If you thought 2015 was a good year for video, just wait until you’re on the flip side of 2016.

Posting interesting articles and nice pictures is great as part of your overall content marketing plan, but there’s nothing quite like video. Some statistic dynamo at Cisco has predicted that by 2019, 80% of all consumer Internet traffic will be video. This means that you need to elevate your game – and we’re here to help you tailor your content to get the best from each social network.

The ability to integrate video into your social media strategy is evolving so quickly that it’s no longer just a commodity: it’s a necessity. As each social network defines its purpose, it’s becoming evident that video is not a one-size-fits-all outfit; you need to understand what each of your audiences is looking for.

 

Facebook

As you scroll down your Facebook timeline, videos auto-play without sound. This means that your video needs to look awesome even in silence – think rich, high quality images, big text and easily digestible messages. When browsing through your feed, the things you stop on will be those that look the best. The link you click will be the one beneath the really cool video that teases its viewer enough to want more.

Plenty of brands have nailed their content creation for Facebook, and it’s the place where videos can go viral. A great example of this is all those bitesize recipes that have suddenly started popping up everywhere, like ‘Sweeten

 

 

Instagram

Instagram already has an insatiable demand for video, and it’s our social media darling right now (and probably forever). The 15-second duration challenge means that you hopefully get the absolute best out of your content, and give your audience a snappy, beautiful insight into your brand.

Instagram isn’t so much about getting your audience clicking links to your website, it’s more about having them fall in love with you and then never looking back.

Like Facebook, Instagram videos autoplay on a silent loop, so they need to be edited to send across a powerful message even if you can’t hear a thing. It’s a great network upon which to build a brand identity – keep your style and design consistent and you could be in for a treat.

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter
With Twitter allowing links from YouTube and Vimeo to be played onsite, it stands alongside Facebook as a useful tool for getting noticed via re-tweets. If you manage to create an incredible video, being shared by one influential person could be the key to catapulting your brand through the Twittersphere.

Thanks to the short-lived nature of a Twitter feed, your video has to be edgy and engaging in order to have a life on this network.

 

YouTube (and Vimeo)

Designed to house your video, no matter what length, YouTube is second only to Google as a search engine. People go to YouTube for one reason, and that’s to find a video. Make your content captivating, keep everything professional and good-looking and you’ve achieved the basic formula for a strong YouTube channel. Even if you’re not sure about whether you need a YouTube presence, it’s a great location to store all your videos and then the links can be distributed as you please, with social networks doing their bit to allow content to easily be played, whichever one you’re on.

 

YouTube recommends creating three types of content as part of your plan:

 

1. Help content: a pretty self explanatory title, this includes advice, how-to videos, product overviews. Anything that can help your audience to engage with you on an informative level.

2. Hub content: this is the regular, constant stuff that taps into your viewers’ interests and emotions.

3. Hero content: this will be less frequent, but could have the biggest impact. This is your Academy Award moment, for things like grand openings, events and product launches.

 

Don’t feel like you have to do this alone – we’re experts at generating on-brand content specifically to give you better exposure, and we’d love to take care of your strategy so that you don’t have to worry about a thing. Get in touch if you’re interested in creating your own wonderful company video.