How video can elevate your social media presence

Nowadays, it’s widely acknowledged that social media is not just a bolt on to a marketing strategy – it is a powerful tool all on its own. Over the years, it has grown so much to the point that it has become a full-time job keeping up with it! It’s important to keep an eye on the updates, new features, and ‘hacks’ to make sure you are utilising your platforms to the best of your advantage.

One simple way of doing this is by tapping into the power of video.

We’ve seen the advantages of using video on social media for a while now, and it’s a feature that is continuing to prove popular.

But how do you achieve great results via video? And what kind of videos should you be sharing?

Why video?

First, we should start with the reason why video is a worthy investment.

Put simply, most people like visuals. We especially find video to be engaging, and are likely to remember them more than a static image. Combined with our preference of storytelling, and dislike of the ‘hard sell’, video is an ideal way to go.

The benefits become even clearer when we look at statistics from organic posts – social media posts with video have 48% more views (The Marketing Helpline), and video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined (G2 Crowd). These figures alone are a prominent reason why you should consider video for your social media platforms, but beyond that, they generate a massive return on investment – 64% of consumers will make a purchase after watching branded videos on social platforms (Tubular Insights).

What kind of videos?

So, you’ve decided that creating bespoke videos will make a strong addition to your social media platforms – great! Now it’s time to decide what kind.

Another reason video is so effective is because there is such a wide variety that can be shared on social media platforms. A few of these are:

• Tutorials and presentations of what your product or service does
• Video blogs, or ‘vlogs’, which are great if you have product ambassadors
• Customer testimonials and interviews
• Live streams
• Animations

And many more.

This large choice of routes to go down with video means you can make sure you’re creating something completely bespoke and unique to your company, which showcases your products and/or services in the best way possible. You know your target audience and you know what they want to see, so use this knowledge to your advantage and show them an entertaining, visual representation of what you do.

The technical bits

Creating great looking videos is fun, but it’s also important to bear in the mind the technical elements.

The length of your video should be carefully considered – 33% of viewers will stop watching a video after 30 seconds, 45% by one minute, and 60% by two minutes (Ad Age) so you want to make sure your video is short and snappy!

As well as this, adding captions is imperative. 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound (Instagram) so if you’re not adding captions to your video, your audience won’t receive the information you want to share with them.

The Dos and Don’ts of video on social media

The power of video on social media doesn’t look like it’ll be subsiding anytime soon, and investing in a video that can be used on your social media platforms multiple times is a great addition to your bank of assets.

If you’re making the decision to add video to your online strategy, just follow the below dos and don’ts and you can’t go wrong!

• Switch it up – share different styles of video (such as animation) as long as they align with your brand or company
• Know your angles – make sure you optimise the video for where it’s being shared, for example, if it’s going on Instagram stories it will need to be shot portrait
• Add captions – a lot of people watch videos on their phone, with the sound off, so captioning your video will ensure viewers get the information they need
• Make a feature film – shorter is always sweeter, and we advise sharing videos that are 30-45 seconds only
• Just link to YouTube – where possible, upload the video to the post rather than sharing just a link to YouTube, as this looks better and gets preferential treatment from Facebook

If you’d like to have a chat about the bespoke social media videos we can create for you, get in touch!