Social media platforms are excellent tools that your business can utilise to achieve maximum results for your video marketing strategy.
When it comes to video marketing, it is now no longer an effective marketing method to just publish your video on YouTube and add it to your website. If your business is not utilising social media platforms as an avenue for video marketing, then you are missing out on an opportunity for more reach and shares.
Although these platforms are perfect for video marketing, each social media platform has been designed to serve a different purpose. Therefore, when it comes to using the platforms for video, there are different types of videos that are more suited to each platform.
In this blog we have decided to look at each social media platform available and discuss the best practices for using video on each.
Facebook:
Have you noticed more videos appearing in your Facebook news feed?
The features that Facebook offer make this platform excellent for video. One example of this would be the autoplay feature, which makes videos play automatically in the timeline whilst the user is scrolling through. This feature helps to make video more eye-catching than a regular post.
One other reason why Facebook is great for video marketing is that it is a very flexible when it comes to video. Facebook does not have short time limits like other social platforms and the platform has a diverse audience, which means that a wide range of different videos will perform well on this platform.
When uploading video to Facebook, the video needs to be under 45 minutes long and the file size needs to be less than 1.75GB.
At One Minute Wonders, we always advocate that short videos are extremely effective, therefore as a business, you should never need to upload a video that is anywhere close to 45 minutes long. Instead, we believe that videos that are no more than a few minutes long are perfect for this platform. This allows you enough time to engage the viewer, provide them with the information they need, without running the risk of losing their interest.
When creating videos for Facebook, it is also important to consider the content. Facebook users are known to share videos that they find emotionally engaging (whether this emotion be sad, happy or funny).
Videos that provide the user with the solution to their issues are also known to perform extremely well on this platform, such as tutorial videos.
The final advice we would give in terms of best practice for using video on this platform would be the use of captions and subtitles. In our previous blog Video Marketing : The Do’s and Don’ts we discussed the ‘Silent Revolution’. The autoplay feature of Facebook makes having subtitles on your video vital, to help ensure you are engaging the viewer and informing them, without them having to click into the video.
Twitter:
Twitter is a platform that is known for brief posts – the short character limit on this platform helps to achieve this brevity.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the type of videos that perform well on this platform are short and sweet videos. Unlike Facebook, videos that you wish to upload to Twitter must be under 2 minutes 20 seconds long, and they must also be MP4 with ACC audio, with a file size under 512MB.
The other thing that the platform is best known for is hashtags. These hashtags help spread information on Twitter quickly and organise information. Through using hashtags on the post you share your video with, you can easily expand the reach of your video, from just your followers to potentially all of the users who are searching for and using that same hashtag.
The hashtag feature of Twitter makes it easy for users to see what is trending in the world and breaking news, which is why videos that share brief snippets of valuable information also perform extremely well on this platform.
As well as short videos, videos about or of events are also effective. These types of videos provide the user with a behind-the-scene look into your event, which helps to give the content an ‘exclusive’ feel, making it engaging and appealing for the viewer.
Instagram:
Despite Instagram originally becoming well known as an image-sharing platform, video does perform extremely well on this platform.
Instagram offers two places where your business can upload videos; in the ‘stories’ and in the app’s normal feed.
Videos that you wish to upload to your Instagram story need to be under 15 seconds, as this feature of the platform is designed to mimic Snapchat-styled content – short and sweet videos. On the other hand, videos that you wish to upload to the normal feed must be under 60 seconds long and with a file size under 1GB.
The type of videos that work well on this platform are similar to those that perform well on Twitter; short, informative videos that discuss breaking news or provide a behind-the-scenes look into events. The other types of video that also perform well are similar to those that work well on Facebook; emotion evoking videos and tutorial videos.
As with Twitter, the features that Instagram offer also include hashtags. Through including hashtags in the content when uploading your video, you can increase the potential reach of your video by a staggering percentage. We advise that you use a number of hashtags when uploading your video to Instagram, as it has been found that there’s a direct correlation between the number of hashtags used and the engagement that content receives.
With each social media platform offering different user experiences, it is vital that your business is tailoring your videos to best suit each platform, to achieve maximum results.