“Do it live!”
Social media is continually changing the way that we communicate and consume information. The most successful content marketers are delivering content consistently through multiple social media channels. It comes as no surprise that with all the content that is posted across these channels, that visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared than all-text content. Video is no exception. It is becoming an increasingly important part of the promotional artillery with 65% of SMEs and large organizations considering it the most engaging communication channel for their audiences.
The question is – are you making the most of your video assets across social media? With online videos accounting for more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022 – you need to be considering your options going forward. Here are 10 reasons why you should use video in your social media.
Video is a fantastic tool to hook your audience. Unlike a long-winded paragraph, it is extremely easy to consume. We’re all guilty of passively scrolling through our social media feeds and only the most compelling content tends to make the grade for our attention. Video allows you to be concise and capture viewers’ interest in the first few seconds. Social media success lies in your ability to condense information down into easily digestible snippets of content that is long enough to maintain viewers’ attention but short enough to leave them wanting more. You should place clear indicators of the videos intention at the beginning before users have the chance to scroll away.
All your content should be optimized for search engines and your videos should be no different. Social media channels are quickly becoming like search engines themselves, so it’s important that you make your content relevant. After all, you’ve already got your gripping content. But how do you determine whether you’ll be at the top of the “popular” and “trending” list? Be sure to create compelling headlines and descriptions for your video so it will register in searches, whilst complementing these with relevant hashtags. Twitter offers in depth analytics for every hashtag, detailing key demographics, providing you with a great base to orchestrate your search optimization. Ensure that you add tags to boost search results across YouTube and Facebook.
No matter which social medium you are posting through, you should always have a goal for your video. This typically involves user action, whether you’re driving traffic to your site, purchasing a product or sharing your video. Your call to action is your virtual handshake with your viewers. If they’ve watched a video all the way through, they have demonstrated interest. You then need to direct them to take the desired action, something as simple as “to find out more visit here” may be all that is necessary. It’s one thing to have compelling content, but it’s vital to sweat your assets and drive conversions.
Posting a video on social media isn’t dissimilar to a conversation, you can only discuss one thing at a time. Otherwise your audience will quickly lose interest. With your call to action in mind, your video should be telling the story that leaves viewers wanting more. If you’re adding something to the video that doesn’t contribute directly to the call to action, you may want to consider removing it. You can re-purpose many of your large video assets to focus on unique messages. If done efficiently, the asset can last for months and you’ll have compelling content for the foreseeable future.
It’s imperative to deliver relevant content to your audience. Video gives your brand a voice and allows you to move quickly to take advantage of news stories, consumer behavior and any kind of relevant content that goes viral. Some of the smartest brands incorporate these real-time techniques to become a part of the social conversation. Many popular hashtags also recur on a weekly basis (such as #WednesdayWisdom) and span across a range of consumer demographics. As a brand, you want to create campaigns that spark conversation and linking your video to the latest trends is key to doing so.
A study by Hootsuite found that nearly half of American adults interact with companies on at least one social media channel. This makes social avenues a great route to announce and share your biggest news via video. Incorporating video across social media can explain concepts and provide interesting insights into your brand that would otherwise be very difficult to explain. The beauty of shattering your content is that you can keep a momentum going when you’re sharing your news, to have an even bigger impact.
Logos play a critical role in serving as a connection point between the company and its consumers, and their use in videos is no exception. After all, you want to ensure that your brand is exposed to its highest potential. Watermarking your videos with your logo is necessary to ensure instant brand recognition, add associative meaning to social media campaigns and build corporate identity and trust, over time.
If a picture speaks 1000 words, imagine what a video is worth. It’s one thing being relevant, but this is worth very little if the quality of your video isn’t up to scratch. Bad sound and picture quality tarnishes the credibility of your message and can quickly generate negative brand associations. However, by eliminating background noise and sub-standard resolution, you could vastly improve user interaction. There’s a lot of noise out there so it’s important you cater for viewers’ decreasing attention spans by giving them fewer excuses to leave.
Videos are a great way to let your followers see the people and processes behind the business - contributing to your brand’s transparency. It’s a great illustration of the company if you can humanize what you do, after all people do business with people. Behind the scenes videos reveal how you work and create familiarity with the people inside your brand, demonstrating why prospects should want to work with you. If you persist in posting only business-related content, people that engage with you will start to tune out if your content is not diverse, human or entertaining enough.
It’s important to monitor your video’s progression to find out what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t. Whether your posted videos are paid campaigns or organic posts, their progress should aid future video marketing endeavors. Most social media channels have analytic features built in. Whilst views and shares are a good indicator of your videos popularity, be sure to pay close attention to click throughs and that your desired call to action is delivering.
