Why Video could be a secret weapon in your social strategy

There is no secret that we love video – but why should you think about using video in your digital and social media strategy? Do you know the average time on video users consume in an average day?

” People spend an average of 6 hours and 48 minutes per week watching online videos “

It’s great knowing that people are consuming video but how does that help your business? That is down to you. By having video as part of your social media strategy you will understand what your audience needs and wants and focusing on what will engage them will help you to create opportunities for your business by making it more memorable.

One of the BIGGEST areas that will help is education, what does your audience need help with? 

” Video is the number 1 source of information for 66% of people “

According to Wordstream there is more video content posted in 30 days than the major American networks created in 30 years. WOW how scary is that? Actually, the only scary part is how are you adding video to your digital marketing strategy? I am not suggesting that you start posting pictures of cute kittens on facebook – but hey we love a kitten so feel free – what I am suggesting is you find a way to get your business out there with something relevant. 8 billion videos a day on Facebook and people watch them! There are many ways of using video in your marketing and they don’t need expensive products to create great content.

Video has been used by many brands directly targetting their niche audiences often replacing television ads completely – like Adidas whose current videos speak directly to each niche from Volleyball to Golf to the gym and even hiking. The views on their videos show they are hitting the audiences and are a far cry from runners, footballers, gymnasts, and boxers in their expensive iconic ads. 

9 ways to use video in your business

• Education – how to do something
• Parodies – now you will need a sense of humour and some tech expertise for this
• Testimonials – ask your customers
• Behind the scenes.. share a few secrets
• Share announcements – great for big brands but why would your customers be interested?
• How you create something you sell – a great way to create credibility
• Unbox something
• A day in the life… is your business beyond norm.. we have office animals – what is your point of difference?
• Commentate on an event you are part of

So what do you need? You can just go live to various platforms like Facebook or youtube if you have sufficient followers.. but often a little editing may make it a little better. We often record the screen when showing how to do something and add to Camtasia to cut a few bits out. It also means unless the person creating it chooses to be on screen it is only their voice that gets showcased.

Why would you add video to your business marketing?

Apart from the serious stats on viewings, they are evergreen content that ranks in google beautifully, especially if they have been uploaded to Youtube. You have 5000 characters on there for a mini blog that will be found on google for what you have written. Local marketing needs locations mentioned so make sure you get the basics of who, what, where, when, why, and what happens in the write-up.

By adding video to your content people will stay longer and may look around. You can give far more information a short space of time than you would be able to in words alone and it is easier to digest and more memorable. They don’t need to be long – in fact, unless you have permission for long videos like training people are tuning in for you will get better results by being shorter. Youtube ranks content on how far viewers get through the content so try to keep them to the point with all the information your viewer needs in them.

Try to have fun with your videos and you will find people sharing them.. more memorable videos marketers remember include the Will it Blend marketing from Blendtec – this video shows how tough the product is by blending something you would not expect…

Video can be simple and effective to make your company memorable – if it scares you to create something as a millennial as many of them create some fabulous videos without even drawing breath.. but do think about what you want it to do first and create a storyboard. With so many people enjoying video it makes sense to give them a medium that works and by using video in your social strategy you can add a very powerful weapon to your marketing arsenal.

Who knows you may even win awards as these YouTube Creators have done

With video being consumed on spaces like Youtube and Tiktok doesn’t it makes sense to get your brand or business in front of your target audience?