Social Media Video Marketing

Highlight videos, snippets of highly anticipated movies, and Instagram videos can generate buzz! They are second to none for social media engagement and brand awareness!  Short form videos, or videos that are a few seconds to a couple minutes in length have been around for quite some time however they really caught everyone’s attention in 2013 and have been gaining traction ever since.

Why is this social media video marketing content just such an effective marketing tool? Well simply because they have the ability to incite curiosity in viewers which can work wonders to kick start conversions.

The Long and Short of Video Marketing Content

Today, marketers are concerning themselves with creating content to cater to the attention span of the social media generation. Few people have the time to sit and watch long videos. This isn’t just arm chair guessing either — a report from Jun Group has stated that videos that are 15 seconds in length or shorter are shared almost 37 percent more often than those that last 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Izideo cites that an overwhelming 100 million internet users watch online video every day in their 25 Amazing Video Marketing Statistics

Short form content has been catching up for quite some time. Twitter popularized their 140 character tweets, and Facebook posts are rarely over a few lines in length. Smart phones and tablets are also allowing more and more people to consume information. They can also create content in the form of text, graphics and video on the move.

Brands must create content that is quick and “snack-able”. Several types of trends are beginning to emerge as a result. Brands distribute product teases, sneak peeks, highlights and previews in greater numbers with much success.

Some forms of content are ideal in short form.

BBC for instance began sharing short news pieces via Instagram and it was very well received. While creating news snippets 15 seconds long is not exactly simple, it is easily consumed and extremely effective.

Likewise silent videos or rather videos with no commentary or dialogue are also extremely popular short form advertising. These are great for showcasing products in an easily interpretable and attractive way.

And finally, Do It Yourself videos are a perfect way to educate your audience with short hacks, tips and tricks. Lowes, for example, has an entire Tumblr account dedicated to home improvement tips and tricks. They share videos on how their audience can improve their homes.

Short recipes can also make great short form advertising. They can be tied in with products such as food processors, blenders and cooking equipment.

6 Seconds of Fame with Online Video Marketing Content

Short form social media online video marketing content is becoming a great new tool for brands to engage customers with. Vine, with their looping videos, is perhaps the best example here. The app based service which went online last year already boasts an impressive 40 million users. They are uploading all manners of videos ranging from people brushing their teeth to people planking on top of poles.

They are expressing their creativity and have taken the video world by storm. Vine also recently added a feature that allows people to see how many times a video has been watched (or looped). Top vines can easily garner over hundreds of thousands or even millions of views.

Vine overshot its competitors by creating a tool that allowed videos that are no longer than 6 seconds and can go on repeating themselves endlessly. Called the “infinity loop” the feature is what sets social media marketing with Vine videos apart from other online video content marketing tactic (and was successful enough to cause Twitter to buy Vine out).

Facebook also added a similar video feature as well to Instagram where users can upload 15 seconds long clips. The move ended up being in the right direction as social media videos on Instagram get twice the engagement of photos.

These developments are pretty interesting. Top content platforms will never add features if they were not reasonably sure that they can expect higher engagement with it. So if they are focusing on short form videos, then they must be doing very well in terms of driving more users to take action. Independent research is definitely pointing to this as well; for instance, Neomobile informs that they expect two thirds of the world’s mobile traffic to be online video content by 2017.

No Free Lunch

Unfortunately, this does not mean that brands can expect to create advertising on the cheap now. While consumers are demanding more and more short online video marketing content, creating high quality clips still requires a fair amount of effort and ingenuity. Top Viners are already making 6 figure incomes uploading short videos; however they admit that it can take up to 4 hours on an average to create a 6 second long video properly.

The same applies to any brand which wishes to use the power of short form content. These videos are still a lot cheaper to produce than regular advertising and made creatively you can be rest assured that your advertising budget will be well spent!

What are some interesting uses of short form videos that you have used for your business? Make a comment and let us know.