Are you ready to Use Video Content on Social Media to boost your brand?

If you want to take your social media strategy to the next level, you should definitely know how to use video content.

Scientifically and psychologically, videos have the power to arrest the attention of human beings for a longer period.

In the past year, nearly all successful brands have made the transition towards creating videos for their social media. Conversely, social platforms help videos with a better organic reach.

We have seen social media platforms evolve in a dynamic way ever since they came into inception. This has not only helped brands evolve themselves, but also given rise to many challenging situations.

The importance of video content on social media should not be underestimated. As compared to static image creatives and image albums, videos drive-

• More engagement on social media
• Increased conversions on social media ads
• Better Click-Through-Rates (CTR) to brand Landing Pages
• Improved quality of Lead Generations and Query forms.

If you are an agency and a brand and do not know how to use video content, you will fall off the social media bandwagon! In this article, we help you with some top tricks on how to use video content on social media.

Video Content on Social Media: Trends and Growth

In the past couple of months, there are many developments, which point towards how platforms are weighing video content.

Starting with the ‘Big Brother’, Facebook, we can see how the platform is leveraging ‘Facebook Live’. The organic reach of Facebook Live is nearly double to that of a standard video on the platform. Not to mention that FB Live has four times the reach of a standard Image Creative.

We are also seeing Facebook-owned Instagram, increasingly experiment with long format videos. From 15 seconds to 59 seconds, Instagram sees high engagement on videos. This has been aided by the launch of Instagram TV, a much longer video format that is becoming quite the rage. Not to mention, how Instagram Live is also a much-coveted option for brands to leverage on the platform.

In a recently released report by Statista, 400 hours of videos are uploaded on YouTube every minute! This figure is astounding and shows how human beings prefer and engage much more with video content than anything else.

Source

The use of video content on social media is a part of the content marketing strategy of almost all brands. From the biggest billion dollar corporations to takeaway counters, almost everyone knows how to use video content.

If video content on social media is so beneficial, why are you shying away from it? Are you worried about resources, expenditure, or execution? Let us help you on that front.

How to Use Video Content? Top Challenges for Brands

In 2019, there is a consensus that video content on social media is necessary for any social media strategy. However, acknowledging the benefits of something, and executing the same are two different things.

For small brands, investing in social media video creation might involve additional expenditure and resources. The bigger companies can afford to have separate video creation teams. In many companies, they are an extension of the Social Media Marketing activities.

However, not every brand needs to create 10-minute videos that are beautifully shot and edited. This is because there is something very interesting that is taking place on social media. The rise of ‘Live Video’ is something that is evening the level playing field amongst brands.

Audiences that consume video content on social media desire to see real videos of brands and their activities. The drive towards originality, authenticity, and genuineness is a rather democratic development on social media.

If you are a brand and want to leverage the power of video content on social media, you can use the following tips-

1. Use not more than 3 Social Media Platforms:

By limiting your presence to not more than three platforms, you will be controlling your resources and expenditure. You will also be able to keep yourself updated with the latest changes on social platforms.

Different platforms also have different technical requirements when it comes to videos. From time lengths to resolutions and formats, you need to keep yourself right on top of the action.

2. Leverage Live Content:

Not many brands have the financial power to create long format videos. This might severely limit their capabilities. However, if brands are able to leverage live videos, then they can extract the maximum from their video content on social media.

From Facebook Live to Instagram Live, brands need not have an expert at the helm to guide their activities. A good smartphone with an above average camera is enough to succeed. Audiences want to see real content, and live is a great way to connect with audiences.

3. Do not forget Social Media Stories:

More than social posts, it is the stories that see higher engagements and conversions. This is where small brands can really leverage their social media presence. On average, a brand should post at least five stories on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat daily.

It is critical that this number keeps increasing but does not reduce. This will help keep your audiences engaged with your brand recall right through the day. Since stories have a 24-hour life, they are cool, quirky and very socially endearing.

4. Increase Workplace Videos:

Video content on social media is all about experiences. Rather than standardized product videos, try to mix up your video content. Your video content strategy on social media should have the following three categories at least-

• Products and Services
• Ambiance and Environment
• Staff and Employees

P.S. If you really want to see your social media engagement explode, try using videos of your pet! Maybe a lovable and friendly mascot

Best Practices to Use Video Content on Social Media:

After we are done with the basics, let us delve deep into how you can optimize video content on social media. I have always stated that there are ways of doing something, and then there are ways of doing something.

The second part requires investments in terms of time, effort, planning and financial resources. However, if done right, and over a period, this will be immensely helpful when it comes to reaping the right rewards.

Without further ado, let us look at some of the best practices to use video content on social media.

1. The First 10 Seconds Matter the Most:

You might have heard about the fact that the average attention span of a human being on social media is 8 seconds. Which is lesser when compared to a goldfish (9 seconds; kudos to Gold Fish!).

However, given this fact, you need to ensure that the first 10 seconds of your video captures the attention of audiences. By generating curiosity, you will force people to keep themselves engaged to the rest of the video.

2. Shorter Videos Work Best:

As most platforms have different rules regarding videos, I personally tell my clients not to make videos over one minute. This helps in using the same video across multiple platforms. Statistically too, audiences prefer shorter videos on social media.

I asked some young users, sometime back on why they do not prefer longish videos on social. They stated that if they want to consumer longer videos, they can go to YouTube or Netflix since the content there is better. Argument took!

3. A Storytelling Pattern:

Videos work only if they have a story to tell. The narration of the video is critical if you want your videos to perform. This aspect is quite difficult on social media because of the time limit. Saying something within a minute is much more difficult than saying something over ten minutes.

However, it is easy for brands to create a video content strategy and break it up into smaller videos. The best part about social? You can narrate a 10-minute story over 7 days, and still, keep audiences engaged and curious!

4. Quality Matters when it comes to Engagement:

If you want the best engagement, you need to invest the best technical requirements. Videos shot on cell phones have lower engagements than the ones shot on standard video equipment like Go-Pros and DSLRs.

You might think that this is a significant investment. However, it is only a one-time investment. In addition, having a good videographer that can shoot and edit is a valuable asset to have. This person can be beneficial to your social media marketing team in a big way.

5. Behind The Scenes (BTS) Footage:

The popularity and reach of BTS videos are through the charts. As social media drives demand for authentic content, people want to consume as much real content as possible. BTS videos are great when it comes to showing audiences the real nature of brands and events.

This also helps to build a more humane aspect of your brand. If you are doing BTS videos regularly, you will engage with your audiences on a deep emotional level. By bonding with them, you will ensure their loyalty and support for a long period.

6. Distribute Video Content Types Uniformly and Evenly:

Like regular content, one type of video content will not be able to give you the desired engagement. You need to mix up your video content between-

• Live Sessions
• Videos in Stories
• Text on Videos
• Videos as Posts

By mixing up your video content on social media, you will be able to ace the algorithms of social platforms. You will also be able to keep your audiences engaged and curious when it comes to your video strategy.

Always remember that the attention span of audiences on social media is quite limited. By feeding them newer avenues of content, you will boost engagement levels considerably.

7. Have a Call To Action (CTA):

One crucial thing about the digital domain is that everyone wants to be directed somewhere. From one piece of content to the next, people want to keep moving. Having a CTA to your video will help audiences migrate to the next course of action.

The best examples of using CTAs can be seen in the Food Industry. Almost all the delectable shot food videos always encourage users to visit the restaurant or order food from there. In many ways, this completes the sales cycle for the brand and the user journey for the user.

8. Use UGC Videos:

Nothing can be better for a brand than turning their own customers into brand ambassadors. Encourage customers to make videos on their cell phones and tag your brand on social media. You can then re-share and Regram the customer video on your social page.

By setting in motion this chain of video marketing, you will be able to engage and attract more and more audiences to your brand. I have seen use this video marketing strategy once a week to great effects.

The Final Word

Video content on social media can be both highly rewarding as well as a challenging experience. If you are able to plan the right video marketing strategy for your brand, you will see immense rewards from social media. However, as a digital strategy, you need to give videos some time to start seeing the desired levels of engagement.

Compared to other social media strategies, videos need higher levels of investments and resources. The returns from video compensate the investments many times over. For small brands, video creation can be done effectively on a scale that is not too taxing on them.

The use of free editing software that is easy to use and guarantees great output is something most small brands are using. Video content on social media is necessary if you want to make direct sales and conversions from your social media channels.

If you want to know more about video marketing or social media marketing, get in touch with us: https://www.viacon.in/contact-us/

Please feel free to add value to the article in the comments section below.

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