The Key to Craft Successful Social Media Videos.

Dozens of social platforms exist and each one features a unique group of people with unique desires. It’s foolish to believe that posting the same video everywhere will drive results. If agencies and brands want their content to be seen, they need to make it fit into this highly selective climate.

The Bite-Sized Approach

Rather than distribute a single video throughout every social media platform, modern agencies should instead embrace a fractionalized approach in which the “big idea” (or the backbone) of a campaign is custom-tailored to each site. This means strategically creating several videos instead of one big video.

Video marketing has evolved into an entirely different beast and we have to constantly adapt to stay relevant. Here are three principles that will help anyone to create successful campaigns in this new climate:

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1. Urgency. You’ll have between half a second and five seconds to capture users’ attention.

Work hard to hook viewers with stunning imagery within the first few frames of the video, but no matter how tempting it is, don’t lure them in by flashing something irrelevant on the screen. Instead, try having the first few seconds of an ad provide a visual teaser of the best, most relevant part of the video.

For example, if you’re promoting a direct-to-consumer fashion line, starting your spot with a time-lapse unboxing segment will be much more engaging than simple product shots. After you’ve hooked the audience, you can cut away to the explanation of how your product or service works.

2. Relevance. Consumers visit certain social media platforms to see specific types of content. For example, according to Pew Research, a majority of Twitter and Facebook users are there to gather news. As such, you should publish timely, newsy content on these platforms — such as videos that announce new product lines.

Users on Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, on the other hand, are looking to build their skills and feel inspired. According to Google, YouTube searches containing the phrase “how-to” are growing by 70% each year. So on these platforms, try to provide tip-based marketing videos for the DIY crowd.

3. Style. Given that users are uploading iPhone-shot photos and videos to Snapchat, don’t even think about using high-gloss cinematography. The content you create should look like it authentically fits with the content that consumers already engage with.

The traditional one-size-fits-all approach to social media video marketing simply doesn’t work anymore. Today’s consumers have extremely short, extremely picky attention spans, and hitting that “skip” button has become second nature to them. In order to thrive in the future and have your content be seen, it’s time for marketing agencies to embrace the new era of bite-sized, fractionalized video content.

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