How to Turbocharge Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Using Video

Both video and social media marketing have
exploded in the last few years.

It’s hard to find a business that isn’t at
least interested in becoming more
social media savvy or investing more heavily in video creation. It’s even
harder to scroll through a social media feed without seeing video content from
brands already using video marketing on social platforms.

In this article, I’ll show you how to quickly create a social media marketing strategy with video. We’ll cover:

• Why video is an important content
  type on social media
• How to create social videos in
  four easy steps, and
• 3 best practices in regards to
  crafting social media video content

Sound interesting? Then keep reading!

So, what’s the deal with video marketing?

Before I teach you how to quickly create
effective video content for your social media channels, we need to talk about why you should. It generally takes
longer to craft video content than other types of posts. Is the extra effort
worth it?

Absolutely! Here’s why:

Better Engagement

Here’s the cold, hard truth: videos are a
consumers’ preferred content type to see from brands on
social media. This claim is backed up by the fact that social media videos
generate up to 1,200% more shares than text and image content
combined.

If your audience would rather engage with
video content on social media guess what your company should be doing —
creating videos for social platforms!

Search Optimization

Video content will help your company connect
with its target audience on social media platforms. But the videos you post on
YouTube, Facebook, and other networks can boost your company’s SEO efforts as
well.

By optimizing your videos with relevant
keywords, your content will become visible in Google search results. And it’s
much easier to rank video content than standard web
pages.

More Conversions

Social media videos grab attention and boost
engagement, as we’ve already seen. They also allow brands to show their offerings in action, which
improves conversion rates. In fact, in a recent survey, 84% of consumers were convinced to buy a
product or service after watching a brand video. Amazing!

When it comes to improving conversions on
social media, video is one of the best strategies out there. That’s why 87% of businesses now use video in their
marketing efforts.

Create social video content in 4
steps

So, can we agree that video is an important
component of your company’s social media marketing strategy? Great! Now, let’s
talk about how to create amazing social video content:

1. Build a social media content
calendar

First things first, you need to plan out the
video content you’ll post on social media, which means you should create a
calendar. While not completely necessary, a social media content calendar will
give you a bird’s eye view of your content and ensure it meets your goals.

It will also help you post consistently because you’ll know ahead
of time what to post and when. Consistency is key to success on social media.
If your audience doesn’t hear from you for an extended period of time, they’re
likely to forget about you. As is the algorithm.

Fortunately, building a social media content
calendar is really easy. You simply pull up your calendar of choice — digital
or hard copy — and begin “scheduling” posts for certain days.

If you really want to make the process as
simple as possible (who wouldn’t?) then use a free social media calendar
template like
this one from Biteable. It contains pre-made videos and ideas for
every day of the month.

Here’s what the free Biteable calendar looks
like:

2. Create amazing video content

Now that you know the kind of content you need
to create and when it will be posted, you can actually start creating your
videos. This is the fun part! This is also the part where things can go
horribly wrong if you’re not careful.

But don’t worry. Follow these tips and you’ll
be able to create engaging videos for social media:

1. Craft a Strong Storyline:
   To do this, focus on the buyer’s journey:

Source: Crazy Egg

Are your intended
viewers in the Awareness, Consideration, or Decision stage? Once you know the
answer to that question, you’ll have a better idea of what they’re struggling
with and how you can help with your videos.

1. Build an Emotional Connection: Imagine the emotions your audience is currently experiencing. Now
   think about the way you want them to feel after watching your video. How can you take your viewers from
   Point A to Point B?

By understanding
both points, you’ll be able to craft an emotional journey and connect with your
intended viewers.

1. Use a Stellar CTA: Lastly, craft a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that entices your viewers to click, download, purchase, or anything else you desire. The CTA you use should be easily noticeable, clearly understood, and simple to accomplish.

How to actually shoot and edit your videos — the gear to use, lighting
techniques, etc. — is beyond the scope of this article. Fortunately, there are
plenty of free resources available online. We suggest you start with this in-depth guide from HubSpot.

3. Share your video with the
world

Once your video is made, you can share it with
the world. But don’t jump the gun and post your masterpiece at any time. Stick
to the social media content calendar you created earlier and schedule your
content to go live at the appointed time.

There are many ways to schedule and share
content on social channels. But I can’t think of a better one than Mention.

The software allows companies to quickly
schedule content in advance for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn —
all from one, easy to use interface. It also allows users to double-check their
planning at a glance with its weekly content view.

Take Mention for a test drive and schedule
your free demo today.

4. Optimize your videos for
better results

Source: Biteable

Your content may be posted, but your work
isn’t done yet. To find success with social media videos you need to monitor
them and analyze their success. Did your latest video get as many likes,
shares, retweets, and comments as you hoped it would? Why or why not?

When you understand why a piece of content
performed the way it did, you can better optimize your approach in the future.

Maybe you learn that your product
videos always lose viewers at the midpoint. So you begin to craft
shorter, more pointed pieces of content. Perhaps you discover that videos made
from user-generated content get incredible amounts of engagement. So you craft
more of them.

The insights you glean will be unique to your
business. The point is to understand your audience, their likes, and dislikes,
and be able to craft better content moving forward.

Social video best practices

I’ve shared with you a four-step system for
creating social video content. But before I sign off, I want to give you a few
best-practices. Keep these things in mind when crafting content:

1. Know your platform

The kind of videos you post on LinkedIn should
be different from the ones you post on Instagram. The audiences on every social
media platform have their own preferences and it would behoove you to be aware
of them. For example:

• Facebook: Facebook is a major video platform.
  Because of this, Facebook audiences tend to have short attention spans. If a
  video doesn’t hook them in the first couple of seconds, they can easily watch a
  different one. Keep this in mind when crafting facebook content and make sure
  the first two seconds of your videos are engaging.
• Instagram and Twitter: Things happen at
  breakneck speed on Instagram and Twitter. As such, I recommend crafting shorter
  videos for these platforms. Again, it’s about attention. Instagram and Twitter
  users aren’t accustomed to dwelling on specific pieces of content for long
  periods of time.
• LinkedIn: Contrary to Instagram and Twitter
  content best practices, LinkedIn videos can and should be longer. You’ll be interacting with a professional
  audience who want to receive more detailed content from your brand. Give them
  well-thought and researched pieces and you’ll find more success.

I should mention that just because every
platform requires different styles of content doesn’t mean you have to slave
away shooting dozens of videos every week. Instead, simply edit your videos to
appeal to different crowds.

For instance, a full, detailed video you shoot
for LinkedIn can be broken down into smaller clips, which can be posted to
Instagram and Twitter at various intervals throughout the week.

2. Vary Your Content Types

You should also make sure to vary the types of
video content you publish on social media. Your followers will get bored if you
only post product videos — even if they’re amazing. Mix it up with content that
intrigues and engages, like the short video above.

Here are seven types of popular content to post:

1. Tutorials: Teach your audience how to do
something.

Here’s an example of a
How-to video from Peter McKinnon (what he calls the Tutorial Tuesday).

This type of video
doesn’t require anything else but good quality microphone and camera AND expert tips to share.

2. Customer Testimonials: Interview current
customers and share their positive reviews.

Here’s a testimonial
video from Drivy. It’s in French, so make sure to activate the subtitles!

This type of video
requires a lot more effort as you need to find clients/users willing to share
their experience, meet with them, film and put together a relevant storyline.

3. Behind the Scenes: Show your audience how and
where the “magic” happens.

Here’s an example from
one of the most impressive video games of 2019:
Death Stranding.

This type of content
is mostly addressed to the fans/most engaged users, wanting to know more about
what you do/how you do what you do.

4. Product Videos: Showcase a new product and/or
demonstrate how it works.

Here’s an example,
with Mention.

Softwares and their
functionalities can be hard to apprehend. Share such videos to show what you
can do, and how you can help your target audience!

5. User-Generated Content: Put your customers
front and center.

Here’s an example from
GoPro.

GoPro built its brand using UGC. After all, what better way to show how good their
products are but by sharing extreme footage from their users?

6. Live Streams: Go live and interact with your
followers in real–time.

Live Streams are great
to generate engagement and strengthen your relationships with your community.
With that said, you also need to be ready for bloopers and other unexpected
that may occur when going live.

7. Polls: Start an interaction — in newsfeed posts
or stories — by asking a question.

Asking questions is
one of the best ways to trigger engagement. Find your
audience’s pain points and ask them questions about it!

Do your best to create a rounded social media
video content strategy that includes each of the content types listed above.
That way you can keep your audience interested and engaged.

3. Promote your videos

Finally, don’t be afraid to promote your
videos via social media ad platforms. If a particular piece of content is
performing well and has the chance to raise brand awareness and/or boost
revenue, why wouldn’t you put some ad dollars behind it?

Social media advertising is a BIG topic. The
Mention blog is full of articles to help you better reach your target audience
via paid ads. Read a few of them here.

For now, just know that video and social media advertising are a powerful combination.

Social media + video marketing

Social media usage continues to rise and
videos are the best way to reach audiences on these important networks.
Fortunately, you now know how to craft winning video content for platforms like
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Just follow the four-step system I outlined in
this post:

1. Build a social media content calendar
2. Create amazing video content
3. Share your content with the world
4. Optimize your videos for better results

Do that and you’ll find success. Good luck!