Video Content in Social Media: Best Practices 2021

Videos..🎥 We are all swamped with them nowadays. We see video content being created not only on good, old YouTube, but we now watch videos on apps like TikTok, IGTV, Instagram Reels, even Facebook. 

So what is the best type of video content you should be creating for your brand?

This is a great question and one that you can answer by building a great video content strategy. We will however help you get to the bottom of this by presenting you with the latest trends and data. 

In late 2020, we saw a huge interest in short, homemade, original video content that people started to love. Furthermore, it seemed like a lot of companies started slowly moving away from expensive, professionally created, almost stock-like videos. Instead, we started seeing a lot of fun, engaging brand videos being created.

An example of this can be Starbucks’ Pumpkin Instagram post.

How can you and your business benefit from creating original video content?

As video consumption continues to grow at an extremely rapid pace, getting comfortable with creating video content for your audience becomes much more important. 

With all the current trends, apps and video content creation methods your videos do not need to be expensive or that polished which means that you do not need to be investing a lot of money into video content creation. 

As mentioned previously, you will be able to grab the attention of your target audience, as long as your content is enticing and relevant to them. The reason why video content is so great is that it gives your audience a more personal glimpse of your business, it builds better brand awareness and due to the social media algorithms – it simply reaches more people. 

In 2021, it is very important to ensure your video content has added value to your customers.

Let’s imagine you have a bakery and you not only provide freshly made delicious bread and sweets but you add a little extra pinch of healthy options to it.

For the sake of our example, let’s say that you bake pizzas from dough made out of cauliflower. Great – very healthy! To let your potential customers know that you do this, you can simply create a video explaining what your special product is, why you are better than your competition, and essentially how this can benefit your customers.

Furthermore, creating an interactive video explaining why your cauliflower dough is good for people with gluten intolerance and/ or other issues that prevent them from consuming simple carbs. Going a step further and sharing the recipe for those who cannot visit your bakery, so they do it themselves would also be great. But why would you do that, you may ask? Isn’t the main point to get new customers to your store?
Yes, this is the exact point. 

There is a saying – give so you can receive. 

Therefore, by giving a simple recipe that helps people, you show that you really are there for them. You care. This then has a domino-like effect because they will start sharing your content and ultimately you will reach more people. You will eventually start getting more customers coming to your store, seeking your delicious, healthy baked goods. 

There is one detail that you need to be mindful of.

Social media marketing isn’t just about creating one video and distributing it around all of your social media channels. Usually, all of the available social media platforms have different requirements, some are technical and others – cultural. This means that the audiences of those platforms would be hungry for very different topics and types of video content.

Great, so what do I need to do?

As much as it might seem like a bit of a pain to create entirely different videos for every social media channel – essentially that’s what you have to do to achieve the best possible results. However, if you have limited bandwidth, it’s best to pick a few channels that you want to do really well on, include them in your video content strategy, and concentrate on developing your video content there, rather than using all possible platforms. For example, if you know that Facebook and Instagram bring you the most customers – just focus on producing great value, video content for those two platforms. 

Pro tips for your video content in 2021:

1. Create value for your audience: The main aim of your video content should be to entertain, inspire, or educate. If it doesn’t do one of these three things, you need to rethink it. Do not waste time on creating something you are not entirely happy with.
2. Start with an attention-grabber: Ensure that your video thumbnail is as intriguing as possible. Try using an animated GIF thumbnail or just autoplay videos. Those make a huge difference in earning clicks.
3. Frontload the offer/ value: You need to get your main offer/ value across to your viewer in the first 5 to 10 seconds of your video. According to stats for Ydraw, there’s a significant dropoff in viewership after the 10th second. Do not wait until the very last minute to reveal what your video is about.
4. Make mobile-friendly video content: Making sure your content is mobile-friendly is a must.
5. Add a call to action (CTA): In order to ensure your viewers know exactly what you want them to do after viewing your video – add a call to action. A good practice is to add the CTA before the video ends.

Overall, the best way to get good at social media video content is to start making it. Ultimately it is a new source of views, visits, leads, and revenue for your business.

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