The impact of video on social media is growing at a rapid pace and is now an undeniable key component in creating a successful social media strategy for your business. How will your brand stand out from the crowd? Utilize these fundamental video best practices to lead the charge with video on social.
Do: Define Your Strategy
Decide how your brand will best be represented in video. Strategize how to use video to not only engage with your audience but also to provide accessible, useful and fun information for them to consume and share.
Lowe’s has set the standard for video best practices by creating helpful and humorous six-second how-to’s on Vine. Featuring useful tips, tricks and DIY ideas submitted by employees and customers, Lowe’s has made their products easy and accessible to their audience. Lowe’s has capitalized on their Vine success by consistently creating more short, simple and impactful videos across all of their social channels while still aligning with their overall marketing strategy.
Want to give customers a peek behind the curtain to see the inner workings of your business? Everlane has had early success on Snapchat with extending its supply chain transparency message to the social platform. With “Transparency Tuesdays” Everlane’s social media team answers customer questions and give fans a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the fast growing company.
Customer service is key. Warby Parker uses their YouTube channel to not only educate but also answer their customer’s most commonly asked questions.
Opportunities are endless with video on social but in the end all that matters is that your message is clear and consistent across all channels with a well defined strategy in place.
Don’t: Spend A Lot Of Money
High-quality, professional video can easily be created and edited with any smartphone. Identify what matters to your audience. Production value or authenticity? A series of short impactful videos that highlights your product in the best way possible is money well spent but shouldn’t break the bank.
Do: Keep It Short
Think where you watch videos the most. In line at Starbucks? On the bus during your morning commute? People are viewing social videos while on the go. Keeping it short keeps it buzz-worthy and impactful. Captivate your customer within the first 30 seconds of a pre-recorded video to entice them to watch, engage and ultimately share.
Create urgency to watch NOW with live video. Host a mini Q&A on Facebook Live or Snapchat a behind-the-scenes look at your latest photoshoot. Your customers are curious. Dazzle them with bite-sized snippets of never before seen aspects of your business.
Don’t: Forget Who Your Audience Is
When creating social video content always keep in mind who you are speaking to. What’s in it for them? Don’t push your product but instead engage your audience to keep them interested, invested and wanting more.
Do: Distribute Everywhere
It’s a video best practice to optimize for each channel but be sure to also distribute across all of the social networks where you are active to be both consistent and effective. Upload to YouTube AND Facebook. Over a minute? Edit down to post on Instagram. Brainstorm ways to translate the essence of the video to Snapchat. In order to create impactful results your audience must see a cohesive message across all social platforms.
Don’t: Forget to Create Measurable Goals
Identify measurable KPI’s before pushing publish on your first post. Define what creates success for your business—engagement, views, impressions or shares. By creating goals you are able to track the success of your social video strategy to inform future content creation.
Use these video best practices to engage with your audience on social media in an authentic and meaningful way every day. Need help implementing these “Do’s” to create a plan for success? We’d love to show you how.
