5 Ways to use video in your social media marketing
Social media is an amazing tool to help you build brand awareness and connect with your target audience. The thing is, as with any technology, it is always evolving. In order to evolve with the your audience’s changing behaviour in how they use social media, you need to adapt your social media marketing strategy. One way to do that is to add video into the mix.
Before you get freaked out, have a look at a few things that will make implementation – and success – a little easier on you.
HAVE A PURPOSE
You shouldn’t use video in your social media marketing just for the sake of using video because someone said you should. Figure out why you want to use video and set your goals accordingly. For example, are you looking to:
Educate?
Generate leads?
Feature products?
Engage your audience better?
Build better brand awareness?
Once you set your goals, make sure you create video content that is focused, engaging, and interesting. And through it all, tell a story so your audience can follow along. Your story will help guide your audience to your end goal.
CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Just because you are using a new medium doesn’t mean your entire game plan should change. Remember your branding and your overall social media marketing strategy that you have already created. That means that there should be a consistent style and feel between your images, video, and written content. Your video should convey your brand voice and what your audience wants to see. If you have done the foundational work to figure out what that is, then there is no reason to stray. If you are a serious brand, you likely aren’t going to start doing a bunch of silly parody videos just to get views – you run the risk of alienating your customers base. Instead you would focus on informative and customer service related videos that will appeal to a market that will actually buy from you.
Unless adding video to your arsenal is part of a larger rebranding strategy, stick to what you know works with your target audience.
SET YOUR CHANNEL GOALS
Video can be used in different ways across different channels. It is up to you to decide what you can handle and what you think will work best for your target audience. Here are a few ways video can be used across multiple digital platforms:
Organic reach through social media posting: Pick your platform and start creating! Remember that each social platform works with different dimensions and lengths to optimize content, so you might have to edit before using the same video content on different platforms.
Vlog (AKA Video Blog): If you aren’t a strong writer or you just don’t have time to sit down and write, this is a perfect strategy for you. It is also great if you want to create a really short, “snackable” version of a blog that you already wrote. To make things easier for you, film a series of videos in one day so you can just schedule the content without having to sit down weekly to do a new topic.
Live video: There are a number of different platforms for live video that brands can use. It’s probably best to match the platforms you are already on so you can tap into your current community. Use live video to give insight into your authentic day-to-day activities of the brand. Check out: Facebook Live, Periscope for Twitter, Instagram Live Stories, YouTube Live, and others that seem to pop up daily!
Don’t forget about your IG feed though because these stories disappear after 24 hours
Cover photo: Create a video to use on your Facebook profile instead of a static image.
Each channel will require not only different dimensions and lengths, but your community also likely consumes content differently on each. Build your video strategy with this in mind.
THINK ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS
Your brand should always come second to your customers when it comes to your marketing strategy – it’s always going to be about them. When it comes to video, that is the best way to engage them with your content. While you should create each video with the goal of “shareability,” your overall goal shouldn’t be to go viral, it’s to engage your audience and make authentic connections with them.
Do your research on what your audience is currently watching and sharing now and that will help shape your video strategy.
DON’T LIMIT YOUR CREATIVITY
There are so many different types of videos you can create to enhance your social media marketing strategy. Here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing:
How-to videos: Keep it short and sweet, solve a problem, and where possible, use a step by step method to keep it clear. This is a great way to put your product front and centre.
Long form video: If your topic is more complicated, don’t shy away from longer videos. As long as you are providing value without the fluff, you should be able to hold attention.
Quirky and unique videos: Short and easy videos with a hint of comedy are a great way to showcase brand personality. Don’t take yourself too seriously and consider things like music videos and parodies – as long as it’s on-brand.
Customer service: Using frequently asked questions to create video content is a great way to make information easily available to your customers. It also adds a personal touch if they can put a face to the answers.
Pre-roll ads: If you are looking for ways to incorporate more paid advertising into your video strategy, consider pre-roll ads on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Depending on the channel, you can get really targeted audiences with your set up.
Announcements: If you have a huge announcement upcoming like a product launch or an event, using video to showcase the announcement can be fun. You could also do a teaser campaign talking about something great coming.
Behind-the-scenes (BTS): This is always a fantastic way to show what the day-to-day looks like with your brand. Think the people in the office, how your products are made, BTS at photoshoots, etc.
However you decide to create your videos, don’t be afraid to keep it real. You don’t need to have highly polished video production services to compete as long as you provide value and authenticity.
Video doesn’t have to be scary and it doesn’t have to be a huge initiative for your social media marketing strategy, but it is the way things are moving. Even if you just dip your toes in the video waters to see what works best for you, now is a great time to start.
If you really aren’t sure how to get started, be sure to give us a call and we’ll help you build video into your social media marketing strategy.