What is the winning video strategy on social media? Social has contributed to the development of video on the Internet. YouTube was first, then Facebook and now TikTok is coming to the fore. Opting for the right video strategy is therefore essential for brands in the 21st century. However obvious that may seem, the proof is, as always, in the bacon and tactics may vary according to the platform, network and even the devices your audience are using. In this piece, we highlighted the various possible forms of social media video strategies.
Video strategy: 3 top tips for success on major video social media platforms
Disclosure: This article was produced in partnership with InterPromoUG, which is the company behind the 4K Video Downloader software. 4K Video Downloader enables the download of videos from multiple video platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook…). Please read the note at the end of the article.
At a time when YouTubers and influencers have become increasingly professional, video is now an integral part of a proper digital marketing strategy. Maturity is here, be it regarding the content itself, the quality and its promotion.
However, all platforms are different and tactics have to adapt to each and every one of them.
Many businesses want to jump on the bandwagon, but it’s not plain-sailing
A large number of companies have explored the use of video. While the success of content marketing is therefore no longer questionable, its popularity and massive use have raised the level of quality required for content to be seen and heard.
Unfortunately, as video marketing strategy expert — and GEM lecturer — Mathieu Fiorenti points out, businesses find it hard to adapt their tone of voice to suit social media audiences’ expectations. In his mind, this is even the most important obstacle to the success of a video strategy for a brand on social media.
In order to stand out on these platforms with video, it is, therefore, necessary to adjust one’s approach in order to address one’s audience. In partnership with the publisher of the 4 K Video Downloader software, we have explored 3 main directions to follow to succeed with your video marketing strategy on social media.
Three top tips for video strategy success on social media
Tip no. 1 – three things matter: content, content and content
Contrary to popular belief, long-form videos aren’t forcibly a deterrent. That said, your content must be interesting, properly structured and engaging. Length is another issue. Even brands can succeed with video content. Look at what Vmware has demonstrated with its 5-minute lectures on technical topics which attract millions of views. If they can do it, so can you!
5 minutes of an extremely sharp technical presentation on YouTube on Kubernetes won 1.4 million views to Vmware. Whoever said that snackable content was inevitable must be eating their hats right now.
Worthy of note
- Think about the added value of your video: what can you provide to your audience so that they learn something? Put yourself in their shoes and acknowledge their expectations. Improve the structure of both your video and script to eliminate potentially fatal silences.
- Trim anything that may be redundant, uninteresting, or off-topic to keep the viewer involved and focused.
- Never listen to pundits who arbitrarily dictate the length of your content. Contrary to popular belief, the ideal length of a YouTube video is not 2 and a half minutes: one can captivate an audience for 2 minutes as well as 2 hours. As long as there is added value for the audience to keep listening to you, of course.
What about hard-selling? Avoid fitting in your products in your videos at all cost. Content marketing is all about connecting and engaging members of your audience, not lecturing them. As the diagram below is showing, different types of video content meet different customer needs.
Tip no. 2 – be passionate, think different!
The success of a video is not just linked to what you have to say, let alone the technical quality of your video. The angle from which a subject is approached has a huge impact. This is particularly true of the short TikTok video clips. On this platform, where the majority of users are between 16 and 24 years old, creativity is essential, as the length of the video created cannot exceed 60 seconds.
Worthy of note
- There must be an angle in your content: beyond the lol-trash-cute dogma that seems to rule B2C social media, B2B can also take advantage of the creativity of social media video. Look at Tom Dickson’s famous Will it Blend YouTube channel, which has been around for 15 years.
Don’t hesitate to ditch the old tone of voice and unbearable Corporate speak to embrace Web pulp culture. You will need to adapt to it. If businesses admit that changes to their communication must be made to adapt to the Asian or African markets, why can’t they do it on the Web? It’s all in the mind.
Pay attention to the characteristics of the platform: On TikTok for example, it is advisable to be personable and fun. This is also the case on Instagram, which does not lend itself to serious stuff. However, the offbeat side sometimes also works for deep content. We’ve been able to recruit many of our webinar registrants by posting thumbnails of our events on Instagram… provided they are graphically appealing, they are bound to be successful.
Be authentic, especially on TikTok where fake smiles and Corporate newspeak will be mocked by a young audience looking for simple, creative and humorous content.
Don’t fret and don’t be afraid to fail: having 40 views on your videos is not the end of the world. In fact, it’s quite common – the vast majority (91%) of YouTube videos don’t even reach 1,000 views. Video requires hard work, experience, trial and error: don’t expect you’ll make 1 million views after a couple of tries. Examine multiple formats, facilitate your community and learn as you go along.
Beyond the very technicality of your video content, publishing regularly matters greatly. Your community should know when to expect to hear from you. Facebook videos are a great format for that since they regularly appear in the news feed of your community members. In this case, opt for short-form content (so that you can make them return to your content regularly). Remember, authenticity is also what will maintain that community feeling.
Tip no. 3 – Sharing is caring, caring is sharing!
Eyeballs aren’t always what makes your videos successful. Producing a video, however long it takes, is not an end in itself, it’s only the beginning of the process. Sharing it and re-sharing as well as engaging with your readers is essential.
Worthy of note
- Work on your video SEO. SEO is not just for written content, and the fact that YouTube is often considered as Google‘s fourth search-engine is not so surprising. Just like blogs, videos require a title, a description, keywords, and a category. All these items must be chosen carefully if you want your SEO to be top-notch.
- Choosing a powerful thumbnail and title are far less time-consuming elements than video editing. According to YouTube, 90% of the best performing videos have a personalised thumbnail.
- Call to action: asking your audience to like, share, comment or subscribe to your content doesn’t require much effort and it’s an effective way of engaging your audience.
- Share your videos on social: Word-of-mouth will be the result of your friends and followers sharing your content again and again.
To know more, we have interviewed Mathieu Fiorenti, an independent consultant specialised in video content on social networks and a lecturer at Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) as well as Paris School of Business.
“Video marketing is easy when you are a Freelance or a YouTuber, it is extremely hard for brands!”
“To succeed on YouTube, Facebook or TikTok, brands have to break free of many rules and historical marketing communication bad advertisers’ habits. This is a challenge that brands have to come to terms with. Drawing a line between their good old tone of voice and the way one should express oneself on such platforms.
To maximise video marketing success on social, brands need to draw as much inspiration as possible from what Web content creators have done.
Video is the obligatory content format
Today, video has become an essential content type. If teenagers can captivate millions of people from their bedrooms, brands can do that too. Besides, high-quality video content can be produced on a shoestring and by drawing inspiration from the many tutorials which are available online”.
B2B vs B2C
“There is not necessarily a big difference between B2B and B2C. However, the tone and types of videos produced will be different. Entertainment will be more developed in B2C, while B2B will focus more on education and depth.
As far as platforms are concerned, B2B brands have every reason to be on YouTube today. Very little search is done on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. On the other hand, YouTube is a powerful search engine. In B2B, you can use Google Trends to search for opportunities to attrac t your audience by focusing on search.
Facebook is a platform for online communities, engagement and even for HR. Paid can also be a good option on this platform to micro-target your message and/or recruitment endeavours within your communities. Facebook’s feed design implies there is no long-tail content. If your content hasn’t been spotted within the first 15 days, it means it will never be seen”.
3 types of video content
“There are 3 types of video strategy according to Google:
- ‘HERO’ content is for working alongside media buying and micro-targeting. On YouTube, ‘event-driven’ content on major events linked to your brand is a good option.
- ‘HELP’ content, which will not only inform your consumers and your community about your products but will also provide SEO opportunities. Particularly in what is known as mobile micro-moments. These are new moments of where brands can capture their audience’s attention. It will be necessary to position videos and the right content on which the brand is recognised, on the one hand, and above all to bring unique and valuable content to consumers on the other hand. It is no longer just about selling your product, selling your brand, showcasing your products, but about the service that the brand can provide to consumers.
- So-called ‘HUB’ content, which we will find here a little bit on all three platforms. This is content which will be used for storytelling at regular intervals. Such content usually mimics other content which has been successful on those platforms.”
Adapting to the various social platforms is a must
“Each platform has its own characteristics in terms of content and engagement, but also different audiences and modes. Feeds imply a portrait video format as is the case for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. On YouTube, conversely, videos will be mostly in landscape format.
Facebook covers almost all demographics. YouTube is viewed by slightly younger and more male populations than Facebook. And TikTok is the platform for teenagers, young people and schoolboys and girls. But in most countries, the TikTok audience is growing older. Things are also changing very quickly.
In this respect, the first question to ask is ‘where is my audience ?’, ‘What types of content will I be able to position on which platform ?’ It doesn’t make much sense to publish overly serious B2B content on TikTok. It’s more geared towards cool, tongue in cheek, humorous content. Serious B2B content will be at home on YouTube, rather. Each platform has its own language, its own form of expression and it is preferable to adjust one’s content to each platform”.
How to use 4 K Video Downloader ethically
4K Video Downloader is a piece of software that allows you to download videos from social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook or TikTok. It is very handy for bloggers, keynote speakers or lecturers who want to make a presentation for example, when they cannot rely 100% on the Internet connection in the projection room, for example. Visionary Marketing’s consultants have been using it regularly for many years, particularly in academia, as it allows videos to be included in course materials.
Nevertheless, we feel it is necessary to underline the importance of ethics in the use of 4 K Video Downloader. In particular, users are requested to respect the work of the creators, not to use these videos for personal use, and to always credit these videos to their authors. It is advisable to use this software for personal purposes and to avoid distributing information that does not belong to you. Once you have respected these rules, you will be able to take full advantage of this very useful piece of software, especially for teachers.
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Yann Gourvennec a créé visionarymarketing.com en 1996. Il est conférencier et auteur de 6 livres. En 2014, il est passé d'intrapreneur à entrepreneur en créant son agence de marketing numérique.
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