Updated July 3, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes
8 Billion Views a Day & Counting
More than 50% of YouTube videos are watched on a mobile device. Businesses who target 18-34 year olds have a better chance of reaching this target via online video content than any cable network in the U.S. So, It’s safe to say that social video marketing is on the rise. But how can your business leverage and optimize this channel?
Today, social video is an important tool in your content marketing arsenal. Present on various platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube– you need to be thinking about to marketing your business through video.
At the moment Facebook gets around 8 billion video views per day, and Snapchat gets around 10 billion video views per day according to a recent Bloomberg report. Video traffic is high and as time goes on, views will continue to grow with younger audiences. Even more so if mobile devices continue to improve in quality. Therefore, it’s important to organize, create and learn how to optimize your videos for success.
Tips on Optimizing Video
To maximize engagement with your followers and future customers, here are some key ways to optimize your videos:
- Gain attention with compelling visuals from the start. With social media mainly being a mobile activity, keep in mind that users are scrolling through a lot of content. This is your first impression. Many viewers find auto-starts to be annoying even presumptuous. So make sure you dispel that straight away. If you use static images, use compelling visuals that captivate your consumer and keep them interested so they can’t wait to hit “play.”
- Expect viewers to see with no sound. Research from Digiday shows that the majority of videos that autoplay on social media—up to 85 percent— do so with the sound turned off. Try to make your video content powerful enough to also be understood without sound. Take advantage of automated captions (like Facebook’s automated captions tool) or try your own but make sure your message gets by with just visuals.
- Try using Vertical Video. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have all created vertical video formats to accommodate mobile scrolling. This makes the video viewing area maximized so users don’t have to rotate their screens. Obviously, this goes against the grain of all film since the inception of the medium. So learn how to do vertical video well.
- Carefully choose your thumbnail. Remember that autoplay isn’t always the default setting. If it isn’t then you need to pick the right thumbnail. Make sure it is compelling enough to entice the user to click, but don’t make it too clickbaity, nobody likes being tricked to watch a video.
Build your Social Video Content Strategy
Video will increase your business’ visibility. Social video marketing has the potential to generate qualified traffic and audience engagement from multiple platforms if executed properly. Learn the formats each social media platform uses and start creating and optimizing your video content. Stay tuned to our blog for a post in the coming weeks about optimizing video for each social platform.
For more information on live video marketing, you can check out our post on live stream video broadcasting.
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