You can’t scroll through Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter anymore without seeing a slew of beautiful, attention-grabbing videos on your feed. Videos have long been a marketing tool for businesses to deliver a visual aid to their audiences. However, the old guard of corporate promotional videos is being replaced by a flashy wave of bite-sized clips. These videos are tailored for the restless attention spans of the social media generation.
It’s not just millennials who are interacting differently with social media videos, but everyone with an email account. Billions of eyes are using these sites and absorbing hours of video each week. Though these users spend 1/3 of their online time watching video, they’re becoming more selective over what they watch.
So, when you’re drafting your next social media video production campaign, you’ll want to make sure your video content wins over your audience’s attention. Here are some basic tips you can follow to make sure your social content campaign not only pops off the screen, but also how that content can drive future relationships with your audience.
In 2015, Microsoft broke the news that human’s average attention span dropped from 12 to 8 seconds since 2000. So what does that mean when trying to attract viewers on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook? Keep it short! And be sure to establish your brand’s presence as early as possible.
Studies show that Instagram and Facebook users were 23% more likely to recall the brand, if mentioned in the first three seconds of the video. While stories have always driven video ads, social media video cuts and edits have reinvented how brands shape their story. Now, it’s the brand that’s put at the front and the story that follows.
There’s no time to waste when it comes to producing effective social media videos, so know that while every second matters, you also don’t want to overload the viewer with information.
Every major social media platform has their own specified audience, with each user visiting the particular site for different reasons. That being said, it’s important to be aware of where your video will be posted and the audiences that it will be reaching.
Let’s start with short videos. Micro-ads have never been bigger. Snapchat and Instagram both feature videos clocking in at 5-15 seconds. While not precisely heavy on information, these ads are vibrant, punchy, and perfect for the young, casual audiences that frequent the social media sites. When flipping at break-neck speeds through their stories, viewers will be best reached by grabbing their attention and introducing your brand and target right off the bat.
Meanwhile, platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn have become video platforms in their own right. Ever since Facebook hit the 8 billion daily video views mark, marketers have taken serious notice on how to optimize their video campaigns for the site. Long form ads (somewhere between 1 and 5 minutes) have become a hit for Facebook’s audience. Whether inspiring, compelling, or downright adorable, these longer social media videos have one thing in common: share-ability. Corporate social media campaigns have redefined what it means to go viral. With longer videos, the traditional rules are out the window and there’s nothing standing between you and an audience of millions.
Social media videos today come in all different formats. Being mindful of how you present your video content can definitely impact how your audience interacts with your messaging. When posting videos to your social pages, you’re likely to be posting in portrait, landscape, square, or vertical. But how do you know which video format goes to which platform?
YouTube, and LinkedIn are the most traditional video platforms, running mostly in landscape and portrait. Though Facebook’s paid ads uses square formatting, the News Feed videos run mostly in landscape and portrait. The key to formatting video is delivering something natural for where it lives. So for YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, 16:9 landscape videos are ideal for viewing from within your NewsFeed.
Instagram and Snapchat; however, are a different story. It’s here that the vertical videos rule. With a 4:5 ratio, vertical videos are taking mobile platforms by storm offering up a natural, vivid format for mobile audiences to watch their content. For paid and natural content alike, vertical videos are optimized for the viewers’ comfort.
As vertical platforms, Instagram stories, IGTV, and Snapchat stories alleviate the minor annoyance of having to rotate your phone in order to watch a video. Not only that, but they also allow you to make the most of the screen space of a mobile device, leading to more eye-catching and informative stories. And with the average 65% of the US adult’s digital usage coming through mobile devices, the vertical format may be just the right way to connect to an audience increasingly on-the-go.
Reaching an audience on social media is one thing. But creating content that will be seen isn’t enough. Visibility is just the first step. From there, you want to build excitement and drive click-throughs.
Linking your webpage to the video source has been a time-proven way to drive audiences to explore your services further. However, new methods such as Instagram Stories are inspiring viewers to take action, while reducing advertising costs in the process. The “swipe up for more” feature has become a seamless way for audiences to interact with social media videos. With a lower runtime and lower CPC (Cost-per-click), stories are reshaping how companies are engaging with their audiences through video. Given these conditions, the teaser video has seen a revival in recent years. A lot can be learned from how these videos trigger a curiosity that leads to further exploration.
Whether producing a new product video, a corporate recruiting video, or a startup video, each should thrive on excitement. Building this excitement, while communicating your core message should be the focus for digital marketers. If you’re doing it right, each video should end with a call-to-action. Commonly, a link to a website, or suggestion of further videos and articles, are popular calls-to-action that ensure that the video is doing its job as a catalyst for further inquiry.
Tailoring video content for social media platforms can seem like a lot to take in at once. With all the specialized formats, and optimized runtimes for each, it’s easy to lose track of your ultimate purpose: spreading the word about your brand.
So when you’re creating storyboards and drafting scripts, you want to keep in mind who your audience will be, but also who you are! Brand consistency matters! Producing video content that illustrates your goals, personality, and what sets you apart will naturally lead to more engaging content.
For more information on how to produce engaging social media videos, contact us today!
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