Video has been keeping audiences entertained for years. Brands and businesses now use video as a marketing tool to grab consumers attention with 92% of marketers agreeing that it is an important part of their strategy (source). Video allows you to capture the viewer's interests in just a few seconds. Social media video allows you to compress complex topics into easier understandable snippets.
But you want to be making sure you put the right type of video on the right platform. Different platforms have different maximum lengths of video content and different types of video that will suit one platform more than another.
Video on Instagram is available in 5 different formats; reels, Instagram live, Instagram TV (IGTV), stories and in feed posts. All these formats have different length timings and will offer your brand different options on what type of video you can post. However, with every format you want to be making sure the first 3 seconds stop people from scrolling past, you need to be making sure your video hooks the audience from the start otherwise they will not continue watching the rest. You also want to be attaching audio to your video as 60% of people on Instagram watch their stories with their sound on (source).
Instagram stories are maximum of 15 seconds, they then stay on your story for 24 hours then they disappear, these can be videos from your camera roll or taken straight from Instagram. Video options are endless on Instagram story, you can post anything from day in the life snippets to behind the scenes and Q&A style videos. This allows you to interact with your audience and build a more personal relationship with your viewer.
Instagram live is another way to get video out there, this content is similar to story content as it gives people a more personal viewing of who you are and what you are doing. For businesses and brands Instagram live is perfect for hosting workshops and interviews with employees or clients. It allows your consumer to get to know you more on a personal level as this is unscripted footage.
Feed video has a maximum time of 60 seconds, you upload this just like uploading a picture. You can be posting more educational and entertaining videos as these are longer than your normal story posts. You are able to build better branded videos to post straight to the feed, you can reach wider audiences through this technique as they are still short enough to keep audiences attention for the full 60 seconds.
IGTV is another way of posting video content, this content has to be longer than one minute but less than an hour. You are able to post a 15 second snippet to your feed for people to watch a teaser, this will give them enough time to watch enough to find out if they want to continue watching. IGTV is perfect for the more detailed videos, tutorials, how to’s and hauls work perfectly as they are able to grab the viewer's attention and then be made longer.
Reels are a video format that allows you to create 15 second clips, these are mainly fun and creative videos that are engaging to all audiences. This was first launched in 2019 and inspired by Tik Tok as many platforms saw how well Tik Tok was doing. Reels offer many editing tools, including effects and speed control to make the videos you're creating more entertaining. You can choose if you upload your reels onto your feed, but they will also appear in a dedicated section on your profile where everyone can see them. This is similar to IGTV.
Facebook has always been a more visual platform, it first started as a digital look book before it became a social platform for family and friends to share updates and pictures on. Now over 8 billion videos or 100 million hours of videos are watched on Facebook everyday (source).
When posting videos on Facebook you want to be making sure they are square video, square video on Facebook normally outperform the landscape videos with the amount of engagement, views and reach they get. Likewise, you want to be making sure your video is viewable on mobile due to more than half of video consumption being viewed on mobile devices (source).
Facebook offers an upload time of 240 minutes, however you want to be limiting your video to around 90 seconds due to the audience's attention span(source). If you are making your video too long consumers will not want to watch. Like every video the first 3 seconds are the most important, 45% of viewers who watch the first 3 seconds are more likely to go on to watch 30 seconds of the video (source).
Producing a good thumbnail to go along with the videos as well as a quick start is key. Viewers now just want to get to the main point of a video. For your business and brand you want to be mixing up your video content for Facebook. Posting a tutorial then a more educational video will keep engagement as you are offering your customer varied content rather than just stick to one type of video. By experimenting with different content and varying the lengths of the videos will help you find out what appeals more to your Facebook audience as every business will have a viewer.
Twitter has a video limit of 2 minutes 20 seconds, but making shorter, more authentic and engaging video content is important. That is why it is recommended to give the video between 30 to 45 seconds (source). Twitter is a platform that people use to consume short snippets of content, most people scroll through their twitter feed quickly therefore if you're posting a longer video it will be less likely to get views. Video does autoplay, this can boost the videos performance as it will begin playing as soon as it comes up to the viewers feed, they don't have to click to watch.
Video isn't the core to twitter, it is valuable as it will likely get discovered by new audiences which is what you want for your business. However video is 6x more likely to be retweeted than normal tweets and 3x more likely to be retweeted over photos (source) but you need to be making sure these videos are the right kind of videos for twitter. Audiences want to be seeing the latest trends, teaser content and more entertaining videos. This is the type of video that can be kept short and sweet and viewers won't get bored of.
LinkedIn video generates 20x more shares then other types of content on the platform (source), this will help you gain more notice from more professional leaders as LinkedIn has around 8.2 million c level executives on the platform.
LinkedIn limits video to 10 minutes, but like the other platforms you want to be keeping the videos short, especially on LinkedIn as people will be too busy to watch a full 10 minute video if they are just quickly checking their feed. This means you need to consider what viewers will be watching on, 57% of LinkedIn engagements are via mobile devices (source). Therefore, posting high quality content that can be orientated to fit on a smaller screen is extremely important as you want audiences to be able to watch your video on the go.
The type of videos you want to post on LinkedIn are different to other social platforms as you still want to be keeping it professional. Company updates and news videos will always go down well, you can create more meaningful relationships with your clients this way as you are keeping them involved with the life of the company. It can also help spark interests with potential clients as you can showcase awards and milestones of the business that people might find interesting. Behind the scenes videos will work in the same way where you can show what goes on in the background of your business and help your customer understand your team more and who does different roles. It gives more transparency into the business. Question and Answer videos are interesting as well, you can answer customers' questions on topics about the business and give them more insights on what you offer and the team around you. All these video ideas are giving you as a company the opportunity to build a bigger brand loyalty with your customer as you are letting them become part of the company.
Social media video is crucial as it has the potential to transform a business as it is able to reach new audiences and build a trusting relationship quicker. It is important to make sure your content is relatable to your audience as well as your brand as you want to be creating a more emotional connection which offers value. Video is becoming a more powerful tool in the marketing world with 95% of marketers planning to up their invest in video in the future (source).
Want to create some amazing videos to bring your social media to life? Get in touch today to chat and put together a plan!
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