Social media marketing and video campaigns have come together to produce social video, and it’s a Los Angeles video marketing trend that doesn’t look like it’ll be going away any time soon. It just makes sense, seeing as how different social media platforms have made it ridiculously easy to capture, upload, and share video content.
Jumping onto the social video marketing bandwagon may seem like a piece of cake if you’ve already tried social media marketing or corporate video production. However, there are some aspects of it that are slightly different. Hosting a video on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter is vastly different from hosting a video on your own website or landing page.
For the newcomers and those looking to give it a go, here are some tips for running a great social video marketing campaign.
Publish Regularly
“If you want regular viewership, you need to post content regularly.”
Tubular Insights points out that the most successful blogs and channels are those with regularly scheduled (quality) content going out. Paid YouTube creators often aim to post a video once or twice a week, and they often have dozens—if not hundreds—of pre-recorded and pre-edited videos ready to post in the off-chance that they can’t film for while. This is because an inactive channel looks like a dead channel, and many run the risk of losing subscribers if there’s no fresh content within a week.
You want to do something similar without flooding your followers feed. A video a week is pretty good if it’s supplemented by other forms of content. If you’re only posting video, aim for three or four times a week, just to keep your viewers engaged. If you’re strapped for ideas, Forbes has some great video content suggestions you can try.
Encourage User-Generated Content
GoPro’s “Be a HERO” campaign blew up the internet when they posted a tear-inducing video of a fireman saving a tiny kitten from a burning house full of smoke. With 36 million views and more than 50,000 comments, there’s no doubt that this video can be considered viral. The genius behind this marketing structure is that GoPro didn’t have to hire a Los Angeles video production team to come up with the story and video. This is actual, raw footage of a fireman restoring every viewer’s faith in humanity.
Encouraging your consumers to share their experience or film themselves with your product in action is a great way to boost brand trust and visibility. This is called user-generated content (UGC) and it can be far more powerful—and far more convincing—than other marketing videos.
Aim For Shareable, Not Viral
The secret to creating a viral video is not planning it. There is no formula to an instant viral video, although there are steps you can take to make your video stand out. Still, the whole point of a viral video is that it circulates like wildfire. For it to circulate at that speed, everyone should be interested, engaged, or amused by the content. Trying to come up with something that will appeal to hundreds of millions of people with different backgrounds and different interests and all scattered across a dozen different platforms is simply not an easy task.
That’s why you should aim for your video content to be as shareable as possible. If it’s even remotely engaging or entertaining, people will want to share it with their network. Include plenty of links and options to share your video across different platforms. Using a Los Angeles video production company to optimize your video for each platform is ideal, however getting multiple shares and backlinks via different networks is better. Include simple descriptions, relevant tags, and captions/subtitles if you can to help your video along.
Regular Shout-Outs
A lot of YouTube celebrities and content creators do this, and it keeps their audience interacting with them on different social media platforms. Before they end every video, they do a “shout-out” by mentioning a person’s name or social media handle and then thanking them for whatever it was that made them stand out—like liking all their Instagram photos or retweeting all their tweets.
You can do something similar in the form of weekly shout-outs. Instead of mentioning one user every video, you could gather three to five of the online users that caught your attention for the week and then mention them all individually in one video. For example; “our first shout-out goes to [name] or @TwitterHandle. She left such a beautiful review on [your product]. It was one of the best ones we’ve ever read, [name], and we’re so happy you enjoyed our product!”
Publishing videos like this regularly will keep consumers and users engaged. Some may watch out of curiosity. Others may participate actively for a chance to get mentioned. Regardless, Los Angeles video marketing strategies such as this warrant a pretty good number of views and a decent amount of audience/viewer interaction.
