How to Create Amazing Videos for Social Media

Peter Schroeder

Published in

RendrFX

9 min readMar 20, 2017

Tips and tricks anyone can use to influence with video on social media.

Introduction

Video has become the ‘buzz word’ of 2017 for social media and has left businesses scrambling to get a piece of the action. With the evolution of live streams, native video, 360 video, and virtual reality — video has taken center stage in the social media world.

Take a look at what Nicola Mendelsohn, Vice President for Facebook in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa recently said about video.

“If I was having a bet, it’d be video, video, video. Video content on Facebook, is growing even more quickly than the company (Facebook) anticipated and the social network’s new live video feature is also a bigger, faster phenomenon than Facebook expected,” said Mendelsohn.

It’s not hard to understand why video is taking off like a rocket ship on social media. People are consuming everything through video due to information overload. Video solves for this because 1 minute of video is equivalent to 1.8 million words.

See our 37 Video Marketing Statistics You Need To Know For 2017 to get some more video stats!

Clearly, video is the future and you need to be using it on a consistent basis. Here are some tips to help you create amazing videos for social media.

Make Your Office into A DIY Studio

There are a number of factors that come with creating a successful video. Your environment is crucial for creating a high-quality video for social media.

Offices are often crowded, noisy, and poorly lit — certainly not the ideal setting to have a video recorded. For this reason, we recommend recording in an isolated environment, or better yet — your own DIY video studio!

Get the Lighting Right

Without proper lighting, your video quality will suffer. Lighting, though often overlooked, is a crucial aspect in creating your video. Here are two options for great lighting:

Mother Nature is an amazing source of light. If you have a space with big windows, let the sun do all the hard work. Set up your camera near the window and facing away from it. On sunny days, your videos will light up like the fourth of July!
Studio lighting isn’t as expensive as you may think. This guide will show you how to create an effective lighting kit for under $100. If you’re going all-out, we recommend a ring camera from Stellar Lighting Systems.

Be Conscious of the Sound

You want your message to be clear and concise. The last thing you want is to hear one of your co-workers talking about The Bachelor in the background of your video. Not only is it distracting, but it also makes your video come across as unprofessional.

Film in an unoccupied room to prevent unwanted background noise. You want your message to come through crystal clear.
Set up some sound-dampening panels to prevent echo and reverb. When you are in an empty room, your microphone will often pick up everything and echo; making you sound like you’re filming in a closet.
Cover vents while your filming. Heating and cooling vents often make terrible sounds. Simply cover them up with something like a blanket while you’re filming.
Get your microphone close to the subject. If you don’t it will sound like you are trying to shout from across the room.
Invest in an external microphone. You can’t go wrong with any of the video microphones from Rode. If you don’t want to spend the money, position a second phone directly above the subject’s head to record the audio.

Set the Perfect Backdrop

Did you know Zach Galifianakis made a spoof series called, ‘Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis’ because of how ridiculous people look when they have a terrible backdrop? Instead of filming with a lame plant in the background, film in front of a solid colored backdrop.

Try to avoid filming behind an off-white wall. The color tends to look tacky and usually has a terrible glare. Instead use rolls of paper for your backdrop. You can order one or a few colors from Savage and then hold it up with a stand like this. If you don’t want to buy they stand, no worries; just tape it to the wall!

Make It Permanent

You will put a lot of effort into creating your DIY studio. Leave it up to prevent the headache of setting it up and tearing it down every time you need to record a video (which should be daily.)

By leaving your DIY studio up, it will allow you to record spontaneous video as soon as you get the inspiration. Instead of thinking about going and setting up everything, you can just walk in, turn your gear on, and record!

While you could do all of this, or you could easily create amazing social media videos with RendrFX!

Your Phone Is All You Need to Get Started

You may think you need to buy a big fancy camera to get started with video, but that just isn’t the case. The phone you already have is perfect for almost all the video you need to record.

(If you have an endless budget and want to go all out, we would recommend the Canon Mark IV DSLR Camera to take your game to the next level.)

Though this is a great camera, we still feel like your phone has all it takes to get the job done. Here are some tips to get the most out of video on your phone!

Pick Your Orientation Based on the Platform

Today, you need to record videos with the platform you’re going to post to in mind. The majority of video is consumed on mobile, so you need to consider that as well.

If you are posting to any ‘stories’ platform (Snapchat or Instagram Stories,) then you will want to record your video in vertically (portrait orientation.)

Other social media platforms will vary depending on your goal. With the rise of ‘stories’ features, vertical (portrait orientation) video has become more popular than horizontal (landscape.) It is easier to consume on mobile, so if your video’s target audience is on mobile; film vertical (portrait orientation) video. If your target audience is on desktop, then it would make sense to film horizontal video (landscape orientation.)

When you record for Instagram, you want to record in a square. Choose to record either horizontally or vertically, but make sure everything is in the middle section of the frame. Afterward, you will need to edit the video into a square, or Instagram will crop out the sides of your video to make it a square. (You can post a full sized with on Instagram, but it isn’t recommended.)

Hold It Steady

Keeping your video steady is crucial. No one likes watching a shaky video where they can’t make sense of what’s going on. There are two options to keeping your video stable depending on what you are doing.

When you are going to be stationary, use a tripod. This one right here should get the job done.
If you are going to be moving around, use a stabilizer. These can get pricey pretty quick, but they are well worth it. While you are walking around, your videos will stay buttery smooth and your audience will appreciate it. This is a pretty new product in the market, but we would recommend this one on Amazon.

Don’t Use Zoom

You may be tempted to use the zoom function to get the perfect shot. Don’t make this mistake! Using the zoom function on phones reduces the quality dramatically. Since the lens isn’t zooming optically, you’re just enlarging the picture digitally, which means you will quickly enter the world of unsightly pixels.

Instead of zooming in, just move the camera closer to the subject you are filming.

Upgrade with an App

The Apple Camera app is great, but it’s not designed to record at the maximum quality which your phone can. For this reason, we recommend not using your phone’s native camera app, but rather use a premium video recording app like Filmic Pro.

One of the top features in Filmic Pro is the option to select a higher ‘Video Bitrate’. The highest quality bitrate is 50.0 Mbit/Sec, which is a huge improvement over the standard 24.0 Mbit/Sec bitrate found in the iOS Camera app. Just by participating in the simple task of not using the Apple Camera app — you’ll produce a substantially higher quality video.

Not to mention, you’ll also have the options to record video using different frame rates. It’s also great to have full control over focus, exposure, and other video features that are important if you want your video to have a PRO quality.

Use The ‘Exposure Lock’

This is a great way to bring your subject into focus. Your camera will automatically focus and expose your shot by default.

To use the exposure lock, simply Go to Settings -> Camera -> Reticle and choose DUAL.

Once enabled, both tools will appear on the main screen. The blue square icon (sets the focus) and the green circle icon (sets the exposure). To lock the tools, tap the matching button at the bottom left. A red icon indicates that the tool is locked.

Limit Distractions (Airplane Mode)

The last thing you want when you are recording is your phone ringing off the hook. To prevent this, all you need to do is put your phone in ‘Airplane Mode.’ Even if you are live streaming, as long as you are connected to the Wi-Fi — you can still stream from airplane mode.

Edit Before Distribution

You have the option of editing on your phone, but you’ll want to edit your videos on a computer. This will allow you to see the full video on a larger screen and pick up on more. You can either plug your phone into your computer or transfer the files via Bluetooth.

Even if you don’t have any fancy video editing skills, you can still do everything you need to in programs like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.

For A Wider Shot, Use A Clip-On Lens

Your phone will likely limit the width of your shot. To solves for this, simply get a clip-on lens to give your video more width. Olloclip offers a great clip-on lens!

If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of shooting with a camera, you can use RendrFX to create beautiful videos from our professionally designed motion graphics template!

Summary

When you first start using video for social media, it can be quite intimidating. It’s perceived as a mountain to overcome when it’s more like a mole hill. Getting started is the hardest part, but once you do that — it’s a breeze.

By following these tips and tricks, you will be well on your way to becoming a social media video master in no time!

Also, if you are looking for an even simpler way to get started with video, check out RendrFX! With hundreds of templates, over half a million stock media files (video, photos, and royalty free audio), and unlimited video creation!