You only need to scroll through your own Facebook feed to see evidence of the epic rise of video as a content marketing tool.
Let’s look at the hard facts:
- More than 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook every day
- Video viewing time on Instagram recently increased by more than 40% in just 6 months
- By 2020, 75% of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video
Whether you like it or not, increasingly this is where people’s attentions are. Even at home, when other options are available, people are choosing to watch video on their mobile devices, and according to the recent 2017 Sensis social media report, 43% of people using social media state their main reason for doing so as being to watch videos.
As a result, any marketer would be crazy not to leverage this trend as part of a content marketing strategy. Read more about using content marketing, in general, to build your buzz here.
Sure, anyone using social media to build a brand or product needs to prioritise getting the right content, to the right people at the right time. But how can you incorporate video as a valuable medium?
Use video to tell your story
Original content that tells your brand story is priceless, we’ve covered that numerous times already. On top of that, consider that 4x as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it (source). It’s a no brainer!
There will always be obstacles to creating your own original video content. Sam explored some of them in his content block blog. Not many people are naturally comfortable in front of the camera. I’m with you there.
But if you’re a business owner, looking for a way to deliver a face-to-face message to your clients (and probably, more importantly, your potential clients) consider the reach of social, together with the inherent communication power of you speaking ‘directly’ to your audience.
The sound of silence
Bear in mind that 85% of video on Facebook is watched with no sound, either because people are somewhere they can’t use sound, like on the daily commute, or maybe they’re just skimming through Facebook when they shouldn’t be! So design for silence. Caption your videos where possible to extend the reach of your content to those of us who have to watch in secret. Whoops!
Go Live
Facebook users spend 3x more time watching live videos than traditional videos (source). I know, I know, you’ve just built yourself up to recording a video where you have the power to edit out the bloopers. But live ‘stories’, whether through Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram, are experiencing a massive increase in popularity due to their power in engaging viewers. For example, Instagram Stories is one of Facebook’s fastest growing areas and has brought many businesses over to Instagram as a platform to give their brand more eyeball exposure.
Don’t hang around
Engagement levels drop off as the length of a video increases. So don’t think about building the excitement and finishing with a crescendo! Time is precious, and people’s attention spans are short, so get your viewers hooked fast. Get your brand and message across quickly; if people don’t know who you are or what you’re trying to say, there’s not really much point hanging around is there?
User generated content
If you really don’t have the time or resources to create your own video content, find relevant videos from others in your field, and share their content. Just make sure you’re giving out quality information that will be of value to the audience you are trying to attract or retain.
If you are looking for a digital marketing strategist, hit us up, we love to chat social!
