Last decade has been an especially exciting year of video marketing and social media growth. In fact, it’s so exciting that we had to roll out our own video marketing predictions for 2020.
Businesses have been churning out content, especially videos, across multiple social media platforms progressively, because social media sites have made it clear that they’re here to stay.
Your customers watch social media videos, no matter if they’re CEOs, marketers, working moms, or working dads. How often do they watch videos on social media? It varies. 78% watch social media videos weekly, while 55% watch every day.
The amount of social media videos watched is astonishing. Facebook alone garners 8 billion daily video views on their platform, and that’s excluding video views on their sub-company, Instagram.
But you know what’s more important than the number of views? Engagement rate. Without engagement, views mean nothing for your business (unless your business relies solely on advertising money).
In this article, I’ll guide you through making videos (or explainer videos) that will give your business’s social media account sweet scoops of engagement in 2017.
Researching the Optimal Video Duration
Generally, shorter videos perform better on social media (counting YouTube as one).
But how short is short?
The answer varies greatly from platform to platform, and from one type of video to another.
Our previous explainer video case study says that explainer videos perform best, in terms of audience retention rate, when between 1 and 2 minutes long, and performance decreases as length grows.
However, length will become somewhat irrelevant when your video content proves to be useful, entertaining, informative, or at the very least shareable.
Facebook’s giant creators like UNILAD, The LAD Bible, Taste, and 5-Minute Crafts have proven that social media videos can grab millions of pairs of eyes when done correctly and aimed at the right audience.
Simplify Your Video Script
When you’re looking to engage with your audience on social media, there are several ways to do it:
Provoke your audience for easy comments (not recommended for brand building),
Deliver informative videos (recommended but takes time and effort),
Use simple, bite-sized videos to get viewers on board.
More often than not, simple videos go viral quickly or even become Internet sensations.
The success of internet sensation videos, such as the mannequin challenge, the bottle flip challenge, or other challenges is because of their goal–or lack thereof. They serve no purpose other than challenging people to do some (maybe) absurd stuff.
So, don’t make your videos overly complicated–that’s what you do for your landing page videos.
Should I Do Post-Production Editing for My Videos?
Absolutely.
Editing your videos is like working on a PowerPoint presentation: show the main points of what you’re about to present and make some effort to spruce up the slides.
We’re no longer in the static days of Internet where you need a few seconds for an image to load up. It’s moving images time, and we’re well past watching raw footage, especially on social media.
Video editing might sound scary at first, but the truth is you don’t have to use advanced video editing software like Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, or Final Cut.
For social media videos, as long as they aren’t animated (like our explainer videos), editing your videos with a mobile video editor such as Filmora Go, Viva Video, or KineMaster have more features than you can use at a time.
But as you may have guessed, better post-production editing equals better visuals–which is never a bad thing for brand building. So, if you have the resources to spend on post-production, don’t hesitate to do so.
Zach King is dubbed “the video wizard” with an audience of millions. His trademark? Awesome jump-cut videos like this one.
Takeaway
Social media videos, when meant for brand building, are the type of content that you should invest time and effort in. Now that the majority of businesses, small or large, startup or established, are in the social media marketing game, here’s what you should do to stay ahead of the tide:
Don’t overcomplicate your video content. Keep everything simple and bite-sized.
Keep duration in mind: Long videos tend to be boring.
Invest in post-production processing and video editing software that suits your needs.
What are your plans for your social media marketing next year?
