Social Media Video Marketing: 9 Tips to Get Started
Whether you hire a film production company like Tailor Made Media or a lone videographer, learning social media video marketing tools will help your business and brand in ways other marketing methods won’t. We live in a time when video marketing is king; long gone are the days of print advertising domination, as people watch a lot more than they read, particularly those Gen Z kids. Social media video marketing is a must-have in your content-sharing and promotional arsenal.
Today, almost everyone has a cell-phone on them at all times. People are often scrolling through their social media feeds (even when they’re supposed to be working) so this presents an opportunity, even if it hurts general productivity. Plainly stated, the ability to create engaging video content and share it across multiple platforms increases the likelihood of your video content being seen. This means more visits to your website, more products sold, new customers, and more engagement.
Here are some basic tips on how to do it:
Develop a Clear Objective
Having a clear objective for your video marketing plan can inform specific marketing decisions you make along the way. One wouldn’t decide to hike a mountain without first having a plan on how to get there. If you’re the owner of a summer camp, your objective may be to gain new customers for the upcoming season. If you’re a private school, you may want to create video content for your institution’s upcoming 20th Anniversary and depict the mission statement in a visually engaging way.
How you climb the mountain all depends on where you currently stand and how high you want to go. Having a clear objective not only ensures that you stay on the right path, but it also helps make the best use of the video content you’ve created. If you partner with Tailor Made Media for your video production services, we will help you make full use of your content, of which there will be plenty!
Choose the Appropriate Platform
There are many social media platforms available for your video content. Most of them now allow for video content to be posted. Depending on the type of video content you’re posting, the length of the video, target audience, and overall goal, you may want to consider any or all of the internet’s options. If you already have an established audience on a particular platform, you may want to start there.
It’s important to note that different social media platforms have varying specifications for videos, such as length and whether or not the video will be presented in landscape or portrait mode. Of course, if you work with a video production company like Tailor Made Media, we can ensure during production that the video content is able to be edited to suit multiple specs across all social media platforms.
Below is a graphic that displays a ranking of most popular social media sites for video marketing:
Source: Oberlo
Define Your Target Audience
As you consider the appropriate platform for your video marketing campaign, it is vital to determine your target audience. If you’re a non-profit organization looking to raise awareness about a particular social issue, ask yourself, “Who is the person I’m trying to reach?” Be as specific as possible. Consider their age, sex/gender, interests, education level, location, and other factors. Remember, sites like Facebook know everything about us through algorithms and data harvesting, so they’ll know how to reach anyone!
Once you’ve created a clear profile of your target audience, you can make deliberate decisions for posting your video content. On Facebook, you can adjust filters to narrow down the scope of your audience, which increases your chances of getting clicks. YouTube viewership skews male and also allows for longer videos, so this may factor into what and where you post. Instagram has relatively recently added the ability to create longer videos and put them on a playlist. You could also use IG for specific campaigns propelled by the use of hashtags. It all depends on your objectives.
Use a Strong Thumbnail Image
Once you’ve decided where to post your video content, you’ll want to decide on a thumbnail image. Although it’s a relatively small, still image, it’s also the first impression to your audience. So, you’ll want to make sure it’s engaging.
You’ll also want to make sure it captures the essence of the video content and what you’re going for. Including text that pops is also useful to help display the purpose of the video. Think of the thumbnail image as the book cover to a lengthy novel you’ve spent a lot of time on. Posting a crappy thumbnail would leave viewers scrolling past and saving their click for something else. Your video content deserves better, so don’t sleep on a strong thumbnail.
Have a Strong Hook
Okay, so you’ve got your engaging thumbnail and get that click. The next consideration is that people’s attention-spans are short (and probably getting shorter by the minute). For this reason, you’ll want to have a strong hook at the start of your video. Depending on the video content, this can be achieved with a strong visual, an interesting question, or anything that evokes emotion and makes the viewer want to continue watching. One strategy to connect with an audience is to focus on people, instead of things. A viewer will more likely identify with a person’s face or behavior than an inanimate object. Make sure your hook does its job.
Tell a Story
The type of content you post should connect to your overall objective and target audience. If you’re just starting out, shorter engaging content may be the best way to begin building viewership and piquing interest. Whatever you choose, you should always try to tell some sort of story. We often think of stories in the traditional narrative sense, but stories can take other forms as well. Stories can be told informationally with data, they can be told through client testimonials or interviews, or they can be historical in nature as they highlight your organization’s growth over the years and future trajectory. Stories draw people in and keep them watching.
Maximize the Use of Your Video Content
At Tailor Made Media, we often shoot hours and hours of footage for our clients. Even though this footage is often captured for a specific use, the content created lasts forever. That’s why it’s important to be able to maximize use of it in order to get a solid return on investment. The extensive video content can be used in a number of ways.
One strategy to consider is breaking up larger content into smaller clips. Instead of a single ten minute video, perhaps you can break it into five 2-minute clips. Or maybe you do both! Breaking up your video content is advantageous in several ways. First, it factors in those short attention spans. Viewers may not even click “play” on a ten-minute video, but watching a video for two minutes on a lunch break feels more reasonable.
Secondly, it keeps the viewers wanting more, especially if you’re able to end a clip with a good cliffhanger. This relates to your storytelling ability, so keep all the potential twists and turns in mind and edit accordingly. Thirdly, you can use still images from video content and post them as pictures. Think about how many images you could pull from hours of footage! Lastly, it will allow you to stretch out the delivery of your video marketing content. If you post a long clip one time, you may not get as much mileage out of it as you would if you broke it up. And remember, for each clip you post, no matter the length, you’ll want to include all pertinent information to your organization or business in order to increase awareness and engagement.
Consider Using Text on Screen
If you haven’t noticed, people are on their phones, computers, or tablets all day long. Sometimes, they might be at work or at home with their remote-working spouse and need to keep their volume down to not get caught. Plus, some people have hearing difficulty or there might be a language barrier to contend with, so be sure to include text on the screen to ensure the message of your content is received. You don’t want the text to distract from the video content, but rather to supplement it. Make the text clear- choose the right color so it does not blend in with the background!
Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)
Calls to action can take several forms, but whatever you decide on, it will help with audience engagement. People like feeling a part of something larger than themselves, so offer them a community to be a part of, even if that community is simply a shared interest or value you’re attempting to spread. In its simplest form, a call to action could just be telling your audience to “like and subscribe.” Often, images are used on screen for this type of CTA, sometimes with a finger pointing to the vicinity of the subscribe button.
CTAs can come at the beginning, middle, or end of the video. Ideally, you will capture the viewer with engaging video content and then present them with a CTA at the end that prompts them to get involved. This could include, but is not limited to: sharing a post, using a particular hashtag, or taking specific action in their communities.
Conclusion
Creating and utilizing social media video marketing tools are an invaluable tool for your organization, school, or business. Video production companies like Tailor Made Media can help you achieve your specific marketing goals, which could include expanding your audience, creating awareness of a cause, advertising an upcoming product launch, or more. It’s important to develop a clear objective in advance. Then, choose an appropriate social media platform for your video content. Consider who your audience is, specifically, and tailor the content for that person. Use a strong thumbnail image, followed by an engaging hook at the start of your video. Tell a story with your video content, even if it’s just informational. Maximize the use of your content by breaking it up into smaller clips and sharing it across multiple platforms. Use text on screen to supplement the images. And finally, include a call-to-action to get your audience involved.
Hopefully, you have found these tips useful. Creating engaging visual content for the purpose of social media video marketing is an important skill to have and now you know the basics to get started.
