Business owners can no longer question that videos play a role in a company’s content strategy. If you do not use videos on your social media platforms, you miss out on a considerable part of your audience. If you do not know where to start with social media video marketing, reach out to a video production company for assistance. They will work as your partner in video creation—just like having an in-house production studio!

Videos stand as a highly effective way to showcase not only your company’s product and service but also its creativity and diversity. The availability of video creation on social media platforms means you can be as hands-on as you want to with your video production and retain total control over the product.

Just as important as creating an engaging video is creating an effective social media campaign to go with it. Without this, your informative, entertaining, or persuasive video won’t get the traction it needs to justify this new arm of your marketing plans. Let’s look at nine tips that you’ll need to utilize for a successful social media video marketing launch. 

1.   Choose Your Social Media Platform for Video

The first step includes choosing the social media platforms you’ll employ video on because it will dictate the finer points of the remaining steps to success. You should probably not venture onto a new social media platform at this stage. That can be like learning a new language. If you already use Facebook, consider a Facebook video rather than moving to something new, such as an Instagram story.

Instead, plan to use the platforms your company has already established a presence and a following on. Since you understand the medium already, there will be less guesswork in your strategy. This will also help in production with video dimensions. It would be tragic to put so much time and effort into creating a masterpiece, only to see it cut off or not display at an optimal size. Viewers don’t spend time on videos that require much effort on their part. It needs to be easily viewed and understood with a clear message for them to engage.

2.   Create a Video Marketing Roadmap

Your social media video marketing strategy needs to fit into your overall content marketing plan. Once you’ve chosen the platforms to work with, you can get a better idea of what types of videos you will create.

Start small here, so you do not feel overwhelmed. If you begin from a place of familiarity and comfort and know the makeup of your audience, you will have a firm foundation to determine video types and topics. Look at your content calendar and see where videos can fit. Perhaps you have a speaker series coming up and can create videos to highlight each participant. Or you have a new product launching in a few months and want to generate some intrigue ahead of it.  

3. Create Goals for Your Social Media Marketing Videos

With each social media marketing video, you’ll also need to decide if you want to educate, inform, entertain, persuade, or demonstrate. Each video should end with a call to action that reflects your goal. Some goals for marketing videos on social media are:

• Raise brand awareness
• Increase sales
• Increase customer loyalty
• Increase subscribers
• Get event signups

Apply the same goals to your social media marketing videos that you do to the rest of the pieces of your content strategy. Investigate where in your digital marketing strategy videos can supplement your other tools and uplift your results.

4. Diversify Video Types

Once you delve into the land of video marketing, you will see you have options. If you plan to post multiple videos on one platform, you may wish to diversify your offerings. Types of videos for social media marketing include:

• Animated videos
• Pre-recorded live-action videos
• Real-time live videos

As you contemplate what types of videos you will use, think about the resources required for each. If you do a Facebook Live video, you’ll need to spend time thinking through its production in advance. What will the lighting conditions be at the time you go live? Will you need to supplement them with additional artificial light? What could interfere with the audio? The day could be windy, or the location may be near a high-traffic roadway. Will you take questions from the audience, and if so, who will monitor them and respond to comments?

5. Plan Video Production Timeline

Figure out when the videos need to launch to fit into your roadmap and work backward. You will need to determine the staff required for each video. Will you produce it entirely in-house or employ a video production company?

You need to discern what information you must gather ahead of time to create a script. What graphics do you need to use in your video and to promote the video across several platforms? What other departments in your company need to approve the video?

6. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

Videos allow you to market your company in a creative way. Take the process seriously but don’t take yourself too seriously. One of the points behind social media and video marketing is to show your human side. Your company represents more than just a product and a bunch of robots and computers. Your product and your company culture build your brand. You know your audience. You can lighten up on social media.

7. Promote the Videos

Once you’vedetermined the platforms to use, the types of videos to create, and any deadlines required, you can add promotion of those videos to your content marketing calendar.

With Facebook videos, you can create video posts then promote them with paid ads, using the same content in multiple ways—a marketer’s favorite trick. With completed videos hosted on a platform, you can update previous relevant blog posts with links to them.

Think about how you can use the video in parts if possible. You can record an entire interview with an expert and share it. Then share shorter clips from the same video to highlight specific quotes and topics.

8. Analyze Results

After you’ve launched your new videos on your social media platforms, monitor their effectiveness over time. You will quickly start seeing analytics from the media you’ve shared the videos on. You’ll need to get a few under your belt to compare which prove most popular with your audience.

9. Consult the Experts

You’re the expert in your product or service—the best of the best. No one knows your business like you do. Bee Video Productions is an expert in video production marketing. Let’s get together!

With Bee Video Productions in Toronto, you won’t be on your own as you face this new world of social media video marketing. Call (647) 625-9626 to find out about our cloud-based communication, virtual directors for live videos, animated marketing, and more.