Great Social Media Videos
What do you think makes a great social media video?
Is it duration? Great production value? Getting an awesome video production company to work on it? Or are the best social media videos animations, 2020’s most popular content format according to blogs the world over?
81% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool, up from 63% this time last year. While these stats are top-shelf and show the pull that great social media videos have, it also demonstrates how far businesses need to go to differentiate themselves.
So, what is ‘great’? Great can mean anything. But it starts with strategy.
1. Plan your social media marketing strategy with a production company
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the key to great social media content is a great video and animated content strategy.
All very well, but if you’re looking at revamping your strategy or haven’t ever written a strategy before, you’re probably wondering what that could look like.
Good social media strategy planning usually involves consideration of the following:
- Clarification of goal and purpose: why are you using social media?
- Audience research
- Considering feed design and branding
- Compiling content ideas
- Confirming and distributing budget
- Planning content
- Testing content
- Producing the content
…and more.
Producing high-quality video and animated content for your socials is really towards the end-point of the process. It’s planning you should be focusing on!
So, why not get your colleagues together, get a coffee, throw some ideas on the table, and see what you come up with?
You could also drop us a line – incredible, affordable, easy-to-action content strategy is our specialty.
2. Tell a compelling story in your social media videos
All great social media videos start with a hook, unfold with a narrative and end with a call to action (CTA).
Let’s go through that again:
- Open with a hook
- Unfold with a narrative/story
- End with a CTA
Think about your social media videos as a great children’s book, considering:
- Colour
- Narrative
- Great characters
- Emotional hooks
- Appealing to viewers’ hopes, dreams, interests and aspirations
There’s good reason for it too:
A few years ago, a researcher named Paul J. Zak wrote a piece called Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling for Harvard Business Review. It demonstrates that engaging with great stories release oxytocin in the body, a chemical that leads to a “bonding” experience, which is exactly the thing you want to be achieving with your prospective clients, right?
When you form a powerful, emotional connection with your followers, everything else can flow naturally from there.
And finally, this little ol’ production company suggests you should:
3. Use the first few seconds of your social media videos wisely
Research consistently shows that the ideal duration of a social media video is 30 seconds – no more, no less.
We have even less time than this to make a good impression – 4 seconds, to be exact!
So, what will you do with the precious time you have?
In 2015, Time magazine cited a study published by global company Microsoft that demonstrates our attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish. It claims that most people lose concentration after around 8 seconds.
And given the amount of time we’ve spent on tech in 2020, what will our concentration look like come 2021?
Given our users are only ever mere seconds away from moving on from our content, it’s imperative we use our time wisely. Try opening with:
- A statistic
- A hook
- A narrative
- An engaging visual
- A direct-to-camera shot of your talent
- Unusual music – something that inspires curiosity
…and always keep your viewers curious about what could happen next, after the video ends.
Of course, if you want help with any of these, our 100% in-house video experts in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and beyond are here for you.