Planning your 2015 social media campaign? Need to get some expert advice on the matter?
Well, in case you haven't heard, social media is now increasingly turning towards video marketing. Over the last few years, online video has proven to be the most engaging and compelling form of content for social media users who watch and share thousands of them every single minute. Every major social network, from Facebook to Pinterest, has recently developed their own native video services and/or promoted video ads. So we know for a fact that 2015 will be the year that video marketing finally takes over social media!
Let's now go through each social network and learn why you should go for video marketing to boost your 2015 social media campaign:
Plain and simple: Mark Zuckerberg himself has recently announced that Facebook will turn efforts towards video marketing next year.
Zuckerberg claimed that "most of the content on Facebook is content that people are sharing with their friends and the people around them. And if you look into the future, a lot of the content that people share will be video. It's just very compelling."
We know that promoting native videos on Facebook is almost impossible nowadays (the Premium Video Ads service runs just for selected advertisers and ranges from 1 to 2.5 million dollars a day). Zuckerberg's words are great news for brands that are already running video marketing campaigns and those who were skeptical in doing so.
This micro blogging network has recently launched a beta version of Promoted Video Ads that's set to go in full swing by 2015. This is a huge step for the world's 2nd largest social network, and it's already inspiring and encouraging marketers to get their online videos ready for what's coming next.
Twitter has a sharing rate of more than 2,000 tweets that include video links per minute, but they had neither included native video embedding nor native video promotion until now. The Promoted Video switch allows video tweets promotion for the very first time, and offers complete video analytics through a pay-per-click system.
YouTube
This video sharing site owned by Google remains the 2nd largest search engine in the world and 3rd largest social network and, as long as it stays on top, you must have your videos running and optimized in your YouTube channel when the next year arrives.
With 1 billion monthly users, YouTube is the easiest way for any online business to share and promote their brand with marketing videos. And, being a powerful social media channel, it's a great place to build your video marketing strategy through community engagement by following, commenting and sharing with other brands.
Do you just share images and infographics on Pinterest? Well, this has to change next year, because you'll learn that Pinterest is also a great social network to share (and soon promote) your marketing videos.
Videos hosted on YouTube and Vimeo are pinnable and playable on Pinterest and this can definitely widen your videos' viewership and sharing rates. Just like on YouTube, make sure you choose and eye-catching thumbnail plus wise tags, and all should be fine and dandy. Pinterest now offers great analytics tools and is ready to launch its very own Promoted Pins service in 2015.
Vine and Instagram
That's right; the two ascending kings of micro-video owned by Twitter and Facebook are heading towards video marketing too!
Instagram has announced its own Video Ads last month, along with some basic analytics tools which allow target users by age, gender and country. They're now looking to optimize the service for next year to "avoid spammy feeds". Likewise, Vine (officially launched less than 2 years ago) is experimenting with 6-second promoted video ads and it has already had great reviews for its compelling branding results.
That was quite a lot of video marketing information, right?
But now you're wondering; how can you better seize all of the video marketing possibilities that social media offers? Well, if you're not using them already, you should try these great pieces of content:
Explainer Videos: these under-2-minute marketing videos are made to explain any product or service in an engaging way. They're usually fun and compelling animated videos, something that generates empathy and trust in a brand. They increase click-through-rates, reduce website bounce rate and can boost conversions by 20% on average. They're the perfect type of video branding content to use in order to promote online businesses in social media.
Webinars: these sorts of online video master classes are made to explain new marketing trends, discuss online services and educate the audience along the way. They're great social media tools because they encourage an open dialogue, which leads to immediate audience engagement, and also labels the webinar speaker as a marketing expert.
Microvideos: if your brand hasn't tried Vine's short looping videos or Instargam's 15-second videos yet, it's time to do it. Despite not having the quality or being as visually compelling as animated explainer videos, they're great branding builders. Microvideos can show a fun sneak-peek of a day at the office or even a sketch of a brand-new project, so they get your brand closer to your target audience on social media.
Screencast Videos: these kind of corporate videos showcase how your product or service works. They have a more "serious" approach than explainer videos or microvideos, but they are a good option for some online businesses that need to reveal their product's new features to the online world in a realistic way.
I hope this post had been useful in order to learn why you should set up your video marketing strategy in your next year's social media campaign.