8 ways video thrives in social media marketing campaigns

It can be a challenge to deliver quality content across multiple social media channels consistently.

Your business can use video to bring a little variation to your social media marketing calendar. Visuals have been shown to reinforce marketing messages, which is no surprise considering 65 percent of us are visual learners.

Video is no longer optional: 87 percent of online marketers use video content and this trend is set to continue. Experts have predicted that video will account for 80 percent of online traffic by 2019.

Here are 8 undeniable reasons why you should be using video in your B2B social media campaigns.

Video quickly grabs attention

Visual intelligence is rising. On social media, people tend to scroll feeds in search of content that jumps out at them. Online, we are constantly scanning content for relevance and interest, and we trust thumbnails to help us find that.

Because it’s so easy on the eye, a video is excellent at hooking an audience.

People respond better to visual information than plain text - 59 percent of executives find that where both text and video are available for the same topic, they’re likely to plump for the video.

Visual content is also well over 40 times more likely to get shared then all-text content, and video is no exception.

No wonder, when there's so much you can do to make it unique - animation, typography, inventive edits, bold cinematography - the possibilities are endless.

Publishing a striking video on social will help you reach new audiences. 

Video content boosts SEO

All of your online content should be optimised for search engines, and video is no exception. 

By optimising your video content you create another opportunity to rise in the rankings. Luckily for businesses with a video marketing strategy in place, Google gives priority to posts featuring video.

Consider the written word surrounding your video: your headlines, tags and descriptions. Use action language and relevant keywords.

This is critical in attracting visitors to your site - posts with videos boast 3 times more inbound links than their plain text counterparts.

Most social media platforms provide viewer data that will help you do this, for example, Twitter offers in-depth hashtag analytics which reveals engagement by key demographics.

Track engagement

Most social media channels have made it easy for businesses to access data about their viewers.

Video marketing metrics collected via social media platforms will help your team get to grips with what your buyer personas care about.

Whether you are looking at paid social or organic traffic, it’s important that you monitor your audience’s engagement.

Views and shares are a strong indicator of success. Click-throughs and completion rates can be equally telling.

A good gauge of the popularity of each post will inform you of what appeals to your potential customers, as well as things that seem to turn them away. This information is invaluable to future projects.

You can use tracking links to test whether your video call to action is delivering the results you want.

Drive conversions

Video marketing campaign goals typically revolve around viewer action.

A good quality video can drive traffic to your website, inspire prospects to complete a purchase or share your brand message with others.

When a prospect has watched your video through to completion, they have demonstrated a genuine interest in what you have to say, and a video CTA will help you drive them to act after your video ends.

Your video should share a message that leaves viewers wanting more.

By guiding viewers on social media to your website, with the inclusion of a compelling call to action, you can help them progress along the buyer journey.

Share information

If you have an important message to share, you want it to be memorable. Using video can really make your message stick. A typical viewer retains 95 percent of a message received via video (compared to just 10 percent recalled from text).

Convey your message in a fun, compact format, because 1/5 of viewers will click away from a video within the first 10 seconds.

You can extend the lifetime of your written inbound marketing content by converting it to a bitesize video that is compatible with social.

Give viewers a taste of your blog and then indicate where they can go to top up their knowledge.

Join the conversation

Your audience is on a mission to find content that is relevant and up to date.

It’s up to you to deliver it.

Social is the arena for today's breaking news. Social video can be used to spread the word. People are doing it daily - 700 YouTube videos are shared every minute on Twitter. A great deal of those are business oriented.

But it’s not only ideal for sharing updates from your company. Keeping abreast of the latest developments in your industry helps you maintain your status as an expert in your field. Watch your industry, customers and competitors closely.

Social listening can help you understand consumer behaviour and keep up to speed with trending topics. This helps you become part of the conversation and generate content that is perfectly on point.

Popular hashtags open the doors to a world of creativity. Take for example #TBT (for throwback Thursday), which is an easy starting point for social video that elicits engagement.

Inbound marketing endeavours to reach the right people, at the right time in the right place, and an awareness of trending topics will help you do so.

Video is the most exciting way to join in.

Heighten brand awareness

100 million hours of video are watched every day on Facebook. That’s a lot of exposure.

Branded content inspires consumers to seek out further information. 

Video is your opportunity to focus on a real story (rather than the hard sell). However, there’s no harm in reminding viewers who you are! 64 percent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos.

Your logo and choice of CTA are the best way to encourage conversions through video. You could either include your logo in your closing sting or watermark your video with a small company logo. This will enhance brand recognition.

Remember, the first 3 - 10 seconds of video are the most fragile in terms of viewer attention, so prove your worth before pushing your brand.

Humanise your business

Posting only business-related content can cause your audience to disengage because your content isn’t diverse, relatable or entertaining enough.

People appreciate transparency. What better way to let your followers see behind the scenes than with video? Behind the scenes, videos are highly visual way to reveal your work practices and create a sense of familiarity with your audience.

Inbound marketing strategies concentrate heavily on the value provided to your buyer personas. It’s a credit to your business if your customers associate you with fun, helpful and interesting video content on social.