7 Best Tips for Social Media Videos: Create Awesome Content

Are you leveraging marketing tips for social media videos yet? If you are not creating videos, perhaps you should think about it as part of your marketing strategy.

Video is enjoying a meteoric rise, especially live streams, fueled by changing consumer habits, growth in mobile usage, and the unstoppable march of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

According to Brightcove, more than half (53%) of consumers say that they engage with a brand after watching one of their videos on social platforms. For digital-native millennials, meanwhile, the figure jumps to 66%.

Is it really surprising, in light of these statistics, that 88% of marketers say they are satisfied with the ROI on their social media video marketing endeavors?

Using social media platforms is great for connecting with customers and generating brand awareness. But you could greatly increase engagement and click-throughs by adding video to text and image posts.

YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the key social media platforms. However, there were also 1.2 billion daily video views on Twitter in the last 12 months – 2x growth, year on year.

It would suffice to say video is the best-performing content type on social media platforms. So unless you want to be branded “a company from the Dark Ages,” it’s time to start creating dynamic videos and sharing them far and wide.

In this blog post, I’m going to share top tips and tools for creating amazing social media videos.

1. Always Start with a Strategy

Filming videos then posting them to your loyal army of followers is a gratifying experience – providing they inspire likes, shares and comments of course.

However, for the good of your business, it is vital to put a strategy in place before you start recording. After all, you’re running a business. Save the aimless vlogs for your personal account.

Before you create any social media video content, you need to think about your objective for your social media videos – and for your video marketing strategy.

Is it product-led, and therefore purposefully created to increase awareness and shift units?

Are you attempting to stimulate conversation, attract followers, motivate newsletter sign-ups, compel viewers to look at your website, invite competition entrants, promote a discount code?

Evidently, there are many different reasons you might create a video for social media platforms. But as long as you’re clear about what the reason is, you’ll be in a position to evaluate the success of any particular campaign.

Needless to say, you should ensure your video goals align with those of your business, generally.

2. Invest in Basic Equipment

Little wonder so many businesses have made videos for social media the crux of their content strategies.

Think about it: the investment is minimal. Social media videos can be shot using a smartphone camera or webcam. And most social media users don’t expect any kind of grand production.

Instead, they prefer clips that are short and sweet, entertaining but valuable. Many online video makers even contain slick stock footage that you can use, overlaying your logo, website and phone number.

Of course, if you’re intent on blazing a trail and creating a lasting impression, a good portion of your social media video content should be fresh and unavailable elsewhere.

Whilst still cheap, DIY videos necessitate a modest investment in the form of LED lighting, external microphones and tripods.

Although most mobile devices are equipped with a good enough lens for live videos, you might also elect to invest in a professional social media video camera if the budget allows.

3. Make Short Videos

According to a study published by the Technical University of Denmark, the global attention span has narrowed. While we have too many things to focus on, we are able to focus on a specific thing for only a short amount of time.

In an interview with the Guardian, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen of Max Planck Institute for Human Development who participated in the study said, “Content is increasing in volume, which exhausts our attention and our urge for ‘newness’ causes us to collectively switch between topics more regularly.”

When you think about it, the same point applies to videos on social media as well. With people’s attention spans going downhill, you need to make sure your videos are crisp.

Let’s face it  — even if you have the best content, very few people are going to watch your videos if they are 20 minutes long. People just don’t have that kind of time anymore.

People want content that is short, easy-to-consume, and relevant. Your videos don’t need to be long but they need to provide value. Focus on creating content that is engaging.

Ideally, your social media videos should start with a hook that captures your audience’s attention.

Remember the first few seconds of your videos are crucial. If they are not interesting, the audience might just move on to other videos.

Once you have hooked them in, share your message with powerful visuals to keep them engaged. End your social media videos with a strong Call To Action (CTA) and encourage them to comment and like your videos.

Many marketers think a short social media video is a limitation and it can’t handle complex topics. But that’s not true.

One way to handle complex topics is to break them down into smaller bits. You could make a series of videos to explain different aspects of the topic.

The New York Times used this social media video strategy for their reporting on the 2020 Elections. On their YouTube channel, they have 17 short videos covering different aspects of the upcoming elections.

4. Use Templates

Just as there are numerous social media video marketing tools which let you use stock footage, there are also plenty of tools featuring professional templates and themes.

With ready-to-use templates, you can create awesome social media videos that help you stand out from the crowd, whether you’re sharing an explainer video or tutorial, a product presentation or Instagram Stories.

There are literally hundreds of templates. So it pays to browse for a while to find something that accurately reflects the style and tone of your business.

Of course, you can also tweak these templates to achieve the feel you’re after.

Two template-rich tools which have become extremely popular in recent years are Wave.video and Biteable.

Let’s talk about the former first. Wave.video’s templates are numerous, categorized according to industries like business, education, fashion, travel, sports, and art and culture.

You could literally browse for hours, with a range of styles and formats to choose from.

When you’ve found a template you like, just grab it, customize your social media video and instantly share with followers. You can also watermark videos and optimize for over 30 formats with just a few clicks.

Image via Wave.video

Biteable is similarly brilliant, with page after page of templates to which you can add not only videos but also photos and text.

Biteable boasts a huge music library too (or you can upload your own), plus its own dedicated animated social media video software. Nifty.

Image via Biteable

5. Add Subtitles

One of the biggest benefits of social media videos is that they help your content to reach a global audience. That means that even people who don’t understand your language may come across your videos.

Language barriers shouldn’t stop you from sharing your message with them. For your foreign viewers, subtitles or closed captions, can make a huge difference. In addition to this, it can help native viewers as well.

People watch social media videos all the time — while traveling, working, or eating. They aren’t always in an environment where they can watch videos with the sound on.

At such times, subtitles can come in handy. They can watch their social media videos without missing what’s happening.

Another reason why you should add subtitles to your social media videos is that they autoplay on some platforms. When users are scrolling through, Facebook videos start without the audio on autoplay.

So, if you want to capture the attention of your audience, powerful words are necessary in your video marketing.

Another huge reason why you should use subtitles in your social media video content is related to the way videos autoplay on social media. When the social media video is muted, subtitles will help you get your message across.

6. Optimize for Different Channels

Most modern companies are all over social media. A few years ago, you might have focused your social media video marketing efforts on Facebook.

And not even Facebook Live or Facebook videos, just call to action posts and simple influencer marketing tactics.

But to make a splash, now you have to be on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and pretty much any social media network where your audience congregates.

This includes live streams on YouTube, Instagram videos, Facebook videos, and the need to create videos and then upload videos that will reach your target audience.

While this sounds time-intensive, you can re-share the same social media videos across multiple channels very quickly. Just make sure to optimize the video for each unique network.

Quality video editors such as those above helpfully resize your social media content, so you don’t have to worry about that. But sometimes you’re also best to tailor videos to a specific social media channel.

For example, Instagram Stories videos can be anywhere from three to 60 seconds long, with users tending to place greater value on light-hearted content.

GIFs play better on Twitter. Two minutes or less is ideal for Facebook Live, whose users can, on the whole, be more serious.

Although it might be tempting to post a link to the YouTube video, native videos get much higher share and interaction rates. So upload direct from your computer for the best results.

In addition to this, also keep in mind the orientation while clicking the video. Based on the social media platform you want to upload it on, your presentation can differ.

For instance, landscape videos work well on YouTube because their video player is designed for horizontal videos.

On the other hand, square videos work better for Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, and Twitter because those videos are mostly viewed on mobile phones.

7. Measure and Analyze Results

We touched earlier on the importance of strategy for creating videos on social media. But unless you can accurately measure results, how will you know your social media marketing strategy has worked?

When your social media video is edited and uploaded to your channels, your work is not finished. You need to keep an eye on analytics to see how many people are watching, liking, sharing, commenting on your social media video.

Are they viewing the whole social media video? And if not, when do they lose interest?

Perhaps you don’t grab their attention quickly enough. Perhaps you’ve made the mistake of not adding subtitles. Or maybe that heavy-metal soundtrack is a little off-putting for delicate ears.

In order to continually refine your social media marketing strategy, you need to review the analytics. And you need to note which videos get the best results and which fail to hit the mark.

Having identified the social media videos that power your marketing and business goals, you’ll know which ones to emulate.

Vidooly is an especially helpful tool for monitoring video analytics. It provides unified measurement and insight solutions, metrics that quickly convey how well your videos are performing.

Vidooly also assesses millions of online videos on different platforms to show you what works and what doesn’t.

Image via Vidooly

Conclusion

If you’re already creating great videos for your social network, more power to you. If you’re not, what are you waiting for?

Take your digital marketing to the next level, and you’ll maximize your brand in an increasingly crowded space. Start now.

Are there any tips or tools for creating awesome social media videos that you think should be added to this list? Let us know in the comments below.