Why social videos should be a staple in your media strategy
When you’re looking at your marketing and media plans, you might not have considered video. Traditionally, video has been reserved for TV, requires tons of planning, lots of production, and a big budget. But social media has changed that. Beyond our always-on, always-sharing and always-liking societal habits, social media changed the way marketers… market. And this includes video content. Because of the ease and relative affordability of social media advertising, and because platforms like Facebook and Instagram tend to shift towards what their users want, social media video content is no longer an extra – it’s the star of the social media show.
Trust the Numbers
Social media videos aren’t just a trend for your brand to jump on the bandwagon – these engaging little pieces of content pack a big punch. Did you know 100 million hours of video content are watched daily on Facebook. Social video generates 1,200% more shares than posts with just text and image posts combined. Plus around 90% of videos are watched on mobile devices, and where are people watching these videos? Social media.
Social Video Best Practices
- Stay current on social media video dimensions – be cognizant of where your viewer is watching video: Facebook? Twitter? Their phone? Desktop computer? Identifying the platform can help ensure your video is actually consumed. Users’ attention span is short, and they’ll ignore content that isn’t easy to take in.
- Length – social videos should always be short. Really short. Like under 15 seconds is best. There’s a case to be made for longer storytelling (longers as in two whole minutes – an eternity on social media!), but the best social videos are just 6-15 seconds. Whether we like it or not, the algorithms of advertising on social media dictate that brevity is boss.
- Subtitles and captions – captioning your video is important when using voice over, or any kind of script. Since most people are watching videos on their phones, the videos play on mute by default. And since the majority of us are mindlessly scrolling, we’re more than likely not un-muting. If you want to be certain that your message is being absorbed, include captions in your videos, or at the very least, integrate typography or subtitles into your video.
Social Media Videos We Love
We’ve gathered few examples and trends in social media videos. Now, none of these come from elaborate advertising campaigns with huge production budgets, nor will you see these videos during the Super Bowl. However, what makes these social videos successful is the ability to make someone pause and watch while scrolling their favorite social feeds.
- Tasty (and the growing Nifty and Goodful) by Buzzfeed – these social-only videos show recipes shot overhead, step-by-step, and are so simply done, they give the viewer the sense of “I can do that.” Tasty alone draws an audience of 500 million viewers per month. So it’s safe to say it’s working.
- Casper mattresses – take a look at the simplicity of this video. It’s actually just a handful of still shots strung together. Or this one, which is just the simplest animation. Neither video is extravagant or even tells a huge story, but both grab a viewer’s attention in a sea of endless scrolling. Plus, they’re cute.
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