There are two things that a lot of content marketing strategy is leaning towards to talk to consumers at the moment – video and social media. So with this in mind we thought we’d look at combining the two to get the best out of your content marketing strategy with a social media video and the different ways to make it.
When it comes to your social media video length, it will often depend on platform you are posting on. Different platforms have contrasting recommendations and rules for the length of a video. As a general guide, these are maximum video lengths on some social media channels:
The general consensus though is shorter is better. Think about how users browse through each platform, if they are scrolling through a timeline you won’t have a lot of time to catch their attention, engage with them and keep them with you.
Think about what the purpose of your video is. If you’ve created a video that your viewer or target audience has watched then you’ll want them to act on it. Depending on your marketing objectives this could be a range of actions but using a call to action explicitly tells them and directs them to what you want them to do. Some of the most obvious ones are:
Placing the call to action at the end of the video is standard practice and is a good way to close your video but there’s no reason why you can’t be more explicit during the video. Placing a caption throughout the video or the voiceover asking for what you want to do is another explicit way of getting the viewer to do what you want.
One of the main goals in social media marketing is to deliver relevant content to your audience. Whether its through a live streaming platform or simply uploading a pre-recorded video, social media allows you to be on trend with whats happening in the social media universe. If there is a trending topic that is relevant to your business you can create a social media video to piggy back onto that trend. Social media marketing is all about the here and now and delivering relevant content to your audience and a social media video If there’s a relevant trending topic or hashtag, adding a video with your voice to the conversation can result in big view numbers and engagement.
There’s nothing worse than trying to cram everything about your business in one video. The viewer is often left confused and bored and has no idea what you’re trying to say. Keep your communication to one key message and leave the viewer in doubt about what you are saying to them. If you have more than one key message then make more than one video. Audiences on social media tend to be time poor, they are scrolling through messages quickly so don’t antagonise them with a long, complicated social media video.
Answering questions that your followers have sent to you offers instant value to them. They are getting a personal response to their individual issues which makes them feel valued. Doing this through an ordinary post is great but responding with a video can be fantastic and takes corporate video production to another level. Its bespoke, personalised shows them how much they mean to you – after all, you’re providing content and information you know they want.
So with the many different social media platforms available, corporate video production doesn’t always have to be made in the image of what has become the traditional idea of a marketing video. You can personalise a video, make it current and relevant and draw the viewer in with opening credits that really engage. Also think about the thumbnail that you use to represent your video – make it obvious and interesting to draw the viewer’s eye.
The most important thing of all though is to think about the viewer. Create social media video that your viewer wants to watch and engage with. Don’t just think that you’re creating a promotional video that you want to use to get your messages out there because if its not relevant, interesting or giving information that your audience can relate to then its a corporate video production that nobody will watch.
