Both video and social media marketing have exploded in the last few years.
It’s hard to find a business that isn’t at least interested in becoming more social media savvy or investing more heavily in video creation. It’s even harder to scroll through a social media feed without seeing video content from brands already using video marketing on social platforms.
In this article, I’ll show you how to quickly create a social media marketing strategy with video. We’ll cover:
- Why video is an important content type on social media
- How to create social videos in four easy steps, and
- 3 best practices in regards to crafting social media video content
Sound interesting? Then keep reading!
So, what’s the deal with video marketing?
Before I teach you how to quickly create effective video content for your social media channels, we need to talk about why you should. It generally takes longer to craft video content than other types of posts. Is the extra effort worth it?
Absolutely! Here’s why:
Better Engagement
Here’s the cold, hard truth: videos are a consumers’ preferred content type to see from brands on social media. This claim is backed up by the fact that social media videos generate up to 1,200% more shares than text and image content combined.
If your audience would rather engage with video content on social media guess what your company should be doing — creating videos for social platforms!
Search Optimization
Video content will help your company connect with its target audience on social media platforms. But the videos you post on YouTube, Facebook, and other networks can boost your company’s SEO efforts as well.
By optimizing your videos with relevant keywords, your content will become visible in Google search results. And it’s much easier to rank video content than standard web pages.
More Conversions
Social media videos grab attention and boost engagement, as we’ve already seen. They also allow brands to show their offerings in action, which improves conversion rates. In fact, in a recent survey, 84% of consumers were convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand video. Amazing!
When it comes to improving conversions on social media, video is one of the best strategies out there. That’s why 87% of businesses now use video in their marketing efforts.
Create social video content in 4 steps
So, can we agree that video is an important component of your company’s social media marketing strategy? Great! Now, let’s talk about how to create amazing social video content:
1. Build a social media content calendar
First things first, you need to plan out the video content you’ll post on social media, which means you should create a calendar. While not completely necessary, a social media content calendar will give you a bird’s eye view of your content and ensure it meets your goals.
It will also help you post consistently because you’ll know ahead of time what to post and when. Consistency is key to success on social media. If your audience doesn’t hear from you for an extended period of time, they’re likely to forget about you. As is the algorithm.
Fortunately, building a social media content calendar is really easy. You simply pull up your calendar of choice — digital or hard copy — and begin “scheduling” posts for certain days.
If you really want to make the process as simple as possible (who wouldn’t?) then use a free social media calendar template like this one from Biteable. It contains pre-made videos and ideas for every day of the month.
Here’s what the free Biteable calendar looks like:
2. Create amazing video content
Now that you know the kind of content you need to create and when it will be posted, you can actually start creating your videos. This is the fun part! This is also the part where things can go horribly wrong if you’re not careful.
But don’t worry. Follow these tips and you’ll be able to create engaging videos for social media:
- Craft a Strong Storyline: To do this, focus on the buyer’s journey:
Source: Crazy Egg
Are your intended viewers in the Awareness, Consideration, or Decision stage? Once you know the answer to that question, you’ll have a better idea of what they’re struggling with and how you can help with your videos.
- Build an Emotional Connection: Imagine the emotions your audience is currently experiencing. Now think about the way you want them to feel after watching your video. How can you take your viewers from Point A to Point B?
By understanding both points, you’ll be able to craft an emotional journey and connect with your intended viewers.
- Use a Stellar CTA: Lastly, craft a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that entices your viewers to click, download, purchase, or anything else you desire. The CTA you use should be easily noticeable, clearly understood, and simple to accomplish.
How to actually shoot and edit your videos — the gear to use, lighting techniques, etc. — is beyond the scope of this article. Fortunately, there are plenty of free resources available online. We suggest you start with this in-depth guide from HubSpot.
3. Share your video with the world
Once your video is made, you can share it with the world. But don’t jump the gun and post your masterpiece at any time. Stick to the social media content calendar you created earlier and schedule your content to go live at the appointed time.
There are many ways to schedule and share content on social channels. But I can’t think of a better one than Mention.
The software allows companies to quickly schedule content in advance for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn — all from one, easy to use interface. It also allows users to double-check their planning at a glance with its weekly content view.
Take Mention for a test drive and schedule your free demo today.
4. Optimize your videos for better results
Source: Biteable
Your content may be posted, but your work isn’t done yet. To find success with social media videos you need to monitor them and analyze their success. Did your latest video get as many likes, shares, retweets, and comments as you hoped it would? Why or why not?
When you understand why a piece of content performed the way it did, you can better optimize your approach in the future.
Maybe you learn that your product videos always lose viewers at the midpoint. So you begin to craft shorter, more pointed pieces of content. Perhaps you discover that videos made from user-generated content get incredible amounts of engagement. So you craft more of them.
The insights you glean will be unique to your business. The point is to understand your audience, their likes, and dislikes, and be able to craft better content moving forward.
Social video best practices
I’ve shared with you a four-step system for creating social video content. But before I sign off, I want to give you a few best-practices. Keep these things in mind when crafting content:
1. Know your platform
The kind of videos you post on LinkedIn should be different from the ones you post on Instagram. The audiences on every social media platform have their own preferences and it would behoove you to be aware of them. For example:
- Facebook: Facebook is a major video platform. Because of this, Facebook audiences tend to have short attention spans. If a video doesn’t hook them in the first couple of seconds, they can easily watch a different one. Keep this in mind when crafting facebook content and make sure the first two seconds of your videos are engaging.
- Instagram and Twitter: Things happen at breakneck speed on Instagram and Twitter. As such, I recommend crafting shorter videos for these platforms. Again, it’s about attention. Instagram and Twitter users aren’t accustomed to dwelling on specific pieces of content for long periods of time.
- LinkedIn: Contrary to Instagram and Twitter content best practices, LinkedIn videos can and should be longer. You’ll be interacting with a professional audience who want to receive more detailed content from your brand. Give them well-thought and researched pieces and you’ll find more success.
I should mention that just because every platform requires different styles of content doesn’t mean you have to slave away shooting dozens of videos every week. Instead, simply edit your videos to appeal to different crowds.
For instance, a full, detailed video you shoot for LinkedIn can be broken down into smaller clips, which can be posted to Instagram and Twitter at various intervals throughout the week.
2. Vary Your Content Types
You should also make sure to vary the types of video content you publish on social media. Your followers will get bored if you only post product videos — even if they’re amazing. Mix it up with content that intrigues and engages, like the short video above.
Here are seven types of popular content to post:
1. Tutorials: Teach your audience how to do something.
Here’s an example of a How-to video from Peter McKinnon (what he calls the Tutorial Tuesday).
This type of video doesn’t require anything else but good quality microphone and camera AND expert tips to share.
2. Customer Testimonials: Interview current customers and share their positive reviews.
Here’s a testimonial video from Drivy. It’s in French, so make sure to activate the subtitles!
This type of video requires a lot more effort as you need to find clients/users willing to share their experience, meet with them, film and put together a relevant storyline.
3. Behind the Scenes: Show your audience how and where the “magic” happens.
Here’s an example from one of the most impressive video games of 2019: Death Stranding.
This type of content is mostly addressed to the fans/most engaged users, wanting to know more about what you do/how you do what you do.
4. Product Videos: Showcase a new product and/or demonstrate how it works.
Here’s an example, with Mention.
Softwares and their functionalities can be hard to apprehend. Share such videos to show what you can do, and how you can help your target audience!
5. User-Generated Content: Put your customers front and center.
Here’s an example from GoPro.
GoPro built its brand using UGC. After all, what better way to show how good their products are but by sharing extreme footage from their users?
6. Live Streams: Go live and interact with your followers in real–time.
Live Streams are great to generate engagement and strengthen your relationships with your community. With that said, you also need to be ready for bloopers and other unexpected that may occur when going live.
7. Polls: Start an interaction — in newsfeed posts or stories — by asking a question.
Asking questions is one of the best ways to trigger engagement. Find your audience’s pain points and ask them questions about it!
Do your best to create a rounded social media video content strategy that includes each of the content types listed above. That way you can keep your audience interested and engaged.
3. Promote your videos
Finally, don’t be afraid to promote your videos via social media ad platforms. If a particular piece of content is performing well and has the chance to raise brand awareness and/or boost revenue, why wouldn’t you put some ad dollars behind it?
Social media advertising is a BIG topic. The Mention blog is full of articles to help you better reach your target audience via paid ads. Read a few of them here.
For now, just know that video and social media advertising are a powerful combination.
Social media + video marketing
Social media usage continues to rise and videos are the best way to reach audiences on these important networks. Fortunately, you now know how to craft winning video content for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn!
Just follow the four-step system I outlined in this post:
- Build a social media content calendar
- Create amazing video content
- Share your content with the world
- Optimize your videos for better results
Do that and you’ll find success. Good luck!
