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An article on best practices of ‘how to promote video content on social media’, needs to begin with some questions-
Are you looking to boost your engagement figures on social media?
Do you know some of the video ideas you can look up for your brand?
Is your follower base lying stagnant for some time?
Have you tried creating videos yourself with the help of some video editing apps?
What are some of the best practices when it comes to promoting video content on social media?
If you have been asking yourself, any of the above questions, you have landed on the right article. In this article, we will answer all the above questions on promoting video content on social media.
We will also be looking at why video content performs better than other content on social media platforms.
In the past couple of years, Facebook Live has captured the imagination of the masses.
Instagram has gone from having 15-second videos to 60-second ones and Instagram TV.
YouTube has quietly emerged as the second biggest search platform after Google.
Snapchat has over 100 Million Daily users worldwide.
Given this growth, no sane digital marketer would want to ignore promote videos on social media.
However, it would be best, to begin with, some basic understanding of videos on social media.
How To Promote Video Content on Social Media: Basics and Foundation
You might not want to believe if I tell you straight up that, no social media strategy is complete without videos.
However, I would like to bring to your attention certain data and figures to drive home my point.
- Over 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.
- Facebook users watch over 100 million hours of videos on Facebook per day.
- 52% of all digital marketers think that video marketing delivers the best ROIs
- Videos outnumber texts and images by 1200% when it comes to online shares.
- Over 64% of users see a product video or review before making purchase decisions.
The bullet points on data of videos on social media are endless. However, the important thing to note is that videos are ‘hot’ on social media.
The importance of videos on social media as a form of content is partly technical and partly psychological.
A human being is wired in such a way that his interests in motion content keep increasing.
Think about a period when small pocket radios were the only sources of entertainment.
Once television came about, those pocket radios became obsolete.
This is part of man’s psychology.
We are most attracted to audio-visual communication or videos! This is not to say that images or texts are bad, or they do not serve a purpose.
It is more to do with the fact that we are engineered to like videos more. Promote videos on social media helps the brand with more exposure and opens up newer channels of revenue generation.
Benefits of Video Content for Brands:
Gone are those days when social media was just a tool for branding and awareness.
Even though social media is still the best place to know your audiences, there is a much bigger purpose that it serves these days.
For thousands of brands around the world, social media is the number one platform for ‘Sales’.
This means brands, which use the platform to engineer sales.
I am talking about single-owner businesses, who display their products on social media. They even sell them to consumers through Direct Messages.
How does this take place? Let us take the example of a fashion designer-
Step 1- Announce that there are six new designs in four different sizes through small videos.
Step 2- Say that they will be sold on a first come first serve basis.
Step 3- Increase curiosity and competition by saying that there are only 5 pieces of design and size.
Step 4- Announce an open date and ask people to DM if they are interested.
Step 5- Shift the conversation to DM, quote the price, ask for their shipping address and give your bank details.
Step 6- Package and ship the product through DHL, Blue Dart or any other provider.
Most of the time, these business owners will release small videos of the product. Videos have more organic reach than static images on social media.
The result- You have sold around 30 pieces of your designs within a day, through your phone. Congratulations!
This is the power of social media and business.
This is why most businesses want to promote video content on social media.
Any agency who states that social media cannot be used for selling and revenue generation is incompetent.
7 Best Practices to Promote Video Content on Social Media: The List
1. Focus on the Video Thumbnails:
You must have seen that you are drawn to click on videos that have interesting thumbnails. Some vloggers and brands purposely use obscene images to encourage Click-Through-Rates (CTRs).
The result? Videos, which have interesting thumbnails, get more clicks, views, and mentions on social media. It is critical that you pay attention to what your thumbnail will be. The more curious and interesting the better.
Think of your video’s thumbnails as the first face forward in front of users. They will not even open the video if the thumbnail does not attract them.
If you are looking to boost clicks, conversions, and shares, please ensure that the thumbnail is attractive.
2. Cross Share Videos on Social Media Platforms:
All social media platforms show that videos garner the highest engagement and reach. Yet, there are some brands, which keep videos for just their YouTube page.
Frankly, I do not understand their logic.
You should post videos on all social media platforms- Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn!
By sharing videos on multiple social platforms, you encourage a cumulative rise in engagement. Many brands try to edit videos on their social platforms, only to drive users to YouTube or their website for the complete video.
This is also a great strategy when it comes to carrying out a lead generation campaign for any brand.
3. The First 10 Seconds Matter the Most:
You must have heard about the most chilling fact about humans in recent years.
We have the attention span, which is shorter than a goldfish!
While there are many proponents and advocates of this theory, the fact of the matter is that the start matters.
There is no dearth of video content on social media. If your video’s opening credits are not attractive enough, people will leave.
I have spoken to numerous video marketers before and during writing this article.
According to them, the first ten seconds matter the most.
Within this period, people take the decision that they have to take.
This is why you need to ensure that the opening scenes of the video arrest the attention of audiences.
4. Live Sessions on Facebook and Instagram:
If there is one thing that is giving video content a run for its money, it is ‘Live’. The only form of content that sees more engagement and reach than videos is Facebook Like and Instagram Like.
I tried to understand this from a psychological point of view. The data supports that live is more popular than videos. However, from a psychological point of view, things are a bit different.
Users expect authenticity, credibility and the ‘real’ picture from brands. According to users, live sessions make brands relatable, credible and human. Videos can be edited hundreds of times. Effects make something look much more attractive.
Live Sessions are as authentic as they come. Generation Z, the newest entrant of the digital club, loves authenticity more than millennials.
5. Optimize video content for Mobile Phones:
You can rest assured that more people are going to see your brand videos on cell phones. While the basics remain, the same, mobile displays tend to be a bit different.
This means you should try to experiment with newer formats like square formats and vertical formats. With cell phones being made for more video viewing, you need to take note of the resolutions.
Full-screen optimizations, 16:9 rations and even foldable phones, your video creation process needs to be aware.
There is no point in creating videos if it is not mobile compatible. Once social platforms see that your mobile versions are seeing high bounce rates, they will reduce organic reach.
6. Use Keywords for Maximum Reach:
Keywords on social media work in exactly the same way that they do on search engines like Google.
This means that your video title and video description are comparable to H1 and H2 tags. You should use focus keywords in your video title and the description sections.
The more keyword-friendly your video, the better will it perform on social and search.
I am sure you have seen YouTube videos showing up on the first pages of search post a query. This is because Google is actively promoting videos on search.
If your videos see a lot of action in terms of shares, engagements, and likes, Google will show it right at the top of search results.
7. Create a Compelling Story Telling Narrative:
While some people might think that creating videos is easy, it is not. Creating a video is part of an elaborate video strategy.
This means that it is often decided to be in tune with the brand and its products or services. Meaningless videos that do not connect back with the brand are useless.
Videos, which garner the highest engagement, are the ones that are
- Brilliantly scripted
- Wonderfully shot, and
- Edited by experts.
This makes them brand assets, which are used on multiple branding platforms. Social media being one of them.
You should always have a story and a narrative to the video. No matter whether the video is 30-seconds long or 3-hours long.
Conclusion:
Video marketing on social media is not a new phenomenon. You might have not needed an article like this a couple of years back. However, with increasing competition between brands, promote video content on social media needs some best practices.
If your video content is not good, users will not hesitate to move on to the next channel. This is both good as well as bad. No brand enjoys a monopoly over users who view video content.
At the end of the day, it is the quality, which matters. If you are using the right tips to promote your video content on social media, you will see higher engagement rates.
In addition to the above points, you can also look at-
- Adding CTAs to your videos to give people some direction.
- Include subtitles so that it becomes easier for people to follow the video.
- Try to use as many ‘stories’ on your social media pages to increase recall value.
Brands are now looking for integrated creative agencies that have their own photography and video team. This makes the task of creating assets and planning the social strategy more streamlined.
If you are looking for higher conversions, increased engagements and better follower counts, promote video content on social media is the way forward.
Do let me know what you thought of the article, in the comments section below. I would love to hear your feedback.
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Ejaz Ahmed
Part-time blogger, full-time dreamer! Ejaz Ahmed likes to think about how technology will ultimately transform human lives for the better. He is deeply fascinated with using technology to democratize the spread of useful information on the internet.
