Social Media has continues to grow & according to www.techjury.net the average user spent 2 hours & 24 mins per day on it in 2020!
Video content is growing too! According to www.99firms.com/blog/facebook-video-statistics/#gref there are over 4 billion video views on Facebook every day & over 100 million hours watched!
According to Tube Filter https://www.tubefilter.com/2021/07/05/app-annie-how-many-hours-users-spend-on-tiktok-youtube-facebook/ Android users in the UK now spend 26 hours a month viewing videos on TikTok compared to 16 hours on You Tube!
It might surprise you to know that TikTok has now surpassed Google as the MOST popular domain!!
So, it’s safe to say videos aren’t going away and you need to have a video content strategy for your business.
People think video is expensive to create and to be fair it used to be but with more people owning smartphones that you can record high quality videos on that’s not the case now as anyone with a phone can now create a good video.
A worrying fact to know is that more people in the world own a smart phone than a toothbrush!
It is more time consuming to create a video to post on social media than it is to create a post however with video you can reach a greater number of people as social media platforms place more emphasis on video content and you can repurpose this content to use over and over again.
Longer videos you create can be repurposed into shorter ones and you can also transcribe your videos and turn them into blog posts!
Video content is more engaging! People no longer want to see a video of your product or service they want to know more about your business, its personality, what its values are, who you are, your team members, your story etc. people want to see the face or faces behind the brand and this is difficult to do with a photo or text.
By using video content it will create more exposure for you as people tend to share more video content with others or on their social channels. But the social media platforms themselves place more emphasis on video content with their algorithms so they are more likely to put your video content in the feed of your followers and their followers or connections which helps you get more exposure.
You can also add your branding, logo & watermark your videos to help build your brand identity which in turn builds trust and credibility by boosting your brands recognition through more exposure.
Video improves conversion rates as people tend to find video content more engaging than a long text post so if someone watches your video they tend to spend more time on your social media channels.
But the trick is to make sure your video content is right for each channel and your audience!
Facebook & You Tube are for longer videos while Twitter, Instagram & TikTok are for shorter ones.
You also need to consider your younger potential clients who from an early age have grown up with video content online and the internet.
As the amount of video content users of each of the platforms consume is only going to increase it is important to produce regular video content relevant to each channel.
Here’s a list of channels for videos & the maximum length your video should be (please note these were correct as of December 2021 so if you’re reading this post after this date these could have changed):
IG Feed 60 secs
IG Story 15 secs (you can post longer videos but they’ll be split into 15 sec edits)
IG Live up to 4 hours
IGTV was up to 60 mins but this feature was discontinued in October 2021 – don’t worry if you already had posted to this section as these videos will still show under the “Videos” tab
IG Reels 60 secs
TikTok 60 secs but up to 3 mins
You Tube up to 15 mins if un-verified
Facebook 3 mins
Facebook Live up to 8 hours
Twitter 2 mins 20 secs
Instagram & TikTok seem to be the most powerful ones at the moment.
If you’re creating a 15 sec to 60 sec short form video for IG Reels, TikTok or IG Stories you might want to follow this format:
Hey everyone, (your name) here from (your company name) if we haven’t met yet I’m the (your role) here at (your business). I help (your target customer/persona) overcome (their number one problem) & add in a Call To Action at the end if you have time.
“Hey everyone Gemma here I'm a Freelance Digital Marketer, if we haven’t met yet I’m from Gemma Walton Marketing. I help business grow through various marketing projects including social media, website development, improving their online presence etc.”
You can if time allows then add in a call to action which could be something like – if you’d like to know more about what we do please head to our website www.gemmawalton.co.uk
Ideally you need to include in your short video a:
Hook
Tips &
CTA
For a 60 sec plus longer form video for the IG Feed, IG Live, FB, FB Live, You Tube, Twitter you might want to include:
Hook
Result
Testimonial
Tools & Tips
CTA
So, what types of videos should you be sharing on social media?
Interviews/Q&As
Product or service demos
Behind the scenes
Product or service reveals
Testimonials
Events
Meet the Team
Tutorials/How to guides
Packing someone’s order
All of these work really well on social media but you also need to make sure you have a video strategy and that you structure your videos in the right way. It’s no good creating all this fantastic content if you forget to add a call to action!
You do need to be careful when you’re creating your videos to make sure you do things right because if you get it wrong your brand or business image will suffer.
Some things people get wrong are:
Working without a strategy – this means they don’t know their audience and the type of content they want to see and that they’re not using the right length videos or type for that channel e.g. TikTok and Story videos for Instagram & Facebook use portrait style videos whereas Facebook & You Tube use landscape.
No call to action – this means you’re not telling the potential customer what they need to do next e.g. do they head to your website to sign up for your course or can they buy your product cheaper by inputting a certain code from the video.
Not using headlines – you still need to come up with eye catching titles for your videos that include your keywords so they are picked up by the algorithms. These not only help you get picked up by the search engines but also get the attention of the viewer so they click on and watch your video too.
Low quality – if you’re going to all the trouble of creating video content you want it to give the person whose watching it a good experience. So you don’t want lots of background noise if you’re interviewing someone or a grainy pixelated screen it needs to be high quality.
Autoplay – its good practise to switch this functionality off depending on the channel as you don’t want to give your potential customer a fright when they land on your page or post especially if they have their speakers turned up loud and they don’t realise!
Anyone can create video content for their business, they just need a decent smartphone to record it. But what happens after, how do you edit it & remove the bits you don’t want or add captions? Your branding & logo?
There are some great tools out there that are easy to use and that are free! Make sure you check out:
iPhone/iPad/Mac
iMovie
InShot
Clips
Double Take
Plays
Android
Filmora Go
Viva Cut
Action Director
Motion Ninja
Windows
Premier Rush (Adobe)
CyberLink Power Director
Lightworks
Hit Film Express
Struggling with creating videos for social media for your local or national business, I can help!
If you’re looking for help or support for a marketing project to help your business grow by improving your online presence, please check out the Digital Marketing Services I Provide.
Not sure or want to have a chat about this in more detail then please Contact Me directly.
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