8 Ways Use Video Content for Social Media

Social media is a powerful way for brands to reach and engage with a large audience. Up to 87% of social media marketers think that consumers will search for brands on social media more often than search engines in 2023, according to HubSpot’s 2023 Social Media Marketing Report. In fact, most businesses are already active on multiple social media platforms. Building your marketing strategy on social channels your target audience uses is important to leverage the power of social media marketing. Likewise, creating engaging social media content is crucial. Video has emerged as a valuable tool for brands to build a strong online presence on popular channels like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok. However, to succeed, you need to know how to harness its power on social media. Media transcription services are available to support your video marketing efforts.

Let’s first dive into the benefits of using video on social media.

Benefits of Video Marketing on Social Media

With the rapid growth of social media and video-sharing platforms as well as smartphone use, both big and small businesses can benefit by creating and sharing high-quality videos. Video marketing on social media comes with many benefits:

• Increased engagement: Engaging videos can capture the attention of social media users quickly and more effectively than text or images. Viewers can share, like, and comment on videos, which can boost your engagement rate and social media following.
• Greater reach: As social media channels usually prioritize video content, it will be viewed by a larger audience. When users shared your videos across different platforms, it will increase your reach and brand exposure.
• Enhanced brand awareness: Video allows you to showcase your brand personality, values, and story in a more convincing way. With the right approach, you can build a strong brand identity and increase awareness among your target audience.
• Improved SEO: Videos are more likely to be ranked higher in search results. This can improve your search engine optimization (SEO), enhance your online visibility, and drive more traffic to your website.
• Improved audience retention: Engaging videos have to power to hold viewers’ attention for longer periods of time, compared to other forms of content. They can increase audience retention, leading to increased brand loyalty and customer retention. Videos that tell stories also have the ability to evoke emotions and can help you build a strong emotional connect with your audience.
• Higher conversions: Videos that showcase your products or services, explain how they work, and demonstrate their benefits can drive conversion rates and sales.
• Competitive advantage: Creating high-quality, engaging videos to connect with your audience can give a competitive edge and help you stand out from the competition.

Many brands have launched hugely successful social media video campaigns. Take Red Bull, the most shared video brand of 2016. Their 2012 adventurous space diving project had over 9.5 million live users. Their Red Bull Best of 2017 video is a great introduction to a new year full of outdoor activities and tells viewers to prepare themselves for an exciting 2018 with Red Bull.

Dove’s Choose Beautiful is another successful video campaign. It challenged the stereotypical canons of Beauty and urged women to improve their self-confidence. With its message of female empowerment, this emotional video tied marketing to a larger mission to cultivate a loyal following.

Alibaba, the multinational ecommerce platform based in China, is another example of creative marketing. Their To the Greatness of Small video uses sports to draw links between the company’s work with small businesses, showing how powerful small can be with the right support.

These examples show that to leverage the power of video for social media and drive business success, you need to use it effectively.

How to Use Video to improve your Social Media Marketing

Here are 8 key considerations when using video for your social media marketing campaign:

• Determine the optimal video length: Before you create your video, you should know the maximum video lengths allowed on various platforms. While the maximum video duration allowed on Facebook is 120 minutes, on Twitter, it’s recommended to keep videos under 30 seconds. Instagram, and Snapchat also have their limits on video length. Take care not to exceed the maximum time limit. When determining the ideal video duration for your audience, it’s important to consider the type of video you’re sharing. Experimenting with different lengths can help you identify what resonates best with your viewers. If you need to share longer content, you can post a link to a YouTube video on most platforms, except for Instagram, which only allows links in ad campaigns. This way, you can still engage your audience without violating platform guidelines.

• Include subtitles and transcripts: Social media enables connections with users you may not interact with otherwise, and inclusive brands tend to achieve better results. Adding subtitles and transcripts to your videos will allow users to watch them on mobile devices, even when they can’t or prefer not to play the sound, such as in a waiting room or on a plane. Text content also ensures that individuals who are hearing-impaired can access all the information. Adding subtitles to your videos is a simple process that can be done using various video editing tools on your computer. For Facebook videos, you can upload SRT files along with your video to include subtitles. An audio transcription company can also provide you with clear and accurate captions, subtitles, and transcripts to reach your audience.

• Post how-to videos: How-to videos are a great option to promote your product without putting pressure on potential buyers. For instance, a how-to video for home gym equipment can help users start their fitness journey by walk them through the process of setting up their gym equipment. Ensure easy-to-follow explanations on everything from unboxing and organizing, assembly and attachment of exercise modules to adjustments and customization, safety checks and testing, and installation and setup.

• Evoke emotion: Videos are especially effective in maximizing the emotional impact of your content. Videos that appeal to emotions can drive people to take action and are more likely to resonate and stick with them, increasing the chances of them responding to your call to action. By conveying voice inflections, facial expressions, and other visual cues, videos can create a sense of authenticity and liveliness that other types of media may lack. Videos have the ability to deliver a significant emotional impact in a remarkably short time frame, making them a powerful tool to connect your audience.

• Incorporate video content into blogs: Incorporating optimized video content into social media blogs can be a great way to enhance the overall engagement with your content. Create video content complements and enhances the written content. The video could be a tutorial, a product demonstration, an interview, or any other type of video that adds value to your blog post. Write a clear and concise script, focusing on the key points you want to cover in your video. Then shoot the video and embed it in your blog post. Don’t forget to explain why you are including the video and how it relates to your blog content.

• Ensure good sound quality: While subtitles and transcripts add value for users who watch video without sound, having high-quality sound is crucial for viewers who watch your media with sound enabled. Inconsistent sound levels or distracting background noise can significantly impact the credibility of your video and brand and lead to users losing interest. To optimize sound quality, pay attention to your video footage and minimize background noise as much as possible. It’s essential to check the sound quality beforehand if you’re planning to go live on platforms like Facebook.

• Optimize for search: Optimizing your social media videos for search engines is crucial for increasing your online visibility and helping relevant users find them. Although the text within your videos may not be searchable, the headlines, descriptions and transcripts you use when posting your videos can be. Incorporating keywords or key phrases in your video descriptions can help users find your content across all platforms. Additionally, using relevant hashtags on platforms like Twitter and Instagram can boost your search results.

• Monitor social media video engagement: Tracking social media video engagement, views, and clicks can provide valuable insights and data-driven feedback that can help you optimize your video strategy, measure performance, and drive better results from your social media video efforts. By tracking these metrics, you can benchmark and compare your social media video performance over time or against your competitors. This will allow you to areas for improvement, and use the data to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition.

It’s clear that using video content effectively can take your social media marketing campaign to the next level. A reliable video and audio transcription service provider can support your marketing efforts by ensuring clear and accurate transcripts for your social media videos. Video transcripts improve accessibility to the content, enhance SEO, and drive better engagement. Incorporating transcripts into your video content can enhance the overall user experience and help you reach a wider audience on social media platforms.