Video Marketing Climbs the Social Ladder
Social media has introduced a whole new ecosystem of video distribution and dispensed with the “one size fits all” approach to video creation.
According to Forrester Research, 1 minute of video can deliver the same impact as 1.8 million words. Therefore, it is not surprising that more marketers are enlisting video to attract and engage consumers. Video marketing manifests itself in a broad range of genres, spanning everything from product explainers to brand-driven storytelling. Any video that promotes a company, product, or service is part of a video marketing strategy.
Video can be a win-win situation for marketers and consumers alike. People demonstrate significantly better retention, recall, and engagement with video than they do with text. Plus, 4 times as many consumers prefer to watch a video about a product than read about it. Marketers know that video can do a lot to increase a bottom line, it is only a matter of getting the right creative in front of the right audience. This brings us to social media.
HOW TO BE SOCIAL
Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter now promote their own video content. These networks have the collective power to reach around 3 billion monthly users. And as more conversations shift to social media, people increasingly look to one another to inform their purchasing decisions. This climate has caused video marketing to effectively intersect with social media. Incredibly, almost half of consumers claim that they have made a purchase because of a brand video they viewed on social media.
Viewers tend to react positively to high-quality video, but authenticity is still paramount. This is especially true for videos on social media. Case in point: the dearly departed Vine. Although video marketers frequently utilized Vine, they routinely struggled with authenticity on the platform. Vine was a UGC app where individuals recorded their own 6-second clips. By contrast, much of the branded content on Vine was professionally shot and edited. The high production value clashed with the app’s homespun feel, making the ads on Vine look like…well, ads. The tactic was counter-productive since heavy-handed advertising usually repels consumers. Sometimes content-level tweaks are necessary to strike the right chord.
On top of channeling the user’s voice, video marketers are becoming savvier about formatting their content for social media. They are embracing a multi-platform strategy that produces several versions of a video, each one adapted for different play lengths and dimensions. Snapchat and Instagram are apps, and sites like Facebook and Twitter are “mobile first” destinations. All of them have limits on runtime, and most encourage their users to publish video in mobile-friendly aspect ratios — which are more vertical than horizontal.
Incidentally, Facebook is a big proponent of the 1:1 aspect ratio because it displays generously in their mobile feed. The service reports that square videos get 6 times more shares and 3 times more views than horizontal ones (e.g. 16:9). A multi-platform approach to video marketing may add extra steps to the production process, but it can lead to a big payoff in viewer engagement.
COVER EVERY BASE
A multi-platform strategy creates several avenues for consumers to discover a video. It also gives a video the best chance to succeed on any outlet it inhabits. The approach is more and more relevant now that Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter operate as video destinations. Snapchat alone generates 10 billion+ video views per day. Social media has become a major player in the video landscape, however video marketers still depend on other channels to close the audience acquisition loop.
Every promotional video should have its own “home” on an owned and operated property, ideally in the form of a landing page on a brand-hosted site. Not only does this give a primary address to the video, it benefits the business as a whole. Websites with video are exceedingly more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results. Plus, a video on a landing page can boost conversion rates by as much as 80%.
YouTube happens to be the second most popular search engine on the Internet. For over 10 years, people have visited the website with the explicit intent to consume video. YouTube videos actually take fewer views to generate the same amount of engagement as Facebook videos. While it may not be a social media site, YouTube has an active user community that rewards good content. It should continue to play a role in every video marketer’s media plan.
Marketers need to optimize every video for its target audience. This applies as much to delivery as it does to content. Since there are more environments where consumers can interact with video, it is essential to meet them at every possible turn. Video distribution requires equal measures of tactical planning and casting a wide net; a comprehensive multi-platform strategy can yield maximum visibility and conversions.
YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE.
Over a decade ago, businesses produced videos much like they were traditional commercials; they created a single piece of content, uploaded it to their video player, and waited for the views to rack up. But today, videos can grow on many platforms and marketers are more proactive about targeting their viewers. Analytics have also made it easier to validate a video’s ROI, correlating it with any increases in sales, leads, or brand awareness. Video does the most for marketers who invest in the entire process behind the product, not just the product itself.
The mass adoption of social media makes it a great tool for marketers to achieve their video goals. These networks attract billions of monthly users, hence they can capture major segments of any target audience. Social media has disrupted the way we communicate, and by extension, it has reshaped how we engage with content and make decisions. It is a crucial addition to any video marketing plan.
Thank you for reading! I’m Therese Moriarty, a video and emerging tech consultant based in NYC. Visit my website for more information about video data and strategy.
