Social media platforms can be highly rewarding yet equally tricky places to leverage. It’s unlike traditional forms of marketing because when you speak to people, they respond right away. Not only that, but your audience’s friends see the interaction and can join in. In essence, your communication is virtually accessible to the whole world, and it’s eager to be part of the conversation.
The potential for your business to grow on social media is limitless. You have immense connectivity, which increases your accountability too. Your marketing on social media needs to be thoughtful and keep your audience’s interests foremost in mind.
In this post, we’ll look at how to improve your video marketing on social media with the intent to boost engagement.
Videos are the best type of content to focus on social media. Here’s what you should know about the effectiveness of video marketing and why it matters, especially on social media platforms.
- Video content is the most popular format on social media. Ninety percent of users watch videos online at least once a month, making this format a priority with marketers.
- Visual social posts are 40x more likely to get social media shares.
- On Twitter, video is a major advertising tool. Twitter video ads are 50% cheaper in cost-per-engagement
- Many brands post an average of 2.5 Stories on Instagram per week, reflecting how popular Stories are with audiences.
- On LinkedIn, video posts are 5x more likely to get comments than those without.
- You don’t have to produce professional-level video content to get results. Overall brand engagement increases by 28% when consumers are exposed to both professional content or user-generated product videos
- 43% of consumers increasingly want video content from marketers
- Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic search results
- 41% of marketers say they will add Facebook video as a distribution tool
There’s no doubt that using video content on social media is impactful. So, how can you leverage videos to get the best results? Here are easy-to-use but effective ways to make your video content count on social media.
Create the Right Type of Video Content
Video content comes in different forms. When building your videos, you need to think about the kind of structure that best serves your audience while conveying important information. Here are some video content types that are popular with audiences:
- How-to videos that show how to carry out a task or accomplish a goal through a series of easy steps
- Product reviews that showcase how a product works as well as its benefits and possible downsides if they exist. The key is to provide ‘real’ and helpful information and not to self promote
- Educational videos that teach users about the industry your tool serves or how to grow their own business. For example, Moz, SEMrush, and Ahrefs all have online courses on how to boost
SEO and social media marketing. This educates their audience on how to use their tools more effectively and increases these brands’ retention rates - User-generated content includes social media posts, YouTube videos, stories, and other videos created by your audience. GoPro frequently features videos shot by its customers using the GoPro camera. This helps a brand connect to customers and show non-branded content that they can share from the internet
When thinking about the kind of content you should create, consider all the factors involved. What are your product and industry about? And what would your customers need or like most? And finally, look at the social media platforms themselves. Content that’s great on Instagram won’t always translate to LinkedIn or even Facebook. With some planning, care, and testing, you should come up with the best video content format for your business and audience.
Host Live Videos
The previous video formats that we looked at can be pre-recorded and shared for long-term viewing. However, for a high degree of engagement that gives you a quick engagement boost, you’ll do well to create live videos.
Live videos are exciting and help you connect to people in real-time. Because there are less structure and no editing, it gives your audience the chance to see the ‘real’ you and your brand. As you engage with your audience in real-time, you can answer questions and give responses right away. People feel see that you’re listening, and they feel like they’re part of the experience. This is why live videos are an incredible way to get social media engagement.
Have an Online Video Contest
Holding an online video contest for your audience achieves several goals at once. You increase the likelihood that your content gets shared, you’ll see a boost in traffic, and you’ll get more user-generated content.
To host successful online video content, you need to have several things in place:
- Learn more about your audience by creating surveys. Find out what your audience’s goals are and how your brand can help them achieve these goals. When you understand your audience well, you’ll be able to take the next steps.
- Choose a prize or a giveaway that will make your audience excited to participate. For example, a company whose audiences follow them for writing tips will appreciate the chance to win a mentorship opportunity with an established writer. In other situations, a cash prize or gift coupons are great prize ideas.
- Build a plan to create anticipation before the actual contest date. You need to start by making an announcement a week, or even month, before the contest. Then follow up with videos, posts, and emails with exciting content reminding them to participate.
- Remember to use a good giveaway plugin to help manage your contest. You’ll be able to create a contest landing page where your users can view submissions instead of getting distracted and moving towards other content on social media. You can also carry out email marketing and CRM activities.
Since smartphones and mobile internet are widely used, you’ll find it easy to get video submissions for a contest. This type of content will increase the likelihood of virality, bringing your brand to the attention of more people.
Back To You
Creating engagement on social media is possible when you think of ways to connect with your audience emotionally. We’ve looked at some helpful tips to do just that. Remember to post content regularly and to keep promoting your videos through social media. The more consistent you are, and the more you respond to people online, the faster you’ll grow your brand.
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