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The Impact of Social Media Video Marketing

By May 9, 2019No Comments

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with almost two billion active users every month.

B2B video marketing is also on the rise, as 75 percent of executives watch work-related videos every week.

As a B2B business owner, you want to reach more decision-makers in your target demographic. You’re also looking to build connections that will establish your brand’s online reputation — and turn those impressions into conversions. Given its high ROI, video content deserves to be the cornerstone of your social media marketing strategy.

But what is the impact of video marketing and how can you craft a well-planned strategy that will get you conversions?

We’re going to show you four powerful reasons to invest in a smart social media video marketing strategy — and how you can make it work for you.

1. Video Marketing Is Great for SEO

Is content king for SEO? Yes, but unless you’re using a modern approach to content creation, you’re not using your online space to its full potential.

In 2019, the best brands take a multimedia approach to content creation. There’s huge potential in optimizing your visual content for SEO.

So how can you do this?

There are countless factors that go into YouTube ranking, so take some time to learn about those. However, some SEO methods will apply regardless of where the video is hosted.

One of the most effective ways is using text within your video. Here are a couple of ways to use this method to have your video showing up on Google and other search engines.

Optimize Your Titles and Descriptions

If you want to maximize SEO, don’t use videos have titles like myvideo.mp4 intended for internal use only (or worse, a series of random numbers and letters that you’ve never changed from their original file names).

Why? Because search engines can pick up on the titles and descriptions of any files you upload, even if these aren’t visible on your website from the front end.

Use this to your advantage by giving them accurate descriptions and titles.

You can also add title cards and captions throughout a video to be picked up by search engines.

Use Video Transcripts

When scrolling through Facebook, you’ve probably seen videos playing on silent with subtitles. This is better known as a video transcript, and it can also be searched by Google and other engines. Therefore, make sure you include transcripts in your videos.

An important tip: Google (or other search engines) can’t pick up on text that is part of an image. Make sure any video text is not hard-coded, otherwise it won’t work for SEO.

2. It’s Mobile-Friendly

Mobile is the main way that people engage with online content in 2019. In fact, YouTube reports that video consumption rises by 100 percent every year.

Research by Google has also found that mobile users are more likely to engage with branded content on mobile, including sharing and watching video content.

If your site and your social media content aren’t yet mobile optimized, now is the time to take action — you could be missing out on most of your customers otherwise.

How can you optimize video for mobile?

One of the best ways is to ensure your videos adapt to the size of the screen, regardless of the device. Nothing looks more horrible than a too-large video playing on a small screen.

Videos that you upload to YouTube will be responsive on that platform, but how can you make sure your videos are always responsive when embedded into your pages?

If you know some basic coding, there are ways to use CSS on WordPress and edit embed codes to make sure they always look good on your customer’s screen.

3. Social Media Shares Are 1200% Higher for Video

Social media video content is 1200 percent more likely to be shared than text and images.

It’s easy to see why: video humanizes your brand and engages the viewer in a multi-sensory way. People retain more information through video — sometimes for as long as a month after they’ve seen an ad.

How can you make sharing as easy as possible?

One way is to embed sharing buttons in your content wherever possible. You can use plugins like Floating Social to make your share buttons follow your customers as they scroll down the page.

Also, keep your videos to an appropriate length. What this is will depend on the type of video, but the majority of 2018 social media marketing videos were shorter than two minutes.

There’s high demand for video content in 2019, so give your customers what they want!

4. Video Allows for Multiple Types of Engaging Content

What comes to mind when you read the words “video content?” If you’re thinking of an embedded player with a “play” button, think a bit more broadly.

Here are some ideas to keep your brand producing dynamic and interesting visual content:

  • 360-degree videos – if you have a physical location, why not show customers your office, construction site, plant, or factory with a panoramic video?
  • Virtual reality – VR videos can provide truly immersive experiences
  • Animations – bring your infographics to life with animated explainer videos

Besides visual styles, there’s also the option of streaming live video using Periscope, Facebook Live, or YouTube. This can be a great way to complement your more polished video content and offer an “insider view” of your company.

Grow Your Presence Online with Video Content

Engagement numbers for both B2B and B2C video content make it clear that video marketing is the future of online advertising. There are so many different types of content you can produce and the evidence is strong that the decision-makers you want to reach are prepared to watch and share video content.

Now that you know why and how you should invest in video marketing, what’s next?

Check out our portfolio to see how we’ve helped businesses in the past, and contact us to see how we can help you produce engaging video content to get you the conversions you need!