Four Tips for Using Video Content in Social Media
Social
media has transformed video. After losing its lead to text in the early days of
the World Wide Web, video has made a huge comeback, in large part thanks to the
implementation of video in social media and the formation of new video-based
networks.
Following the notion of "the medium is the message," it's interesting to see
how video has changed in recent years so that it could fit the demands of new
platforms and changing audience behavior and needs.
When considering using video
content for your next campaign, also consider the following advice.
1.
Change your point of view
Camera angles are more than
just a technicality. Selfies, for example, are a statement made by the "me
generation" that no longer needs anyone's help to create content. That is
why it is not at all surprising to see the increasing number of over-the-head
shot videos, making this filming angle a new standard, especially for anything
food-related.
The
bird's-eye angle not only helps independent video creators film their work
while minimizing external assistance but also creates an increased sense of
involvement with audiences, who enjoy this first-person perspective and feel as
though they are the ones filming. This new sensibility is important to
understand even for those who can afford an entire film crew for their next
branded content campaign.
The anonymous presenter—whose
face often does not appear on screen at all—can be absolutely anyone, very much
including the viewer. The poor man's VR experience, if you will.
2.
Enjoy the silence
Brands and publishers have long
realized that when audiences consume their content, they most probably consume
only parts of it. In the case of video, it is the sound that usually ends up
out of the picture: 85% of Facebook videos are watched
without sound.
With that stat in mind, brands
have had to innovate ways for delivering silent—yet impactful—messages, paying
special attention to visual tactics, intuitive content, and context. Those who
thought that video killed the text star have been proven wrong, with the use of
subtitles and written text making up for the missing audio channel of
communication. You could say that Facebook brought back the silent film genre,
title cards included.
A unique example for a brand
that turned the tables on this new video consumption habit can be found in a campaign by cider-maker Kopparberg. The company included a
hidden recorded message, inviting viewers who bothered to turn on the sound to
participate in a prize drawing—a wonderful example of turning lemons into
lemonade (or cider).
3.
Cut to the chase
Traditional media outlets
usually impose strict length restrictions on video commercials, but it turns
out that even the toughest network could not compete with today's audiences'
brutally short attention spans.
Advertisers are facing a much
tougher challenge in reaching an audience that is anything but captive, so the
first rule of ad clips is shorter is better. So
much so, that tech giant Google has introduced
six-second ads on YouTube to try to prevent advertisers from losing
their audience.
Forget about building tension
or saving the best content for last; brands advertising with video should start
with a bang, or there will be no one around to watch the rest of their ad.
The TL;DR culture is also
responsible for the rise of the skip option. Shared videos on social media come
with a gracious recommendation to skip the irrelevant parts and begin watching
at, say, 1:23. Once again, we see leading tech companies cater to their users'
needs, with Facebook allowing users to go straight to the parts on a
livestream that other users responded to most.
Publishers that value video
content—such as The Hill and Red Bull—are also using content creation
tools that enable users to skip the boring parts of lengthy video
content. That is why content creators who feature or curate content should
forego the less relevant or interesting sections and keep only what they feel
their viewers will actually watch.
4.
Make it scalable
We can go on and on about the
advantages of video content, but one should also keep in mind that video
usually comes with a hefty price tag. The production cost of video content is
higher than that of text content; and when every small change requires costly
external resources, the creative freedom for video creations is limited,
hindering brands' ability to expand this type of endeavor unless they have deep
pockets.
There are a few solutions to
that problem. The first is to opt for content that is more general and flexible
in nature, and hope that it remains relevant as changes in company messaging
and branding take place. That approach is far from perfect, as it involves
compromising the message, and still cannot ensure that changes will not be
necessary later on. Another option is to use DIY technological solutions that
allow creators to perform basic edits without having to rely on anyone else.
Much like the content it
displays, video is a vertical that is ever changing. From '90s video clips on
MTV to vanishing Snapchat Stories, the platform that airs the content also
helps shape and refine it.
Based on what we've seen so
far, we can expect that as technology advances, viewers will demand even more
control over the consumption process, creating increasing demand for tools that
allow brands to address their audience's needs quickly.
Solutions
that offer more personalization and minimize the production cost will help
brands and media publishers catch up with the changing climate and prevent
their audiences from looking the other way.
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