SMALL BUSINESS TIP #6: The Importance of Video on Social Media

If you’re like most people (including me), your favorite place is not in front of a camera. Guess what? If you want to do what’s best for your business, you have to get over yourself and make videos. The importance of video on social media is no longer questionable.

“Actions speak louder than words.”

“It’s easier said than done.”

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

These are just some of the clichés to remind us that we need to show people, not just tell them. For many of us, this applies to our business life as much as it always has in our personal life.

Before I share some video marketing tips with you, I want to talk a little bit more about why videos are pretty crucial to your social media campaign.

The Importance of Video on Social Media

Videos grab attention quickly in a world full of people with teeny attention spans. These days, people are much more willing to watch than read and videos generally hold attention significantly for longer than words. Videos also tend to hit more emotional buttons than the written word and visual stories typically stick around longer in our memory banks.

On Facebook, about 1.5 billion videos are watched every day and, most importantly, photo posts are 50% less likely to be seen than videos.

In short, videos act as a spotlight that will get your information to stand out from the rest. They are an extremely effective lead generator and can effectively communicate your call to action—both requirements of an effective marketing campaign.

18 Video Marketing Tips

The first thing to do is check out FlexClip—this is a powerful tool to enhance your video marketing strategy.

Next, review these 18 video marketing tips to maximize the impact of your videos:

1. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. Post a video no less than once weekly and let your viewers know when you post—“Hey everyone…check back for new videos every Monday!”.
2. Look beyond YouTube. Check out the following homes for your video channel—Facebook Live or Vimeo. You want the one that best fits you and your brand. If you’ll be embedding any videos on your website, make sure the channel has that capability.
3. Brand your video channel consistently with your other social networks—with the same (attractive and professional) cover and profile pics, (informative and attractive) video thumbnails, and links to your website and other social networking venues.
4. Focus on quality instead of quantity. Your goal is to get views, shares, likes, and comments NOT lots of videos.
5. Film in high-resolution in a well-lit non-distracting setting with a good microphone.
6. Share. Share. Share—on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, your website, and other relevant websites or online communities that have the potential to positively impact your brand.
7. Put each video’s keywords in an attention grabbing title and an informative description.
8. Start your description with your most important link, most likely your website.
9. Tag your video effectively.
10. Be yourself (unless you’re boring!) and have opinions (even ones that may slightly rile some people). Controversial = engagement.
11. Lure viewers to each video with the branded thumbnail image, a catchy title and description, and a convey your message within the video uniquely and succinctly.
12. Don’t stray off topic and keep your videos as short as possible (best not to exceed 10 minutes).
13. Don’t risk removal or legal action by using copyrighted music without permission.
14. Creatively ask people to subscribe to your channel.
15. End each video with a call to action that encourages comments, then respond to comments and connect the commenters outside of the video channel.
16. Invest in accurate (not auto generated) closed-captioning subtitles to boost the SEO of your videos so they rank higher in searches.
17. Create playlists so your viewers know right where to go to find what they’re looking for.
18. Be patient. It’s a process.

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And, remember…social schedulers are WONDERFUL. Not only are they time and energy savers, but they help you keep that valuable video content evergreen. Check out MeetEdgar, one of our favorite platforms:

3 YouTube Tips

1. Use YouTube Cards and end screens.
2. Create GIFs from your YouTube video at Gifs.com and use them in your social networking posts.
3. Try to get featured by a YouTube editor.

Now that you’re a bit more clear on the importance of video on social media and in your digital marketing campaign, it’s time to lose your inhibitions and get filming.

We can help you professionally brand your profiles and optimize your YouTube profile, so give us a call!

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