Video content has registered a slow yet sustained growth in the past few years. Several businesses and marketers realize the true potential offered by this medium in entertaining their audiences. The popularity of video content has also gone hand-in-hand with the growth and consolidation of social media platforms. Social media has unlocked various opportunities for businesses to breathe life into new and innovative marketing strategies.
However, the Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the growth and adoption of video marketing as the “new normal” for marketing and selling your goods and services. Furthermore, it is leading to a customer behavioral change. It is only a matter of time when all businesses will be incorporating videos in their digital marketing strategies.
Hence, if you are looking for ideas to work with the same, here are the social media platforms to carry out video marketing:
YouTube
When it comes to videos, YouTube must be the first social media platform to naturally and implicitly pop into your mind. And even though it is getting some hefty competition from the likes of Facebook and Instagram, the site reigns supreme simply because of the sheer diversity of content.
The platform is bursting with video content from a variety of sources – individual contributors to enterprise advertisements. There is nothing that YouTube does not contain.
With more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users, YouTube offers great potential to engage and delight with existing customers and reach out to new ones. Several brands are living proof that when done right, YouTube can propel your brand to new heights!
However, one needs to be mindful of the content saturation plaguing YouTube. The abundance of video content can make it harder for viewers to locate or come across your videos. To overcome this issue, one needs to pay heed to the fact that YouTube is a video search engine. Hence, once you carry out all the optimization at your end, you will be in a position to gain visibility on your channel. YouTube video optimization involves incorporating keywords in the title, description, meta tags, etc.
Apart from marketing your goods and services, YouTube also offers the video creators the opportunity to monetize their videos and earn from it. Plus, the YouTube Partner Program allows users to set up a storefront right beneath their videos, which means more opportunities for sales and marketing!
Facebook is the next up and coming platform for marketing your brand over social media. In the past few years, one may have noticed how the social media platform has switched from text-based content to images to videos. It is believed that Facebook registers nearly eight billion video views in a single day! Hence, it would be criminal to miss out on such an opportunity.
When compared to YouTube, Facebook is still relatively new to the world of videos, and hence businesses must utilize this opportunity to gain a competitive edge. Creating and publishing native Facebook videos is not only easier but also rather beneficial for companies. In addition to Facebook native videos, you can also incorporate videos in the Facebook ad template to make your advertisements more interesting and engaging. Through the “video views” functionality, Facebook can display your ads to users that are more likely to view it entirely.
Furthermore, the platform is coming up with more tools and functionalities for brands and organizations that aim to use Facebook for boosting brand awareness and acquiring a brand status. In addition to focusing on video content and video ads, Facebook has been introducing “Facebook Live” and other similar features to aid business marketing efforts. Now businesses can host live Q&As or product demos or even bloopers to connect with their audiences on a more personal level.
For decades, Instagram has always been a visual medium. From sharing food images to updating your friends and family on your scenic vacay, the platform has evolved to accommodate business marketing requirements as well. Organizations started off by posting images and hosting contests to get discovered.
However, everything changed with the popularity of video content. Video content was a refreshing break in the photo-laden feed, and Instagram users did not hide their love and preference for it. Video content drove up the conversion rate for businesses and helped the customers in making purchase decisions. Soon enough, every company had a plan to market themselves over Instagram through videos.
The “Explore” section of Instagram played a crucial role in helping consumers connect with their favorite brands. At the same time, it acted as a window to discover new brands. At the same time, hashtags are also highly effective in granting visibility to your account and gaining more prospects. Finally, Instagram Stories and IGTV took videos up a notch as it became a viable medium for engaging users and getting more interactions.
Twitter, once a social listening tool for companies, matured into a marketing platform with the introduction of video. Much like Facebook, Twitter also launched its native video content, which was capable of attracting greater attention, impressions, and engagement. As a result, businesses started utilizing it to reach out to their audience. Video content got more engagement, retweets, and favorites.
Once again, the verdict was in – Twitter users loved videos.
However, if your business plans to carry out marketing through videos on Twitter, you have to be mindful of the 30-second video cap. Hence, your videos should drive the maximum impact in the minimum amount of time. When you make every second count, you are bound to get the desired results!
The World Beyond COVID-19
Video content will continue to stay relevant in the post-COVID world. Hence, now is a good time as any to get started with the marketing through videos. The killer combination of video and social media shall make it easier for a wide range of businesses to reach their marketing goals.
Finally, do not restrict video marketing to a single platform. In fact, make use of an assortment of platforms to balance out its result and engage with your audiences!