Creating social media videos for small to medium-sized businesses is a difficult yet essential step in customer acquisition and facilitating a strong connection to a brand.
A study suggests 51% of marketers across the globe name video as the content with the highest ROI for advertisements. Also, it has been determined that a video generates 1200% more shares than text or image posts. The more shares you are able to garner on a piece of content, the more likely a qualified customer will get your message and be able to convert it into a sale.
It’s no question that today’s buyers can find out more information on a business than ever before. Gone are the days when you needed to physically be at the business to get a sense of their culture and quality.
In 2018, potential buyers can quickly turn to Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. and have a complete and comprehensive portfolio of a business. This is extremely beneficial to the buyer’s journey of the prospect as they can easily access the information they need before they are ready to make a purchase.
Video Over Text
With the ability to find out exactly what you need to know, the patience for reading long, dry content is over. According to HubSpot’s The State of Video Marketing in 2018 written by Adam Hayes, 72% of people interviewed would prefer to watch the video over reading text to learn about a product.
Engaging video content can be:
A branding video to get the word about your business
A recent event hosted by the business or the business attended
An animated video to help explain a product or service
An interview to educate consumers
The quality of the content has a huge impact on the success of your video as well. It’s great to have video content but it is another thing entirely to pump out videos with no quality or vision. Creating content that consumers want can be a time-consuming and challenging affair to take on while you are running a business.
Formatting your Social Video
It is extremely important to pay attention to where you are going to post your content before you start to film as the platform will determine what aspect ratio to shoot in.
Are you creating a cinematic branding video for Facebook? A 16:9 aspect ratio will help convey your message more effectively. Showcasing a product on your Instagram page? A square or 9:16 aspect ratio will take up more real estate on the screen and make your content stand out more prominently.
How Long Should they Be?
As with formatting, the length of social video content will vary depending on the platform you plan to use. For YouTube, the expectation is video content and successful videos tend to be longer than on the other outlets. For Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, videos that perform well tend to be shorter as the nature of the platform is faster-paced. It will also highly vary depending on what type of content you are creating. Anything from a few-second Facebook story to a 5 minute YouTube interview has the potential to convert customers.
Conclusion
Running a business is a difficult and time-consuming process. Developing a fantastic product, perfecting a high-demand service or whatever your business is focused on takes time and effort. Developing engaging content should be looked at with the same degree of care.
Quality social video for consumers to identify with and build brand resonance is a necessity in today’s marketplace.