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There’s never been a better time to market your product or service. Why? Well, we’ve come a long way since the early 1940s, when the TV was the only video platform to advertise on and only those who could afford a TV set were the ones who could watch advertisements.
Fast forward 81 years, and there is an absolute plethora of digital mediums you can advertise on. Digital billboards, public transport, elevators, smartwatches, refrigerators, movie theatres, and so many other places to showcase your business.
However, there’s one avenue that’s head and shoulders above the rest in terms of reach and with 4.33 billion of us using it around the world, it’s no wonder why so many companies are using it as part of their marketing strategies. We are of course talking about social media.
It’s hardly a secret these days and you’re probably saying to yourself, ‘called it’, but with each of us having approximately 8 social media accounts across all platforms, we’re going to hazard a guess and say that everyone ‘called it’. In fact, chances are your business is using social media right now to advertise. But the real question is how do you know your business uses the right one?
Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place where your resident video experts will take you through the top 4 social media platforms for video.
The superpower that is Facebook is alive, kicking and thriving! Once touted as a platform on its deathbed and moments away from a mass exodus of users, this could not be further from the truth in 2021. In fact, with roughly 2.89 billion monthly active users, Facebook continues to remain the most popular social network worldwide.
And even more staggering, during the second quarter of 2021, Facebook reported almost 1.9 billion daily active users – now that’s a lot of eyeballs digesting advertising content every day. So, what video format performs the best on Facebook?
Announcements & Reveals
Social media is an excellent platform to provide your customers with an update on your latest products, or perhaps a new partnership you’d like them to know about. And the best place to do it? Facebook.
Take DJI for example, they’ve just recently unveiled their latest edition to their smartphone gimbal range, the DJI OM 5. And how did they do it? Through a product video shared directly on their Facebook page.
Along with the attributing text, ‘more portable than its predecessor’, the DJI OM 5 is shown off in a variety of settings as people from all walks of life demonstrate its functionality. Features such as the portability, the Built-In Extension Rod, ActiveTrack 4.0 technology, and the new ShotGuides, a library of creative tips personalised to your environment, are all shown here in a minute and a half long video.
And the best part? Having already amassed a loyal fanbase, with over 4.9 million followers, DJI is communicating directly to their customers, saving on advertising spending and market share in the process.
Interviews/Q&As
Interviews are another excellent video format to engage your audience. This is a perfect option to ‘pull back the curtain’ in a sense, and convey a level of transparency to an already loyal customer base while satisfying their informational needs.
Videos could consist of customers explaining their experience, industry leaders providing insights, influencers promoting the product or service, employees giving candid interviews and so on. This format is all about explaining how your business can solve a problem a potential customer might have.
Q&A sessions are a great way to address a particular concern or answer any questions customers may have. You could even make an announcement beforehand and gather questions through social media, or perhaps you’ve noticed a repetition of questions coming from the comments on previous posts. This could also be done as a live video. Again, it definitely pulls back the curtain and actively engages with customers.
The crème de la crème for ecommerce businesses. Supporting videos on the feed, stories, IGTV, reels and live streaming, Instagram has become the most user-friendly social media platform for video. Why? Let’s just put this into context, shall we?
- There are 1.074 billion active monthly users on Instagram in 2021
- Over 500 million accounts use Instagram Stories every day
- Approximately 130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts every month
- Instagram users spend an average of 30 minutes per day
- There are more than 200 million business accounts on Instagram
Seriously, we could go on and on. And the best video format? Product Videos.
Product Videos
Product Videos are a great way to captivate your audience and educate them on a product your business is offering. In fact, consumers are approximately 85% more likely to buy a product after viewing a product video. Now, product videos can come in a wide array of formats including, product-in-use videos, how-to videos, close-up videos, product story videos, behind-the-scenes videos or installation videos. And it’s up to you to decide the best one to fit your brand.
For example, your business could be launching a new piece of tech, and you choose to make a product-in-use video to demonstrate all of its features and benefits in a true-to-life manner. Or perhaps there’s a new range of ceramics you’d like to promote. A behind-the-scenes video could help explain what goes into making the products and helps convey the price point if your product doesn’t have a lot of features to boast about.
The perfect product video can bring a product to life in a way that text and imagery simply can’t. In fact, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% when reading it in text. And 94% of marketers agree that videos have helped increase user understanding of their product.
To learn more about each technique, check out our product video database to see how each method is in action and see if it’s right for you. And if you’re ready to jump into the world of product videos, check out the Ultimate Guide to Product Videos here and give your business the best possible start today.
TikTok
In 2021, a Digital Marketing strategy cannot ignore TikTok. Even if you conclude that it doesn’t make sense for your brand to be on it, the platform must be considered and analysed at the very least.
TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users on its platform and boasts an average watch time per user of 13.3 hours a month. That is huge! And an astronomically high engagement level of 11.83%. Now while that doesn’t sound especially high, Instagram can only claim a 0.35% engagement level across their platform, and only an average watch time per user of 10.3 hours per month.
Now, this is another platform where eCommerce thrives. With a maximum video time of 60 seconds, businesses will need to be creative with how they use this medium but to get you started we’d recommend you explore formats such as trending challenges, unboxings to show your customers what they’re getting, reviews from influencers or customers, and anything you can think of.
@woolworths_au Specials are special #woolies #wooliesgang #woolworths #hacks #aussie #australian ♬ original sound - Woolworths_au
Another platform that many said was on its deathbed, Twitter has re-emerged as a popular platform for video. The microblogging platform has officially left its 140 characters behind and now supports bigger texts, pictures, and, of course, videos!
With approximately 350-400 million monthly active users, it is on the smaller side compared to the other 3, however, almost half of this number are monetizable daily active users. And according to Twitter’s Q1 Report, this is an increase of 20% year-on-year. Effectively, what this means is when you advertise on Twitter your potential reach is over 200 million people that can make a purchasing decision. Now that’s something to think about.
So, on a platform that has 500 million tweets being sent every day, what video formats perform the best?
Tutorials/How To’s
Nowadays, there’s a tutorial for pretty much everything. Ever wanted to know how to get a stain out of a carpet? There’s a tutorial for that. What about soldering a circuit board? Yep, a tutorial for that too. Baking a sponge cake? Tutorial. Digging a hole? Tutorial. And you’ll even find many businesses using tutorials (How-To’s) to help explain how to use their product.
Take our Handdii Explainer Video for example.
This video shows viewers the product in action while explaining the process simply and succinctly. It helps build a narrative through relatable circumstances and positions Handdii as a solution to a problem or grievance.
In this case, it helps solve the pain point of communicating with insurance companies and positions itself as a three-sided marketplace connecting customers directly with contractors for insurance companies.
Still not sure? Think of it this way. When you open your new iPhone box or unbox your new TV, there’s a user manual in that right? We’re guessing the majority of you toss it away or glance at it at best. Well, a tutorial video is basically that user guide in an easy-to-digest format – and the public loves them.
Honourable Mention: YouTube
We can hardly discuss the best platforms for video without including YouTube now, can we? Despite not being a social media platform, YouTube is the second most popular website in the world, only behind Google (YouTube’s parent company), and with over 2 billion monthly active users and an insanely high engagement with over 1 billion hours of video content being viewed each and every day - YouTube remains the king when it comes to video platforms.
And in recent years we’ve begun to notice a monumental rise in a particular type of video being utilised across a wide range of businesses. We’re of course talking about the rise of the corporate web series.
But what is a web series?
A web series is effectively taking the idea of a television show and making it consumable as online entertainment. It has consistency in the form of building a story arc, repeating characters, or thematic messaging.
An episode is typically shorter than 3 minutes, to prevent viewer dropoff, and runs across at least 4 episodes. It can be but does not need to be a sitcom - these suffer and deter viewers from continuing with other episodes if the in-episode story arc is not compelling enough.
And then there’s a branded web series. Take our MYOB Business is Personal & Origin: Let's Melbourne Again web series examples; each one represents a larger marketing campaign as a whole and positions each company in a particular way thanks to the transparency being conveyed in each episode.
In MYOB’s web series episode, it uses customer and renowned artist Danielle Weber as its key figure, outlining the importance of business software and solutions through her own experience. This achieves two things, firstly, it helps MYOB position itself as a supporter of small businesses and secondly, as the perfect accounting solution to help individuals focus on their craft and not on their books.
And then there’s Origin’s web series. As part of their Let’s Talk Melbourne campaign, an initiative to rebuild confidence, creativity and hope in Melbourne due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, this episode sees Pat, a Vendor for The Big Issue, and Amy Hetherington, an editor at The Big Issue, explaining how COVID-19 has affected The Big Issue and the support they’ve seen in 2021.
This episode, and web series as a whole, helps showcase Origin’s commitment to giving back to their local community, and their passion for giving those most affected by the pandemic a platform to tell Melbourne their story.
Like to learn more about how your business could benefit from a web series? How about not 1, not 4 but 10 more reasons why your business should incorporate a web series as part of their marketing strategy! Then click here.
Now you’ve got a better understanding of which social media platform could best benefit your business when it comes to video, contact Visual Domain today and let us give your marketing strategy the boost it needs!
