Social Media Video Content: How To Create And Promote

Builds Brand Awareness

Written content like your blog posts are an essential part of your marketing strategy, but they only appeal to a defined subset of the audience.

Even though you share your written blogs across social media platforms, only snippets from these blogs can make great tweets and teasers for Facebook posts.

But video content is more interchangeable throughout all platforms. A video from YouTube can be watched by an audience who has never watched YouTube in their lives. It can easily be embedded in your webpage, social media posts, and can also be easily shared.

Not only easy to share but also easy to consume

If you have ever searched for a “how-to” tutorial, you would have likely found the video content easier to follow than texts. You can appeal to even some specific segments of the audience who wouldn’t relate to your brand otherwise. When you tap into those who are averse to reading but not watching, they can create an awareness of your brand to a group you weren’t previously reaching.

Video also appeals to different learning styles and content preferences of your diverse audience. This has made a 54% increase in brand awareness.

Can boost conversion rate

No matter how much you put in for your writing, it’s a different experience than watching you speak and present the same content in words and ideas.

Humans are visual creatures, so watching a video is like having a friendly conversation. Visual cues and the nuances have the ability to boost your trustworthiness and help your viewers relate to you.

This means an increase in the conversion rate. A video is more personal than text. Your would-be customers get a glimpse of who you are, and they put a face to your brand. It becomes easier for your audience to relate to you. This also increases their trust level, which can make them convert into a lead or sales.

Helps in boosting organic SEO

You might think otherwise, but creating and sharing video content has a positive impact on your SEO. Search engines like Google assume that your content is more relevant only when you have embedded video content onto your website. In fact, it increases your chances by 53 times to show up first on Google if your website makes effective use of embedded video.

How often have you been sent a link to a funny video which has driven you into the creator’s website for more?

Videos also tend to boost organic SEO because it has the capability to increase time-on-site, which is a proven factor that affects Google Ranking.

Steps to create engaging social media videos

You might think creating a video can be more challenging than coming up with a blog post or designing an image. The very first step is to brainstorm ideas for your social media videos.

Here are the easy ways to generate ideas

A glance at your top blog post

If you have a blog post, you are sure to have a treasure trove of content ideas on your blog. The blog posts that can resonate with your audience is probably the great content for your videos. To find your top blog post, you can use the help of Google analytics.

Study the most shared content

Most of the time, your top blog posts are the most shared ones. Group the blogs according to the most shares, likes, and comments on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms in which you are creating the posts.

Check out similar videos from popular brands

Look around social media to see what brands are popular at the moment. With Facebook’s pages to watch option, you can check out the top post from your favorite page or similar page. To access your pages to watch, go to your Facebook Page>Insights.

You can find a section on the bottom of the Overview tab. When you click on these pages, you will see the top posts of the week. The post should give some content ideas for your videos. It will be awesome to keep an eye for the video posts.

For Twitter, you can use tools like Social Bearing to find top tweets from similar accounts like you. For Instagram, you could pick from your brainstormed ideas and pick one to work on.

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Plan

Two ways to plan for a video is either you can write a script or create a storyboard. Both will encourage you to think through the entire process and important aspects of the video. A storyboard also lets you visualize how handy it will be for the next step- recording.

To get you done with planning, here are some tips for creating for creative, effective, and engaging videos:

Capture your audience’s attention

Videos automatically play on most social media platforms. Your aim is to capture the attention in the first few seconds of your video. You have a higher chance of stopping a viewer while he/she scrolls through her newsfeed. Facebook recommends you start with the most captivating element and bring over your brand’s message at the earlier time.

Keep your message simple

Facebook also recommends you ask yourself, “ what is the important message you want to deliver in this video?”

Design your video for mute mode

Facebook, in its research, found that people are more stuck to mobile videos everywhere, be it home, office, or while they commute. Often they would want the sound, and that’s the main reason mobile videos play without audio. According to Digiday, 85 percent of Facebook videos are played without sound. You can add a caption and text to narrate your story.

Play with size

Since more than 50 percent of videos are played on mobile, and the square and vertical videos take more space, it is necessary to create your video in these dimensions rather than the landscape one where the phone needs to be rotated. Square videos outperformed the landscape ones on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in terms of average views and engagement.

Record

Here comes the fun part- Recording!!

Thanks to the technological advancements (Yay to smartphones), you can create engaging, high-quality videos with just a few easy tricks. Here are some cool suggestions:

Do it with your smartphone

Forget investing in expensive equipment when your mobile can do the work for you. It is one of the most powerful video tools which is in your pockets. Most of the smartphones today can record high-quality videos with audio, and also, there are many video editing tools available to make your process easier.

Make your phone steady with a tripod

A stable video is what looks professional. Affordable tripods are available on Amazon and will cost you nothing more than $11 to $13

Position your microphone

Find quiet places to record your video. To improve the audio quality, get a lavalier microphone, which is available for just $20. All you need to do is plug it in your phone and hit the recording button.

Search for good lighting

Natural light is the best source to record videos. If that’s not possible, take help from lamps. When you are recording your video, be sure to face the light so that your face gets visible.

Find or create your video background

Background plays an important role, so it’s necessary to find a background for your video to be watchable. A simple solid colored background is a great option that encourages your viewers to focus on you and prevent them from being distracted from things happening in the background. If you can’t find an apt background, get a large foam, and place it behind you.

Edit

Now that you have learnt to record your video clips, it’s time to put them together. Here are a few easy peasy editing tools that you will also love to use.

For creating videos like slideshows, it’s great to use Animoto. It lets you easily combine video clips, stock videos, photos, etc. to make engaging short video clips. Music also can be added with few clicks.

Quik by GoPro

If you are a person who would like to edit on the go, then you could try Quik by GoPro. You can pick your videos and photos, Quik automatically finds the highlights, adds effects, and syncs your transition with music. You can then customize the video however you want.

Legend

With Legend for IOS and Android, you can turn your simple text into creative animations. These animations are a great addition to your videos as a transition between two video clips.

Also, it’s absolutely important to be mindful of the copyrights and royalties of the video clips and music you use for your videos. So, it’s best to refer to the licenses and copyrights document before using them for your videos.

Share

And finally, you are ready to share your video.

There are many ways to share your videos on social media platforms. You could use softwares like Hootsuite, where you can schedule or post different videos to each social media platform. All can be done at once, from a single place. Also, your videos will be uploaded directly to your social media channels.

You can select the social media profiles you want to share the video and update the copy and upload the video. You can add them to the queue. All your videos will be posted to your respective social profile queues and shared at selected times.

The process can seem simple, but there are also some psychological hacks to remember while creating engaging videos for your social media:

Facebook has the ability to boost a video’s organic reach if it deeply engages its viewers, so your video needs to entertain our audience from beginning to end. If it doesn’t mesmerize the audience, Facebook can squash the organic distribution.

To increase engagement with the audience, you can implement these psychology-based hacks throughout the video. Let’s look at them and have some takeaways.

Spark the curiosity

The theory by George Loewenstein, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, states that to figure out the knowledge gap between what you know and what you want to know compels your audience to take the like clicking on a story.

A simple headline like “entrepreneurship is back” is thought-provoking. This can trigger a lot of questions on your audience like “Was entrepreneurship gone?”, “what does it look like now?” and how can I be an entrepreneur today?” which increases their odds of clicking on the video.

By stimulating a sense of curiosity, we can successfully create a gap between what the reader already knows and what they want to learn.

Keep your audience hooked

When Facebook researched to analyze their audience’s video consumption data back in 2016, they found that 45% of people who watch the first 3 seconds tend to watch the video for at least 30 seconds.

This made us realize that it is not just enough to capture your audience’s curiosity but to engage them. We need to engage them in the first 3 seconds. The human’s attention span is not enough to be entertained by some sluggish content.

But what engages people, though? According to Buffer, a compelling video hook that visually captivates the viewers, hooks are so important to grab the viewer’s attention and generate a sense of interest in the video.

Make it visually appealing

As babies, we always relied on the vision to associate objects with behaviors, like when we were shown a ball, it means playtime. The vision was one great way to learn about the world. That’s the reason we can understand visual content in 250 milliseconds ( which is almost two times faster than the blink of an eye) and why your visual system activates over 50 percent of your brain.

Watching something is also the best way to learn. Visual storytelling was a great way to easily grasp concepts and data, complement your video’s texts and narration with dynamic graphics and popular movie scenes, and footage of real people.

Narrate a story

When you are listening to someone tell a story, they get to plant their personal experiences and ideas directly into you. You also start to feel what they feel.

Powerful stories also have the power to evoke empathy because they are the active parts of the brain that would operate if you experienced the stories’ events.

For example, if someone describes eating mac and cheese, your sensory cortex automatically lights up. Or when someone describes their first touchdown, your sensory cortex context automatically enlivens.

By using our memories to recreate a story, we turn those events into our own ideas and experience. When we weave the facts into a narrative, viewers could place themselves. This also makes them relate to it and impact their potentials based on the subject.

Inspire your audience

According to Psychology Today, preferring a brand is largely an emotional decision. Humans associate the same traits with brands as they do with people.

Choosing your favorite brand can be like choosing your best friend since we only spend time with those friends who make us feel good. We also engage with brands that can make us feel good. If you want your videos to resonate among your audience, they need to kindle some warm feelings. The most common emotions are happiness, hope, and excitement that can drive your content viral.

Make it sound credible

Trust is like the pivotal thing in the current marketing world. If your viewers don’t trust you, they won’t take time to view your content as well. So by stamping your brand on the video doesn’t automatically validate your points.

Popular types of video content for social media

One of the most challenging points of creating a video for social media is knowing what type of video content is effective. Another one is how do we go about it assuming we can handle the technicalities involved.

These are six proven yet effective types of video content:

Live Video

Live streaming is a growing means of producing video content. It’s fun, interactive, and often “raw,” giving viewers an inside look of your business or brand.

Nearly all Social media platforms have implemented the means to produce live videos: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and the list goes on and on.

According to a study, 80% of people would watch a live video rather than reading a blog. But what kind of content can lead to live videos:

Usually, webinars, seminars, Q and A, tours, and sneak peeks offer a chance to make a live video.

Some tips and tricks to create an engaging live video

Facebook offers a set of tips and tricks for creating a live video which are applicable across all platforms:

• Inform your audience ahead of time on when you will go live
• Go live only when you have a strong internet connection
• Write an informative and catchy description of what your live will be about
• Ask your viewers to subscribe to your stream or turn on broadcast notifications
• Interact with your audience
• Go live for a longer time period
• Wrap it up with definitive close
• Go live often and mix up broadcasts

Tutorials

Have you ever tried a dish with a written or printed recipe? It’s most likely for your instructions to get stained or lost. Also, it’s a hassle to track each stem while mixing the ingredients and remembering the timing. Compare that to a video tutorial that does not tell you the recipe but give you a step by step procedure.

This is online tutorials for everything from baking a cake to removing a car engine. They are one of the most effective ways of making video content. Videos also can create great value for your readers by capitalizing on the industry and expertise.

Tips for creating tutorial videos

• Prepare a video script and practice your presentation
• Identify its purpose and stick to it
• Be genuine and convey your personality.

A wonderfully made tutorial can be an evergreen content that viewers can watch and re-watch repeatedly. Even after someone has consumed the content to solve their issue, they are easily shared among the viewers’ network.

Clips from behind the scenes

Being humans, we know how curiosity can drive us sometimes. We would love to know how things work, including what our favorite brands do. Behind the scene, video content is an ideal way to show your audience what goes on behind the scenes, of course. In this kind of content, you pull back the curtain and show your audience the team behind your product or service, and exactly how much work can go into producing something of high quality.

Creating a behind the scenes video is the perfect way to humanize your company by showing off your company’s culture, creative process, bloopers and highlighting the personalities that make your brand.

Steps to create behind the scenes videos

• Put the spotlight on your customers, which could create a human connection.
• Give your audience a look at the brand’ unique history and traditions
• Showcase your products or service and use this chance to get feedback and ideas
• Create a teaser for a new product or service launch
• Allocate a specific social media channel to an exclusive behind the scenes content

Explainer Videos

What is the use of your product/ service? What pain points would it solve for your audience? How could it help them, and why should they invest hard-earned money in exchange for it?

An explainer video can be a short video for you to describe your brand, your product/ service. It’s also a way to connect with your audience and give them an idea of what you do.

Tips for creating an explainer video

The easiest way to create a useful explainer video is by explaining your product or service simply and succinctly. The ideal length for an explainer video can be anywhere from 60 seconds to 90 seconds. So, focus on bringing up your key message within that short while.

Like a tutorial video, compile the script beforehand. Also, bear in mind to have just 150 words per minute for the explainer video. Keep the script short and crisp. Identify all the problems your users face, how your product or service can solve that problem, how it functions, and end with a call to action.

Q&A

They provide an opportunity to quickly address and answer the questions of your clients. It’s an excellent way to build your credibility, also while serving a genuine purpose.

Tips for creating Q&A

Q&A videos give you an opportunity to create informative video content related to your brand. Start off with a series of videos that answer your customers’ most frequently asked questions. Keep your audience engaged via social media and hold some scheduled Q&A events in which your audience can ask questions that are answered by your brand in a video format.

This is a great way to show your audience that your brand cares while simultaneously interacting with the audience you hope will buy or use your products/services.

Event Videos

Attending an event has become like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow when it comes to creating video content. There is so much happening in an event. So, it’s important to get your audience’s focus on your brand. A well-curated event video doesn’t need to market any product. However, if you can come up with a video that highlights the best part of an event can convey a lot of information about your business, product, and culture. It should be done well in a unique way that it cannot be conveyed through any other business videos.

Consider these questions while creating an event video

• What takeaways can they expect from showing up to your event?
• Does it give any good way to grow their network or learn the industry secrets and tips?
• How will whatever you are providing at the event help your audience
• Can meeting you or your staff have any significant value to your audience?

Conclusion:

If you create engaging videos for your social media, it will definitely strengthen your social media marketing strategy. But you always do not need some professional studio to produce videos that can impress your audience. Often, all you need is a smartphone to get your job done.

Most of all, remain absolutely genuine, focus on giving your audience a video content that will be useful, and use the growing social media support for promoting your video.

When it is incorporated effectively, an engaging video can increase your brand awareness, build a better connection with your customers, and easily convert them into sales and leads. Check out All Time Design works for more inspiration.

So what are you waiting for? Go on! Start filming.