Utilizing the Top 5 Types of Social Media Videos to Boost Engagement

Are you looking forward to making videos a part of your social media marketing strategy? A lot of brands have started using short videos for the promotion of their latest products/ services and engaging their audiences, and they have found it to be very effective. If you also want to implement a strategy like this, you must first determine what works best for your company.

The user demand for more creative, engaging, and informative videos is increasingly growing around the world, and this is an excellent opportunity that businesses should leverage to boost their engagement. According to research, a vast majority of all internet users worldwide watch online videos every month, with the 25-35-year-olds being the majority watchers.

Considering these emerging trends, their popularity, and the array of opportunities it brings forward for the businesses, more and more people have started realizing it’s worth. In fact, almost 87% of marketers used videos as a part of their strategy last year, according to a report.

In this blog, we will discuss the top 5 most effective social media videos that you can create in just half an hour and how you can market them successfully to boost your audience engagement.

Questions You Must Ask Yourself Before You Start Creating the Videos

Videos continue to command and influence the social media field. As per several reports, by the year 2021, almost 80% of total internet traffic will comprise videos. The reasons behind this immense popularity of videos can be the fact that people find them more relatable on a personal level and can follow a genuine message from the actors or vloggers. So, before you start with the video creation process, first you need to ask yourself these few questions:

• How do these videos fit your complete marketing strategy?
• What type of emotion are you going to cast in your videos to make them more effective?
• On what social media platforms will you share the videos, and at what time?
• Who is your target audience for the videos you post?
• How do the videos fit into your customer journey?
• What will be your CTA?

Top 5 Types of Social Media Videos to Include in Your Strategy

When it comes to marketing your company, products, or services, there are numerous types of video formats that you can choose from. What you choose heavily depends on what you think would work best for your brand and on the platforms you are going to use. However, here are the top five types of videos you can create in less than a 30-minute duration that you should consider incorporating in your social media marketing strategy:

1. Informational Videos

One of the best ways to attract various types of audiences to your brand is by creating and sharing informational videos that are compelling and push the viewers to share it with their friends and connections. Use the pillar-and-cluster technique to organize all your videos to boost their ability to be discovered by Google. Aim to create videos that are unique, insightful, and amusing. Adding a pinch of humor in your videos will make them even more entertaining for the audience. Here are a few more tips that you can use while creating an informational video:

• Try not to give away a lot of details or make the video too lengthy as today’s viewers have a short attention span, and this will only make them lose interest.
• Be sure that your videos are ‘fun to watch’ as they might become the base of your content.
• Give your videos an identity or personality that also reflects your brand’s image.
• Assess the performance of your videos. It will help you shape your strategy and discover topics you should work on in your next videos.
• Check the comments that your audience leaves on your social media videos to get an idea of the topics they want to see or you to cover.

2. Live Videos

Live Video is an exceptional way of engaging with your followers and viewers. It lets you communicate with your audience directly. You can go live using a popular streaming service like YouTube Live, Instagram Live, Facebook Live, etc. Live videos are great to use for public announcements, product launch, or behind-the-scenes (BTS) events. You can offer short live video updates frequently to keep your audience connected with you and maintain their interest. You may also consider doing live interviews, chats, and Q&As to build relationships and stay engaged with them.

Here are a few tips that you should keep in mind while going live:

• Use a high-quality device to ensure the sound and picture quality of your live videos are clear and engaging.
• Carry out a test of your entire setup to make sure your device, equipment, and everything are functioning properly before you go live.
• Make use of scheduling tools such as Facebook Premiere to boost your live videos’ visibility.
• Plan out a proper live streaming schedule to give your followers and audience something that they might anticipate and thus build their loyalty.

3. Behind-the-Scenes Videos

Behind-the-scenes or BTS videos help you in establishing a more personal relationship with your audience as they will be able to see the way you carry out your daily operations. They offer your prospects a quick peek of your everyday operations and the culture of your company. You can create BTS videos focusing on your production process, workplace organization, executives, employees, products or services, etc. You can also feature your prominent or regular clients and vendors or suppliers.

Make sure your behind-the-scenes videos are informative, appealing, and well-made. If your videos are all these things, then the viewers tend to share it even more actively. Here are a few tips that you should bear in mind while creating BTS videos:

• Be sure to incorporate and highlight your brand personality or culture in your videos to raise awareness.
• Focus on the day-to-day tasks or activities of your employees that your audience might find interesting or would love to know about.
• Take feedback about your brand, products, and services from your customers, staff, and suppliers.
• Portray the stories behind your company, products or services, executives, and employees through your videos.

4. Tutorial Videos

Tutorial videos are among the most shared videos across social media platforms because of its mass appeal. When creating these videos, you should make sure that they are relevant to your brand and products or services. You may also make videos focusing on topics relevant to your industry, niche, and target audience. Keep your tutorial videos informative, appealing, and easy-to-understand so that it can grab the attention of your viewers, who, by the way, are your prospects. The first minute or two of your video should be focused on crucial information. You need to strike a balance so that your tutorials are long enough to include all the steps and short enough to maintain the interest of your viewers.

Here are a few tips to remember when making tutorial videos:

• Create tutorial videos that are straightforward and easy to follow to make them more appealing and engaging.
• Ask for suggestions and recommendations from your audience on the topics you should cover next to boost your videos’ potential of acquiring more views.
• Avoid using methods and tools that your audience is unfamiliar with or find it hard to understand.
• Be sure to respond to the comments, suggestions, or questions that your viewers drop regarding your videos to make them feel connected and thus build loyalty.

5. Trending/Breaking News Videos

Users have increasingly started obtaining trending and breaking news on social media platforms. According to reports, more than half of the total internet users consumed news on these platforms. Moreover, the famous social media site Twitter also revealed that breaking news videos are one of the most viewed types of videos on its platform. Considering this, using breaking news videos is an excellent opportunity to reach your target audiences. However, make sure the videos you are creating are relevant to your industry. You can also cover the new upcoming projects, products/services, or changes in your organization or give your opinion or reaction on the latest happening or major trends in your niche.

When creating videos, you should always use the right format according to the social media platforms where you will be sharing them. For example, 1:1 or square videos work best for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and 16:9 or landscape videos for platforms such as YouTube. However, for Instagram and Snapchat stories, it is best to use 9:16 or portrait videos.

3 Ways to Effectively Market Your Social Media Videos

You need to prepare a strategy to promote your social media videos to make sure it acquires the most views. Running a well-planned social media video campaign helps you engage your audience and attract more users effectively. Here are three tactics that will help you market your videos successfully:

1. Post your videos strategically

You should publish your videos on the most popular social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. to make sure users are able to watch and share it easily. The best way to get the most number of views, likes, and shares is by running an ad campaign for your most popular video or cross-promoting them.

You must optimize your videos for individual platforms to increase their visibility. Make your videos more researchable by employing SEO strategies such as using keywords and metatags. Optimize your videos to play smoothly on all devices, but focus more on mobile format as the majority of the users use their smartphones to watch videos online.

The best way to capture the attention of your potential viewers is by using pre-roll video advertisements on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Your video ads should be informal, light, and entertaining so that it appeals to the audience.

2. Use promotional tools and services

Proactively promote your videos. Use video promotions on popular sites like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram to reach more audiences. Optimize your videos’ performance by analyzing the latest market trends and viewer behavior.

When utilizing these promotional tools and services, make sure you target a particular group of audience that is most likely to benefit the most from your video. In this way, you can look forward to getting more responses, such as views, likes, comments, and shares.

Sharing your videos in niche communities relevant to your business can also be beneficial. Joining such groups and participating in their discussions and conversations while sharing your videos will help in establishing you as a thought leader. However, make sure to share your videos casually and occasionally to avoid looking too salesy.

3. Track the performance of your videos

Monitoring the performance of your videos is essential in determining their success and whether or not you need to change your strategy. You can utilize the data provided by the platforms where you have shared your videos to get in-depth insights about the total views, likes, shares, comments, etc.

However, to go more into details and find information such as your audience’s profile and behavior, you can use social media analytics tools. Having a more clear and accurate idea of the play rate and the types of users your videos attract will help you brainstorm ways to improve your future videos.

While tracking your videos’ performance, try to identify their effect on your overall bottom line. Do you see a surge in your sales? If yes, then find out if your videos have contributed to that hike. Monitoring your social media marketing campaign is crucial to determine your Return On Investment (ROI).

Conclusion

In today’s world, videos are emerging as one of the most powerful tools in the marketing arsenal. The kind of potential video content is offering in terms of reach and engagement is incredible for business growth. So, if you want to boost your brand awareness or promote your products and services to a broader audience integrating videos in your social media strategy is a must. Keep these few tips and tricks in mind, and you will be all set to boost your engagement!