Why invest in a social media video strategy? It’s where and how your customer is consuming content right now.
With Snapchat surpassing 10 billion daily videos views last month, and recipe videos dominating your Facebook feed, the impact video is having on social is growing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Not only is video dominating but it’s quickly becoming the key to creating a successful content marketing strategy for your business.
Gone are the days of expensive, multi-day video shoots followed by hours spent in an editing suite. Today’s social media videos are comprised of – live or prerecorded – short, impactful bursts of content that can be easily created, edited, consumed and shared with a device you hold in your hand.
YouTube has long been the stand-alone juggernaut of social media video. They dominate the scene with over a billion users and are reaching more 18 – 35 year-olds on mobile alone than any cable network in the U.S. Overcrowded? Perhaps. But with 400 hours of video being uploaded every minute YouTube has an engaged and loyal audience eager to discover and consume new content.
Buzzfeed’s Tasty, launched last July, has racked up over 8 billion views alone. They consistently secure the top spot as the most-viewed publisher on Facebook with their 30 to 70 second recipe videos. And with the launch of Facebook Live late last year, Facebook has adjusted its algorithm to rank live video higher in a user’s news feed. A bold statement that supports the rising dominance of live video as a new type of content on its platform.
With an audience of 1.65 billion active users Facebook not only has the reach to have more eyes on your video but the data to zero in and target not only your current customer, but also your potential customer with content that’s relevant and shareable.
Snapchat, the current darling of the social media world, has proven the impact of video on millennials not only consuming but also creating content with more than 60% of U.S. 13 to 34 year-old smartphone users Snapchatting.
So what does this mean? You need to have compelling video content where your customer is consuming it.
Define your video strategy. Ensure that it aligns with your overarching content marketing strategy to create value and speak to your customer in a new way.
Go where your customer is and speak to them directly. Do you have an in-house personality that would be able to answer questions live on air? Or is a pre-recorded “how-to” video demonstrating your latest product more on-brand. Not there yet? Find an influencer with a built-in audience and an authentic voice to speak to your product while you’re getting your video strategy off the ground.
Less is more. Create short videos that grab your customer’s attention within the first 30 seconds. The shorter the video the easier for your customer to consume, engage and share.
Optimize for each social channel. In a perfect world video would be created natively for each channel but with time of the essence, ensure that you are optimizing the video you have for each platform. Already on YouTube? Upload the video natively to Facebook. Over one minute? Edit a clip to post on Instagram. There are endless opportunities to work with what you have to get started and then roll out a unique plan that provides a strong video strategy for each social channel.
Video delivers measurable ROI. Views, impressions or shares? Define KPI’s from the get-go to create a measurable plan to track the success of your campaign.
YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine and Periscope provide endless opportunities to reach and engage with your customer in new meaningful and authentic ways every single day.
Where does social media video fall within your 2016 content marketing strategy? If you are looking for impactful ways to engage with your target audience on social contact us today.
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