4 Great Video Marketing Tips for Elevating your Brand on Social

It’s no secret that video marketing has exploded in growth on social in recent years. We see that video is the best performing post type on Facebook, generating 59% more engagement than other post types. Over on Twitter, tweets with video attract 10X more engagements than those without. Despite these statistics, many marketers still fail to use video to its full potential.

Successful video marketing campaigns require more than just posting a video online and hoping your audience will love it. Best practices need to be considered to ensure they hit the right mark. Below we have outlined our top 5 tips for elevating your video strategy on social.

1. Experiment with video types

When incorporating video into your marketing strategy, you first need to determine what video type works best for your brand. If you’re not sure, then experiment and see what your audience responds best to.

Some popular video types include:

– Live video

One of the best ways to engage with your followers in real time is through live video. Facebook, YouTube and now LinkedIn (currently in Beta) offer a live streaming function, allowing you to broadcast directly to your followers. According to Social Media Today, users will watch a live video three times longer than one that is pre-recorded. You should schedule and promote your live streams on your social accounts well in advance. This ensures your target audience is aware of the upcoming stream and that your message gets heard. Live videos are most effectively used for announcements, events, presentations or Q&A sessions.

– Tutorial video

Tutorial videos can be particularly valuable to your followers and are among the most shared video types on social media. A tutorial video could relate to your products/services and provide content that is actionable. Video length is important here as it should be long enough to explain each step, but short enough to keep the viewer engaged.

One of the most valuable aspects to creating tutorial videos is that the social user will often save this type of video, and refer back to it later as a knowledge resource. This heightens the brand appeal and helps the consumer to develop a stronger and longer lasting relationship with the brand online. If you’re not sure what tutorials your audience would be most interested in, then ask them!

– Behind the scenes video

A powerful way to draw your audience in and make your brand feel more personable is by using behind the scenes videos. This can include an inside look at day-to-day operations, interviewing employees or showcasing what goes into creating a brand campaign. Most companies are made up of industry experts with lots of interesting information to share. Interviewing engineers and service staff could be a great way of showcasing the personalities that make up the company and the passion they bring to their jobs. The informal nature of this content will help humanize your company while creating a deeper level of trust and engagement.

2. Make sure your videos are optimised

Creating great video content is just the first step. Next, you need to ensure they are optimised for each social channel. When it comes to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, shorter form content tends to perform better. Upload video directly to the platforms, rather than sharing one standard YouTube link.

Optimise the videos for SEO by carefully selecting your keywords for the video title, description and tags. This will help search engines identify and feature your videos. The video title should catch the viewer’s attention, so keep it short and informative (under 60 characters). In the video description box, add further relevant keywords and a link to your website, but keep this under 70 characters.

Choose a strong video thumbnail that will catch the viewer’s eye and showcase your video in the best possible light. Most social platforms will randomly select a screenshot from your video. However, these can often appear blurry and not feature the best moment in the clip. By creating your own custom thumbnail, you can choose the best screenshot and touch it up with text overlays or editing that better reflects your brand personality.

3. Don’t forget a call-to-action

By the time your viewer reaches the end of your video, they should clearly know what you want them to do. Make sure you provide a clear call to action that prompts them! Maybe you want your target audience to subscribe to your channel, share the video, leave a comment or click on a web link. All this will depend on your specific business objective.

Some key factors to consider:

– Remain brand compliant. Choose CTAs that are within your brand tone.

– Focus on action. Use text such as ‘Get’, ‘Try’, ‘Reserve’ to encourage the social user to take action and follow through with what you are asking them.

– Add a sense of urgency! CTAs like ‘Call us today’ or ‘Download now’ suggest that the consumer should take action now, or risk losing out on an opportunity.

– Avoid jargon. Keep them short and sweet. Overcomplicating CTAs will do you no favours.

– Mix it up. A/B test your call to actions and see what performs best.

4. Analyze your video’s performance.

Once you have created and shared your video content, you’re going to want to measure its performance. This is essential for getting a better insight into the type of video your audience enjoys most and will help dictate future video marketing efforts. Check out the analytics section of each social platform and analyse the key metrics.

Metrics to measure your success include:

– Engagement: Review the engagement rate of your video. What percentage of the video are users watching? By pinpointing where viewers start to drop off, you can determine if the video is too long and needs optimising.

– Video views: How many times was your video watched? Remember that social platforms can measure video views differently. For example, Facebook count views as 3+ seconds, while YouTube video views are 30+ seconds.

– Comments: Which video type is driving the most conversation? What kind of comments are they receiving?

– Shares: How many shares has your video received? When social users re-share content on social, this is a sign that it has really resonated with them.

The truth is, creating video promotions take time and energy. You shouldn’t just include video in your brand’s marketing strategy for the sake of it. Take a step back and see how video aligns with your core objectives. Following best practice and staying up-to-date on social trends, will help ensure you don’t fall behind your competitors. Always remember to test and optimise, test and optimize. This will open up a whole new level of insight and ways for effective engagement with your customers.

Writer bio: As Social Strategist at innovation agency Brandwidth, Colin develops social media strategies for some of the world’s biggest brands. Prior to joining Brandwidth, he worked as a Digital Consultant in New York City. Colin holds a Bachelor of Commerce from U.C.C and a Masters in Marketing Practice from N.U.I.G.