5 Social Media Video Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

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Social media video marketing is one of the latest marketing methods to emerge for small businesses.

As part of your overall branding strategy, video plays an important role online. After all, people are visual learners who respond well to engaging videos that have a clear purpose and message.

Video marketing helps you establish yourself as an authority in your industry by demonstrating your talents and knowledge.

Video marketing is also a great way to reach new customers, build relationships with existing ones, and increase your online presence.

But where do you start? What are the most effective social media video marketing tips for small businesses?

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Here are 5 social media video marketing tips that will help you get started:

#1: Start With a Video Content Strategy

The first thing to consider is your business goals and where your customers are. For example, if your customers are online in social media communities such as Facebook or YouTube, then that’s where you’ll want to focus much of your time and energy.

Next, define your target audience and what you want them to do after watching your video. For example, if you’re trying to build awareness for your brand and generate leads, one of your goals might be: “Increase website traffic by 15% in 3 months.”

Once you know what you want people to do as a result of watching the video, it’s time to create a video content strategy. Here are a few steps to follow:

  • Decide what you want the video to accomplish (e.g., increase brand awareness, increase website traffic, drive sales, etc.) and why people should care (e.g., because it’s funny)
  • Determine the type of videos you’ll produce (e.g., product demonstrations or testimonials)
  • Define your target audience (e.g., small business owners in your area, or people who watch certain videos on YouTube)
  • Select the social media platform you’ll use for each video (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)

Without a strategy, you’ll be all over the place and your video marketing efforts won’t make a lot of sense. So be sure to spend some time planning it before you get started.

#2: Keep It Short and to the Point

Social media is all about quick engagement. If your videos are too long, people won’t watch them.

Statistics show that the majority of your audience will only watch a video for a couple minutes max, before moving on to other things.

Keep your videos short and engaging with a clear call to action at the end. You don’t want people to scroll past without taking some sort of action. Also, make sure you create an effective landing page to convert viewers into leads.

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#3: Use High Quality Videos

It’s important that your social media videos look professional and are of high quality, otherwise people will tune out right away or worse, think less of your brand or company.

When it comes to choosing the best video cameras for small businesses, here are some things you’ll want to consider:

  1. Automatic or Manual Focus: Automatic focus is ideal for beginners, but manual focus allows you to better adjust to different lighting conditions.
  2. Lighting or Artificial Lighting: Natural lighting can make a world of difference when it comes to the quality of your videos. If there isn’t enough natural light, then it’s best to use artificial lighting equipment that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.
  3. Camera Features: If you’re looking for more than just basic recording and uploading, then consider a video camera with advanced features such as image stabilization, zoom, or auto-focus.

All in all, with a little bit of research and background knowledge, you’ll be able to choose the best video camera for a small business.

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#4: Create Eye-Catching Thumbnails

With short attention spans and so much content online, your thumbnail is what will get people to click on your video in their feeds or communities.

The best way to make a great thumbnail is to keep it simple. You should be able to see the title, your logo, and the CTA clearly within 10 seconds.

Also, make sure you use keywords people might search for when looking for video content like yours (e.g., “How to start an Etsy business” or “Learn how to paint with acrylics”).

#5: Optimize Each Video

Make it easy for people to find and watch your video by adding a compelling description along with tags that are well-suited to your topic.

Remember, you want people who see your video to remain engaged throughout the entirety of it. Here are a few tips to keep viewers interested:

  1. Conduct Interviews: Conducting an interview allows you to ask questions and get others involved in the conversation, which keeps things interesting. Plus, this allows you to interact with other people in your industry.
  2. Set Up a Slideshow or Motion Graphics: Pictures are worth a thousand words, so don’t be afraid to use them. Videos that have slideshows or motion graphics run longer than ten minutes are typically much more interesting for viewers.
  3. Use Relevant Quotes and Statistics: If you have statistics or quotes that are relevant to your video, consider adding them in. This will prevent viewers from scrolling past without taking any action on what they’ve seen so far due to the fact that there is new information being presented.
  4. Share It on Social Media: Upload your videos directly to YouTube or post them up on Facebook, then link to your Facebook page. If you go the YouTube route, make sure to optimize your profile with relevant tags on keywords you want people to use when searching for videos related to your business or industry.

It takes time to build up a following on social media, so just remember that if you share your videos across all of your platforms, eventually you’ll start seeing results.

Optimization can mean different things for different people, depending on what their ultimate goals are. For some, optimization is about attracting as many views as possible. But for others, it’s about building a community and getting subscribers.

Regardless of what your objective is, it’s important to make sure your videos are optimized before publishing them.

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Social Media Video Marketing Tips – Conclusion

Social media video marketing is a great way to build up your brand, connect with potential customers and clients, and generate revenue.

But in this day and age where everybody’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter — thanks to smartphone apps — video marketing isn’t just about uploading the videos and letting them sit on your channels collecting dust.

You need to promote your videos and engage with your viewers, so they’ll share and watch more.

More than anything else, the key is consistency. It’s not easy building up a following on social media or getting subscribers and views on YouTube, but if you’re committed to it, you will find success.

We hope that this article helped you learn some new social media video marketing tips.

If you need help crafting or executing a social media strategy, contact us today! We have been doing this since 2007 and have lots of experience building websites, and helping clients grow with SEO.

About the author

Nat Miletic is the founder of Clio Websites, a Calgary-based web design company. Nat writes about WordPress, SEO, and responsive web design.

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