The Importance of Video in Social Media Marketing: Best Practices for Creating Engaging Videos

Videos are a great way to add personality to your social media marketing efforts. However, creating engaging and effective videos is no easy feat. In this post, we’ll show you how to create an engaging video by walking through some of the best practices for creating effective videos on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Video marketing is the use of short, visual and audio recordings on social media platforms to promote your business.

Video marketing is an effective way to engage with audiences as it is easy to comprehend and recall. Compared to text-based content, videos are more captivating. By showcasing a company’s personality in an entertaining way, video marketing can help build brand awareness and provide customers with an opportunity to understand what makes the company unique.

There are many different types of video marketing.

  • Explainer videos are short videos that give a quick overview of your product or service. They’re typically under two minutes long and can be used anywhere from product pages to sales pages.
  • Product demos show how the product works in real-life scenarios, which is especially useful if you have an unusual or complicated offering that customers might not understand without seeing it in action first hand (think drones).

Explainer videos are concise videos that provide a quick overview of a product or service, typically lasting less than two minutes. They can be used on product or sales pages and should be engaging, easy to understand, and avoid being overly technical or boring. To create an effective explainer video, focus on highlighting one aspect of the business, such as how it works or its usefulness to customers, instead of trying to cram too much information into one video.

Product videos feature your product in action. This can include showing how it’s made, demonstrating its features or benefits or simply giving the customer a behind-the-scenes look at your company.

Product videos can effectively showcase a product’s features, its manufacturing process, and its purpose. They can be utilized on websites, social media, and email marketing. Videos are engaging and can facilitate easy sharing through social media, making them a valuable marketing tool for building brand awareness and educating potential customers on why they should choose your business over competitors.

Behind-the-scenes videos are short clips that can either be used as standalone content or added onto existing content to give fans an inside look into how you work or what goes on behind the scenes of your business

  • To showcase the production process of a product, ecommerce stores can create videos of the packaging and shipping process. Similarly, to demonstrate how an app works, filming users while they use their phone cameras to scan through different styles is an effective approach.
  • Companies can showcase their culture through behind-the-scenes videos. Dunkin’ Donuts’ “Live From DD” series features employees discussing life at work, including the production of donuts and coffee, serving customers, and dealing with busy hours throughout the day.

At this point in time, video is king on social media.

Using video marketing is an effective way to increase engagement across all platforms, boost sales, and drive traffic to your website. However, creating engaging content and developing a strategy for using videos as part of a larger digital marketing plan requires careful consideration. While video is an important part of any social media marketing strategy, it should be complemented with photos and GIFs to create a personal connection with your audience. Consistency with your content is key to keep your audience coming back for more.

Video content marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your audience on social media, but it’s not as simple as pointing a camera at a person and recording them speaking. In order for a video to be successful and engaging, you need to be creative and use certain techniques that will make it go viral.

Plan Your Strategy & Have A Compelling Purpose

Before you start filming, you need to have a plan. You need to know what you want to achieve with your video and who you are talking to. The next step is deciding on your message and how best to deliver it.

Upload Native Video Content

Native video content is the most effective way to engage your audience as it is unique to each platform, and has a better chance of going viral and staying up. Social media platforms are less likely to delete native videos as they are specifically created for each platform. Uploading a Facebook video to Instagram will automatically convert it into an image with audio playing in the background, which can be challenging for viewers who want to watch the video without reading subtitles or listening closely for audio cues.

Use Illustrated Videos

Illustrated videos are an effective way to communicate with your audience, and are particularly popular on social media due to their shareability. They can help to tell a story or demonstrate how a product works, and have become one of the most popular types of video content on Facebook. The rise in popularity of illustrated videos is largely due to software like Powtoon, which makes it easy for anyone to create engaging and shareable content in just a few minutes, regardless of their experience in animation or video editing. Inspiration from existing illustrated videos can be helpful, but all that’s really needed is some creativity and perhaps a cup of coffee to get started.

Make People Feel Good About Themselves

The key to creating engaging social media videos is to make people feel good about themselves. You can do this by building a community around your brand and making them feel like they are part of something special. You should be genuine, authentic and honest with the content that you produce on social media channels.

Including Text Is Crucial

Text is a crucial component of video content, providing explanations, information, and keywords for search engine indexing. It should be concise, clear, and relevant to the topic at hand, allowing viewers to read it without becoming distracted from the video itself. This is especially important as viewers may be watching on mobile devices with small screens. Effective use of text can enhance the overall impact and success of your video content by making it more accessible and discoverable online.

Start Fast, Finish Sharp & Make The First 10 Seconds Count

  • Start fast, finish sharp. This is the most common way. You want to grab your audience’s attention immediately and keep it throughout the whole video. If you can do this, then they are more likely to watch the rest of your content–and share it!
  • Start slow and build up speed over time so that by the end of the video they’re ready for action!

Add A Clear Call To Action

Including a clear call to action in social videos is crucial for encouraging viewers to take action. The CTA should be prominent and easy to see, and can be conveyed through text overlays or an animated character.

Video content marketing is the best way to connect with your audience on social media.

Video is the most engaging form of content, with 92% of consumers preferring it over text or images. Viewers are also 2x more likely to purchase a product after watching an ad. This is why social media platforms are increasingly prioritizing video, with features like Facebook Live, IGTV, and Snap Ads.

We hope that this guide has given you some helpful tips on how to create engaging social media videos. We know it can be a challenge, but with the right tools and strategies in place, it’s not impossible! If you want more information on how to use video marketing as part of your overall strategy, then we would love to hear from you.