You may have noticed an increase in the use of video marketing on social media. Well there’s a reason for this: videos are entertaining and engaging. People love watching videos, and here are our 10 tips on using videos to your advantage.
1. Tell Your Story
The best part about using video content is that you are able to tell your audience a story the way you intend it. Storytelling plays such a large role in marketing. It’s how you connect with people and build relationships. Using videos for story telling is one of the best ways to connect through the web. Through videos, you can create a genuine experience for your audience. You can share the most detailed and accurate version of your content through a video, rather than a post or picture, and people are more likely to watch than read. Every story should have a beginning, middle, and end, but the tricky part will be fitting that into a 30-second or less video. Trust me, it’s possible, and you’ll thank yourself later.
2. Answer Questions
Not only can videos be a story, but they can also be a conversation. When thinking about how you want to approach videos, consider answering the questions of your community or industry. People love to inquire about products or services they’re interested in. Take this opportunity to answer their curiosity, and pull on their interest. The great thing about using videos to answer questions is that at the end of the video, you can redirect viewers to links that will provide further detail. This is a tool you’ll definitely want in your back pocket.
3. Consider Auto-Play
Have you ever been caught by that tricky little thing Facebook does, where you’ll be scrolling and suddenly hear people talking about something, or cool music playing? That’s good ol’ auto-play working its magic. Auto-play is an amazing feature that is able to capture people’s attention. Those brief initial 3-7 seconds to capture attention before they continue scrolling is vital, so use it wisely.
4. Video Lengths
So, you’ve got a story, answers, and auto-play all ticked off as considered for your next video. Well now you should ask yourself how to package this. No matter what type of video you create, timing is everything. In this day and age, out attention spans are shortening, and businesses need to address this. Have you noticed that Instagram previously had 30 seconds, but is now introducing 10 second stories? Or that Snapchat has a maximum of 10 seconds? And Vine is 6? This is because people like it short and sweet. Vine proves that you can have a compelling story fit in 6 seconds or less. You should use time-lengths to your advantage in order to get optimum results.
5. Video Ads
Coming out with an awesome product? Or maybe you’re excited about upcoming content and think that your community should be too. Well this is perfect time to enhance your social media visibility with video ads! Running video ads allow you to share objective-focused content with targeted audiences and other potential users. Many social media platforms already allow this, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Videos you may find will also give you much lower cost per 1000 impressions compared to other type posts, but you may also see it as a good opportunity to generate viewers, who can they be re-targeted. For example, brand message in a video to your audience, followed by sales and promotion messages to those people who watched the video for more than 30 seconds.
6. Subtitles
So we know that sound is a great way to grab people’s attention, but what about those who are in a place where they can’t or don’t wish to play sound (elevators, buses, etc)? Well, this is when subtitles become especially helpful. Having subtitles also makes your content much more accessible for the general population and for people with disabilities. You can easily add subtitles through editing apps on your computer, or to Facebook videos by uploading SRT files with your video.
7. Stay In The Loop
Between Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, there are tons of popular news stories and trends that your audience will participate in, or care about. Viewing the trending topics or hash-tags and adding a video brings you into a conversation with your audience, and this is a great way to engage and build a relationship. As you work in social media marketing, you will want to provide relevant content to your audience, and in order to do this, you must also be invested in the conversation.
8. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!
Along with hash-tags and trends, making use of keywords or phrases will do you a great service. Optimization is a game changer when it comes to potential users finding you and your videos. You want to make yourself noticeable, available, and easily searched, so be sure to use those hash-tags, tags, and key features.
9. Teach Something
If you scroll through Facebook, you may also notice that there are a lot of How-To videos. Some may be for baking, and others may be for crafts or make-up, but overall, there is a wide range of how-to videos that people love. These videos are not only popular on Facebook, but across all major social media platforms. The secret behind their success is that they teach people simple concepts, tricks, or lessons. The straightforwardness of these videos keeps them lighthearted, interesting, and easily shareable. This could be a great tool to promote your products.
10. Broadcast Live
Since Facebook unveiled their broadcast live feature, the world of video content has changed on social media. Many businesses can now directly engage with their audience through the feature, while also monitoring the amount of views. Earlier, we mentioned the importance of answering questions. Well why not take this opportunity to do so, live? Periscope and Blab also offer awesome platforms for live video sharing. You’ll probably also find that you get considerably more reach for your Facebook Live video compared to other posts, as your community is told when you go live! Just ensure you aren’t twiddling your thumbs…always be interesting!
Conclusion
Up to 90% of users have enjoyed product videos or have found them helpful. Social media is a great place for marketing, and video content is one of the best means for it. I hope your brain is buzzing with ideas for your next video!