Quick and Easy Guide to Managing Your Social Media Video

How familiar are you with social media?

Ever heard of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or TikTok? There are many other apps available and I’m sure you can name a few more.

Using those social media, how many of you have seen a video being posted today?

I’m highly confident that you have, especially on your mobile phones. I mean, I saw a few about 3 minutes ago myself!

The truth is, in 2007, the amount of time people spend watching Facebook live has quadrupled and Instagram videos by 80% compared to the year before. Cisco even predicts that in 2020, 75% of mobile data traffic will be videos.

Now, it is 2020 and everyone is on lockdown due to the pandemic. Everyone is super bored and videos are getting increasingly popular, more than what it already is. People would watch everything and anything because everyone is so bored.

It is no surprise that businesses are advertising their products or services using a video posted on social media. As business owners, you should also start considering this option too.

But how and where do I start?

5 Things Before You Start

1. What’s the goal of your video? Education purposes or new product introductions?
2. How are you going to tell your story? How will you translate your goal into an engaging story?
3. How will your audience relate to this video? Will the audience connect to your story to a personal level? Will your video provide any value to my audience or is it just going to be a waste of their time?
4. Honestly, would you watch your own video if it’s not yours? If your answer is no, then most likely people won’t too. So, abort the mission.
5. How would you motivate your audience to take action? What’s your call-to-action statement or your sign up instruction?

Once you have answers to all the questions above, then you’re ready to start.

Let’s Start!

Now, you’ve started a long, but very rewarding journey.

#1. Landscape, Portrait, or Square?

This might be a very simple question, but trust me not everyone knows the answer. So which one is better?

The answer is it depends on where you’re going to post the video!

Square videos can be used on different platforms, mobile phones, computers, and other devices. It is also more suitable for smaller devices, such as mobile phones. Square videos occupy 78% more of your phone screen than landscape or horizontal videos do.

If your video is on the landscape, then your phone needs to be set as a landscape to have the maximum video experience. You can still watch the video when your phone is set on a portrait, but the video will be too small and harder to see. But landscape videos work perfectly with television.

The same goes for portrait videos on the landscape setting. Portrait videos need to be on devices with portrait settings. Portrait videos work perfectly for Instagram stories!

So, whether your video is landscape, portrait or square depends on where you want the video to be displayed. There are people out there that can’t be bothered to change their phone setting from portrait to landscape and vice versa, for example, me!

#2. View bait

Let’s assume that view bait is clickbait’s cousin, we will talk about it later.

Its purpose is somewhat similar, which is to get more views, just in a different way. You can do a little bit of research with view bait videos.

If you haven’t noticed, videos that you’ve encountered on Instagram and Facebook tend to auto-play on its own, even though most of the time it’s on mute.

And even if people do decide to watch them, 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Have you found a way for your video to still deliver a message, even in silence?

Warning: Viewbaits that are not on mute may cause a heart attack (especially when your device’s volume is maxed out), followed by a major confusion of where the sound is coming from. You’ve been warned!!

Most people will just scroll through these types of videos anyway, therefore it does not count as significant views. However, if your video has a strong visual opening and your audiences watch more than the first 3 seconds of the video, that is what you want.

If you have low significant views, this can be an easy fix with view bait’s cousin, clickbait. Put an interesting title and thumbnail and you’re off to a good start.

#3. Live-Action or Cartoon

If you’re an expert at drawing on a computer complete with animating it, then, of course, you can create your own video.

If you have the equipment to record live-action videos, do it! Updating your social media for personal use can also be done easily.

However, if you’re not one tech-savvy person, there are people out there that can help you! Especially if you want to advertise your business through social media, you might want to ask for help from the expert.

Businesses do have to come up with their own idea (so pretty much everything you’ve been reading up until this point is).

You need to make decisions on what story you want to tell, how are you going to tell it and what message should be delivered. You know your business best, while the people assisting you making the video knows how to make videos best. So, let’s stick to what we know best.

What’s Next?

You’re so close to finally creating your first video!

If you’re unsure of whose company will be the lucky one to be able to work alongside you finishing this project. Then you have a dilemma of choosing a cheap or an expensive one.

If you choose a cheap one, yes your bank account will be saved, but will you take a huge risk by compromising your video’s quality? If it turns out bad, not only the video is unusable but you will also waste all that money!

On the other hand, if you choose an expensive one, your eyes and your audiences’ will thank you for it.

But what do you have to sacrifice in order to be able to afford it? Your kidney?

Yes, in some cases price cannot define the quality of a product. But you will still have that doubt and worry haunting you.

There is a solution that I can offer you where you can get an excellent quality video with a budget that won’t require you to sell your kidney!

Read more about social media videos strategy here: Social Media Videos — 10 Things You Have to Know.

Do you have any other tips that can help your fellow marketers to manage their social media videos better? Let us know in the comment section below!