Promoting Through Video on Social Media

For the purpose of online marketing, we know to write out a well structured social media post that would include an eye-popping image in order to grab the attention of our followers/visitors. But a lot of people tend to overlook the current, most popular and engaging way to promote your brand, and that’s Promoting Through Video On Social Media.

Promoting through video may be a brand tactic used for years, but generally it is something that is quite new to a lot of people who have been accustomed to basic social media posts, print marketing and other types of advertising/promoting. Video promotion is a new way to change up the theme of your brand and stand out from the crowd. You have the opportunity to give your viewers a visual experience, where they can tune in and watch your promotion, allowing for a much bigger possibility of engagement.

But by promoting through video, there’s a few things you need to consider that may be new to you or come off as being “a little more involved” vs a regular social media post:

Use a call to action in your video

Like paid ads for instance, you need to make sure you plug your call to action (CTA) in your video. However, by promoting through video, it very much matters WHERE you plug your CTA. Yes of course it’s important to have your video end with where your viewers need to go. For example to “learn more” or “sign up for an event”. But in addition to that, it’s also important to plug your CTA at the beginning of the video as well. Make sure your CTA button stands out at the beginning AND end of your video.

Pay close attention to the length of your video

One of the most important things to consider is, no matter the time length of your video, a good portion of people out there are only going to give your video a certain amount of time until they venture off to somewhere else. Today, it’s all about grabbing someone’s attention in those first few seconds in order to hook them into continuing with your video. It’s recommended for the best results, to keep your videos under three minutes, (or for an even better engagement and retention rate, under 90 seconds). But if you can’t produce the most important information in under three minutes, the second best time range goal according to video marketing experts, is between six and twelve minutes.

Don’t forget SubRip Subtitle (SRTs), consider including captions

Captions are very important because many people like to multi-task. You have to remember to attend to all different types of audiences. You’re going to need captions for your audio because often after those first few seconds, some people will treat your video as a video podcast, meaning watching it in the background, (but without sound), while completing another task.

According to Amara, 80% of consumers are more likely to watch through an entire video when captions are available. Most videos that appear on any social media platform appear without sound first, before requiring you to click on the video to unmute it. Besides structuring your video for the multi-taskers, you have to consider that a lot of people tend to leave videos muted.

Provide high quality and entertaining audio

Besides giving your viewers an enjoyable visual experience, you also have to consider that some people WON’T watch your video…..but will instead just LISTEN. What really matters in those first few seconds is having quality and intriguing audio. This goes back to the multi-taskers mentioned before. Only this time, choosing to listen to your video promotion instead of watching it. What you say and how you say it is important for audio.

For the “listening audience” out there, those first few seconds are critical to your video success, so make sure you’re recording with high quality sound and coming up with intriguing material to keep your audience engaged right from the start.

Share via other marketing avenues

Don’t just rely on social media platforms to be your driver of your video success. Be sure to share your videos with clients, customers, and sponsors, whether through instant messaging or through an email list. As soon as your video gets a few shares, that opens the door to more views and potential engagement. More people will react to your video if there’s already been some sort of activity, (sort of like the domino effect).

Video marketing is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s a need to have! Video makes up about 80% of all internet traffic. Meaning, most of your target audience is consuming video-based content. Today, a lot of people would rather watch a video to learn about something instead of reading. People spend countless hours everyday watching numerous videos, so why not make yourself available! They are literally asking for video content!

Next up, learn how users interests are evolving and what you can do to stay ahead by offering video. Learn all about user interaction, visual interests/experience, optimization, content for video, ROI, how you can sell video, and more!