Video marketing is now a major feature of almost every social media and professional networking platform. In this post, I’ll look at some of the compelling reasons why your business should use video as part of its social media marketing strategy.
Very few people will have failed to notice the growth in online video over recent years. This article from Smart Insights gives you an idea of just how important video has become.
The reality is that most businesses will be using video marketing in the future if they’re not doing so already. In addition, most of that video marketing will take place on social media platforms and on professional networks like LinkedIn.
For anyone still having doubts, let’s take a look at why:
Video has a higher profile and more exposure than other social media content.
Most social media and professional networking platforms now prioritise video over other content. They do this because, typically, video holds the attention of visitors longer than other content.
Holding our attention increases the chance of further engagement, such as click-throughs or shares. These are pretty much the bread and butter of online marketing. Twitter estimates that marketing videos enjoy as much as ten times the engagement of other types of advertising.
It’s a small wonder that social media and networking platforms are keen to exploit the power of video. Intense promotion of Facebook Stories and its sister company’s Instagram Reels certainly bears this out.
Video is everywhere.
A 2018 study, cited on HubSpot indicated that video was fast becoming the content type of choice. Video has grown in importance even more since then, helped in no small part by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Developments in technology mean that we don’t just consume video, we now communicate with video on an everyday basis. We now have video firmly embedded in our minds as a natural channel for conversation, thanks to the growth of services like Zoom. Little wonder that we now expect marketers to reach us in the same way.
Social media audiences now expect high-quality, engaging video marketing content from all kinds of businesses. If your social media marketing strategy doesn’t include a serious video element, you’re definitely missing a trick
Social media marketing videos can give an excellent return on investment.
Video can have a much longer shelf life than other forms of media, as well as enjoying more first-hand engagement. Because social media videos tend to create more interest in the first place, they are much more likely to continue propagating long after they’re first posted.
When we post a marketing video on a social media platform like Facebook, for example, it might continue getting shared for weeks afterward. In addition, users will continue to find it via hashtags. The longer content remains circulating in a particular social media ecosystem, the more engagement it enjoys. Engagement begets engagement, and so on.
Social media video content is also easy to repurpose across platforms, via web searches, and even as part of your direct marketing strategy. We can use video content in all sorts of ways, particularly if we shoot it with a range of platforms and distribution models in mind,
We should, for example, plan our video shoots for both landscape and portrait or vertical aspect ratios to fully exploit a range of platforms. Landscape video is suited to video hosting services like YouTube and it’s also a staple of most websites and social media. However, portrait or vertical video is good for platforms that focus on mobile, like TikTok, and Instagram.
You should also consider different length versions for different uses and audiences. For example, a three-minute video might be perfect for YouTube, but you’ll need a shorter, boiled-down version for a Facebook Story.
Video appeals to Millennials and Generation Z!
If we’re aiming our products or services at those under the age of 40, we need to pay attention to video!
The lives of Generation Z are almost completely intertwined with the online world. Meanwhile, those who came of age in the late 90s and early 00s aren’t far behind. In addition, this latter group is the most economically active demographic in the UK (source ONS).
For the vast majority of people in these groups, video is the preferred medium for taking in information, entertainment, and knowledge. In fact, according to this article from HubSpot, around half of Millennials and Gen Z ‘don’t know how they’d get through life without video’.
Video can be a very human way to talk to your audience.
We’re more interested in the people behind the products and services we consume, more than ever before. The theatrical Apple Events are a prime example of making people stars of the show, alongside products. Apple was one of the early tech companies to realise the power of personality when selling otherwise soulless machines.
In an online world, where authenticity and provenance are often suspect, giving your offer a human face can be crucial to success. Video lends itself to showing the personality behind your products. It can give the audience someone to relate to, as well as something! While you can achieve this with still photos, to some degree, video can show a fully living, breathing, speaking being.
Video is an extremely potent medium for marketing on social media!
As well as the power to humanise a product, a video can add huge amounts of contextual information. For example, we can show the cycle of a product in use, or a service being provided. We can show intricate detail as well as broader context. We can add graphics, and text to provide additional visual information.
At the same time, we can reinforce what is onscreen with voiceovers, sound effects, or music. We can build our videos around stories to promote even higher levels of emotional engagement for our audience. In addition, we can add calls to action, contact information, and other signposts to our social media marketing videos.
We are often told that a picture is worth a thousand words. That being the case, a video is worth countless words!
Social media video marketing: conclusion
Video has definitely come of age as a vehicle for marketing and the possibilities for creative, standout audience engagement are almost endless. The explosion of social media also means that getting your marketing videos out there is a matter of a few clicks.
Some of you may have the know-how and resources to produce high-quality social media marketing videos yourself. However, many will find the prospect rather daunting. The good news is that professional video production services are now more accessible than ever. You don’t have to spend a fortune to create engaging social media marketing videos, but the money you spend will be a sound investment.
Stourbridge-based Mooma Media offers event audio-visual support, event filming, live-streaming, video production, and still photography services to businesses, the public sector, and other non-commercial organisations throughout the Black Country and the wider West Midlands region. To discuss your project, or for a competitive quote click the button below.
Video production for social media video marketing, in and around:
West Midlands county: Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, West Bromwich, Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton.
Staffordshire: Lichfield, Tamworth, Stafford, Cannock,Burton upon Trent.
Shropshire: Telford, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Kidderminster, Ludlow.
Worcestershire: Bromsgrove, Reditch, Droitwich, Worcester,
Warwickshire: Warwick, Stratford upon Avon, Leamington Spa, Coventry, Nuneaton,
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