibility in their eyes.

c) When you’re working with a single question as a topic for your social media video, you are making things easy for your audience. Because they know what to expect. And it’s easier for you; one topic, one solution. This ensures that more people watch your video till the end and take action on what you teach.

Use Behind the Scenes Footage
The Internet has become huge and continues to grow day in and day out. Gone are the days when consumers had no choice. Today, they have more choice than they can handle. It doesn’t matter what kind of market you are in or the type of products you sell, you will always find that your potential customers are picky in their approach.

Social media video is a great opportunity for you to showcase your personality and create a strong connection with your target audience. It lets them see the human side of your brand, which can improve the trust factor. Every brand has something to stand for, and so does yours. Go ahead and show people what your brand stands for and who you really are.

By building and nurturing this personal connection, you create a level of transparency that is hard to beat. So whether you are taking people behind the scenes with your social media video or helping them learn something new with your team, make sure your personality shines through it.

Tip #7: Stream Events Via Facebook Live
One of the reasons why videos work so well on Facebook is because you don’t have to leave the site to view them. With the launch of the Facebook Live feature by Facebook, the same can be done with live videos. You can stream live events to your Facebook followers and engage with them.

If you want to get the most out of your event live streaming, it’s important that you maximize your marketing efforts in the following three stages:

Pre-Event

When you’re putting in real effort to stream your live event on Facebook, it’s crucial that you begin promoting it in advance. Why? Because it gives your target audience an opportunity to prepare for it and get online when it is actually happening. Also, by providing enough “teaser” information at this stage, you can easily build anticipation and curiosity in your followers by adding a countdown to your Facebook Live date. Need help setting up Facebook ads to promote your event? We offer these services in our Facebook advertising package.

In order to make sure everything goes great, you can even conduct a mock broadcast for your audience. This also ensures you catch any glitches beforehand and lets your followers know what they can expect. For example, you can test and see if your audience can hear you you clearly.

Last but not the least, you can avoid some common mistakes when engaging with your viewers via the live broadcast by simply having the necessary social media guidelines ready.

Real-Time Broadcast

When it is time for the actual real-time broadcast, you should ensure that your audience derives full value from the event you are conducting.

Make sure that your audience isn’t left in the dark about the whole event. It is important to have a clear description for your live video that provides the needed details.

As you start streaming your live event, give your audience a sound introduction to begin engaging with your viewers. They should know exactly who you are and what you expect to deliver. Try to make the live event broadcast as value-packed as possible.

Don’t forget to add a strong call-to-action at the end of the broadcast in order to convert your viewers. The CTA could be as simple as asking them to follow your page on Facebook if they aren’t already following. Or it could be an invitation to sign up for your email list. Regardless of what the CTA is, keep it relevant to the topic of the event.

Post-Event

Once you’re done with the event, go ahead and promote the content of your Facebook Live video. Because there might be interested people who were unable to catch up with the live event.

Giving access to a recorded version of the stream can prove to be really valuable to anyone who wants to watch it on demand.

Video in Social Media
So if you weren’t already incorporating social media video into your digital marketing campaign, now you know that you should. And you also have the tools to get you started. If you’re more of a hands off kind of person that doesn’t like to get too technical, then consider hiring a social media management agency to help you create and promote your video content. We’d be happy to help you grow your social media following using video. Just contact us to set up a brief meeting.

Still have questions about social media video marketing? Drop it in the comments below, and one of our social media experts will answer you.

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