Tips For Making Engaging Social Media Videos

Video is an essential part of any marketing strategy, continually growing in importance across every platform and channel. It's no longer just an aspect of your overall strategy but rather an essential tool in your audience outreach, particularly in your social media strategy.

Did you know 74% of consumers say watching a video on social media influences their purchasing decision-making process? Or that consumers retain 95% of a message when it's delivered through video in comparison to 10% of a message when it's delivered through text? Or that 72% of customers would rather learn about a business's products or services through video content? Maybe you're hesitant or apprehensive about creating your own video content, but the benefits are undoubtedly worthwhile.

But what makes a good video? We've got some great tips to help you create a video strategy.

1. Know your audience - target them correctly

As with all marketing strategies, it's important to know your audience. But it's not just knowing who your audience is, but rather understanding how they would consume video. When it comes to publishing your video content, there are so many channels and platforms to choose from. On the bright side, there's no reason you can't use this content across all the platforms you use. However, depending on the video topic, the goals of your strategy or your audience, there may be platforms that are more appropriate than others. 

For example: Facebook is one of the most popular and successful video content platforms. The added benefit of Facebook is the ability to target specifically the right audience for your content - you can segment via age, geographic location, gender and language. Additionally, Facebook is a super shareable platform which is important in this context as video on social media generates 12 times more shares than text and images combined. This particular platform can be beneficial for any type of video but it's a great platform for advertisement based videos.

2. Tell a story

The beauty of story-telling is an important factor. Think about why you watch movies and what it is that hooks you in. Story-telling makes people pay attention; once you start wondering what's going to happen next, it's hard to look away. You don't have to create the next Speilberg hit to prosper through social media video marketing; it's possible to create something of great interest to your consumers through engaging story-telling. Successful video content connects with the viewer without focusing on sales or overly on branding; think story before you think sales, and the leads will come naturally. Your face, body language and tone of voice help create compelling storytelling in a way that written words cannot.

If you're struggling to think of ideas of what style of video you could create, we've got some examples to get you started:

Go behind the scenes:

If you can provide insights to behind the scenes processes, this is a great way to show the story of what you do to potential customers.

Informational videos:

Show that you're an expert in your field by deep-diving into a video that discusses your speciality.

How-to video/tutorial:

If your business is product orientated, don't just tell your customers how to use it, show them by utilising a how-to or tutorial based video - this type of video is also the perfect opportunity to showcase your expertise.

Introduce your team:

People prefer to buy from people, not businesses - show who's behind your business and use this opportunity to introduce your team. It helps humanise your brand and adds to your credibility.

Live video:

Live content is renowned for generating some of the highest reach among video types and has also been known to be actively prioritized by Facebook. It's a quick and easy way to answer FAQs, show the results of a service you provide or stream an event you're at.

3. The first few seconds count

You should start telling your story from the first frame - attention spans are shorter than ever which means you need to create a hook to stop that scroll. With the enormous amount of existing content online, particularly on social media, there's very little time to mess around before a potential customer loses interest and keeps scrolling. The few opening seconds of your video have to have enough information to tell the user what it's about to capture their interest.

4. Edit effectively

The editing process can be a bit tricky and confusing, especially if you have no previous experience editing video footage. Depending on the purpose of your video and which channels you're using, the editing features you need may vary. There are several options you can pick from when it comes to editing. However, if you're looking for assistance with your footage, feel free to reach out for a consultation to learn more about video editing services.

5. Create an interesting, customised thumbnail

Your thumbnail is the first impression you give, not only of your business, but of what your video entails - if you want people to watch and follow the footage all the way through, you have to have an enticing thumbnail. It's estimated those with customised thumbnails received 30% higher play rates than those without - customised thumbnails also help develop consistent branding throughout your videos, making it easier for consumers to recognise you, while also showing your professionalism. Lastly, when customising your thumbnail ensure it's designed in a way that the play button of a video doesn't cover your main image or message.

6. Include a CTA (call-to-action)

This is where and how you tell viewers what you'd like them to do after watching your video content. Depending on the context of your video, a CTA can come in several different forms. Statistically, 95.9% of CTA's are placed at the end of a video, as a consumer who's watched until the very end suggests they're particularly interested in your service or products.

Examples of CTA's include:

• Directing the viewer to your website.
• Offering a special deal for your service or product.
• Posing questions for the viewer to answer in the comments.
• Asking them to subscribe to your channel or follow your social media accounts.
• Encourage sharing with friends.

7. Optimise your video

As with any aspect of a marketing strategy, if you want people to find you, it's important to optimise your content. This step is particularly important if you're uploading your video on Youtube, as this is one of the primarily used search engines behind Google.

• Know your keywords and plan to use them in your videos as you would for blog posts.
• Link your website in the descriptions and captions.
• Titles are best used by being short and informative.
• Include your keywords in the title and descriptions.
• As mentioned earlier, use interesting and customised thumbnails.

8. Be authentic

Think about the videos you watch and what makes them appealing - it usually involves a person who's relaxed and relatable. While it's perfectly fine to plan and outline the topics you want to cover in your video, the easiest way to create a relaxed video is to avoid heavily scripting what you want to say. Strict scripts tend to discourage the natural flow and authenticity of the person in front of the camera; viewers don't want to listen to robots - being your authentic self will encourage stronger connections with your viewers.

Key takeaways:

• As with any marketing campaign, it's important to know who your audience is.
• Know how this audience would consume video - this will help you choose platforms.
• Utilise story-telling and focus on story before sales.
• The first few seconds of your video are the most important, this is when you need to hook your viewer in and stop the scroll!
• Customised thumbnails are important - they encourage consistent branding and show professionalism.
• How you edit the footage matters - editing services can be particularly helpful with this step.
• Include call-to-actions and lead the viewer to the steps you want them to take next.
• Optimise your video with keywords in titles, descriptions and captions.
• Most importantly - be yourself. Don't underestimate the power of authenticity when creating video content.

To find out more about video marketing for your business and video editing services, feel free to contact us at (07) 5636 3700 for more information, or book a consultation today with our video marketing specialists.