If there’s one thing you can do going forward to maximize any digital online marketing campaign, here it is: Share more video, especially and primarily on social media. Video is king, and if there was a royal rank higher than that, video would be well on its way to earning that. So, why is video so important, anyway? Let’s crunch some numbers, with a side of common sense (don’t worry, you’re not the only one missing out).
The best way to engage your audience
Here’s that common sense part. We tend to overlook the fact that the most popular form of entertainment is, you guessed it, video. Television overtook radio decades ago. And now, on-demand video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo are taking over TV as we knew it. The craziest part? You didn’t have to go to film school to become a video-making machine.
Commercial, professional quality video is great. There is no doubt about that, but digital online marketing, especially in terms of social media content, doesn’t have to be made in Hollywood.
Yes, video should be shot on a relatively new piece of technology to ensure solid resolution, but just about everyone can do that with a smartphone. You know, that thing you’re on all the time, and probably reading this blog post on. Capturing compelling video doesn’t end with a high-end camera. If you’ve got a client that makes some sort of tangible product, say a bakery, how about getting some behind-the-scenes footage of your bakers in action?
Shooting video on an iPhone or Android (Horizontal please. Vertical video is not your friend unless it’s the platform’s standard, i.e. Snapchat or Beme) is your key to pushing more exciting content to your social pages.
If you don’t use/have a production team and are planning on making your own video, just remember these 3 basic things to ensure you are capturing content you can actually share:
- Focus
- Is my subject clear? (No blurry video, please!)
- Framing
- Is everything that is important to telling the story in frame? (Hint: your finger should not be in the frame. We know it’s important to you, but keep it behind the lens.)
- Lighting
- Is this shot overexposed (washed out because of too much sun/lighting)?
- Is this shot so dark that I can’t really make out what I’m watching? (Hint: turn on the lights.)
By the numbers
With the obvious aside, let’s take a look at the data. In short, almost every digital online marketing campaign leveraging video is dramatically increasing their engagement, as well as their reach when it comes to algorithm-infused platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. When we look at the numbers, the opportunities for boosting your digital online marketing campaigns become clear. Here are three of the biggest analytic takeaways:
- Earlier this year, Facebook announced that users are watching a total of 100 million hours of video per day on the social network. That is huge. In fact, Facebook videos typically have a higher view count and engagement rate than their YouTube counterparts.
- Instagram increased its video time limit four-fold, from 15 seconds to a full minute. That’s a whole new frontier for Instagrammers. This will sound like a “duh” statement, but you can say/show a lot more about your brand, its people and its customers in a minute. So get on it before everyone else is.
- Finally, YouTube reports that the average viewing session (which is mostly experienced on mobile), is 40 minutes long. That is an incredible amount of time. Furthermore, YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the United States.
If you’ve got something to say about your brand, or your client’s brand, ask yourself, “Is this something that can be told best with video?”
And yes, we realize we could have made this blog post a video…stay tuned!
