Recently, Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared some startling news. Instagram will soon be “no more a photo-sharing app” and will instead be looking to experiment with different types of video.

Mosseri went on to reveal that Instagram was already trying out some new features to enhance its video entertainment:

• Recommendations: showing you content from creators you may not be following yet. This allows users to choose topics to influence recommendations, and to choose what to see more of or less of.
• Full screen video: Instagram wants to experiment with mobile-friendly and immersive video experiences.

This move is clearly looking to compete with TikTok, which is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms at the moment.

But lovers of the ‘gram need not worry about your photo feeds disappearing any time soon. Mosseri tweeted: “to be clear, we’re not abandoning photos or photo creators and artists. We’re looking at new ways to entertain people. Video is a big part of that, but so are photos”.

However, what this move does show is that video content marketing can add huge value to a social media strategy.

Why add video content to your social media strategy?

There are plenty of ways in which video content creation can add unique value to your social media strategy, and help your business to grow and thrive.

Increase engagement

Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined, and internet video traffic made up 69% of all global consumer internet traffic in 2017. If you are struggling to get your audience to interact with your social media content, then video content is likely to help you to increase your engagement.

Share information more easily

Research shows that people retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when they read it within text. So, videos can help your messages to make a better impression on your audience.

Generate more leads

A whopping 64% of consumers made a purchase after watching branded social videos. It just goes to show that video content’s engaging nature can help to maximise customers’ trust in your products and services.

Get the most out of your social media

By not using video content in your social media strategy, you’re missing out the opportunity to use certain social media platforms to their full potential. While video is the foundation of TikTok and YouTube, video gets more engagement on platforms like LinkedIn as well. 

How to create a social media video content strategy

Set your video marketing goals

Before anything else, you should work out exactly how your videos are going to help your business thrive. This will help you to decide which platforms to use, and what sort of videos you want to make. Some examples of video marketing goals you might set include:

• Increasing follower engagement
• Generating leads
• Driving conversions
• Creating brand awareness

Once you have settled on your goals, you may want to consider mapping out your video content marketing strategy in a calendar. This will help you to consider what you want to promote, and set aside time to produce the videos.

Choose which platforms to focus on

Nowadays, all social media platforms have the capacity for video content. But this doesn’t mean that you need to use them all in your video content marketing efforts. You likely already have key social media channels that you focus on – perhaps LinkedIn if you are a B2B company, or Instagram if you are a very visual B2C. Take this as an opportunity to reassess which social media platforms work best for your business. It might be that you want to stick to your guns, or you may want to try out the video capabilities of TikTok, or Instagram Reels.

Something else you should consider is the video dimensions of each platform, in case you want to repost your video content across multiple platforms. It’s no good creating a video optimised for mobile display, only to decide you’d like to use it on a platform that favours widescreen desktop display.

Decide what type of videos you want to produce

The type of videos you should produce will depend on your social media marketing goals and the platforms you are using. Here are some examples of the types of video you could use in your social media strategy:

• Live videos: going live can help you to boost your brand’s trustworthiness – everything is happening in real time, reducing the amount of editing you can do. So, live videos can come across as more authentic. You can use live videos to reach a large number of people within minutes, and the possibilities are endless – product demos, Q&A’s – the sky’s the limit.
• Reviews and testimonials: showing real life customers in a video review can help to boost consumer trust in your products and services. It’s one thing seeing a review written down, and another hearing it from the person themselves.
• Educational: these can provide value to your customers by providing them with tips and tricks to get the most out of your products or services. For example, a food brand might create a how-to video for a recipe that uses one of their products as an ingredient.
• Entertainment: the rise of TikTok has massively increased the potential of short, humorous videos in social media marketing. Why not take part in a TikTok trend, using pre-made audio? Find out more about how you can use TikTok in your video marketing strategy.

Top tip: don’t forget the captions! Many social media platforms now have the option of auto-generated captions, so making your videos more accessible couldn’t be easier. Not only this, but 80% of consumers are more likely to watch videos when captions are available.

Plan your video production

Whether you are making a 30-second TikTok or a longer advert or how-to, planning your video production will help you to save time and produce a better-quality video. You may need to:

• Plan any equipment or props that you will need
• Write a script, or bullet point what you plan to say.
• Choose a location to film your video: make sure this is somewhere with good lighting.
• Plan how you will edit the video: will you be using in-app features, or will you need video editing software?

Remember that you don’t need a huge budget to create quality, entertaining video content! Sometimes, less ‘professional’ smartphone videos can appear more down-to-earth and human. However, low quality audio and video can be a bit off-putting for viewers. If you find that you are having issues with either, it might be time to invest in an external mic or a better camera.

Track your videos’ performance

Once your videos are out there, you need to measure how well they are performing to check that they’re helping you to achieve your marketing goals. Every social media platform has different built-in analytics. Getting to know what these are and how you can use them will help your social media strategy to blossom, whether you are creating video content or not. Let’s look at Instagram Reels Insights, for example. Insights tracks the following:

• Accounts reached: this tells you how many unique Instagram users watched your Reel at least once. This is also broken down into accounts following you and accounts not following you, which will show you whether your videos are helping to increase brand awareness.
• Plays: this is the number of times your Reel has been played. This could be higher than the number of accounts reached, since some users may watch your Reel more than once.

Your overall Instagram Reach breakdown shows how much engagement you are receiving for each type of content. This can help you to understand how your live videos, Instagram Stories videos and Reels are contributing to your engagement and whether they are driving conversions. 

Top tip: Instagram Insights are only available to business accounts. Check out this guide to setting up your business on Instagram.

Need advice on getting your video content to drive engagement or conversions? We offer 45 minute consultancy appointments to help businesses’ marketing efforts to grow, thrive and blossom. Get in touch with us – we love to natter.