No other medium is as attractive as moving images. We’ve summarized the importance of embedding video into social media.
Do you know the animated film "Ralph Breaks the Internet" about Randale-Ralph and Vanellope? In the Disney movie, the two of them experience a crazy adventure in the infinite vastness of the Internet, which is home to countless websites and online games as well as social media.
Chaos on the Net: The animated film imaginatively visualizes the worldwide online activities.
The World Wide Web is staged as a pulsating metropolis: Colorful neon signs characterize world-famous social media platforms and online giants such as Amazon. Digital data streams turn into colourful light tails that rush meteorically through the Internet universe and bright billboards with new advertising offers lure visitors to every corner.
An apt symbol that once again underlines the importance of the Internet. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Internet was released for commercial purposes and for private individuals for the first time, and almost three decades later the World Wide Web with 4.2 billion users all over the world (as a relation: approx. 7.6 billion people live on earth) has developed into the most important means of communication of the modern age.
The importance of social media for companies.
The increase in importance can be traced back to social networks, among other things: With around 3.2 billion active social media users worldwide who spend an average of 5 years of their lives on Facebook, Instagram and the like, online platforms represent an undisputed advertising potential for companies.
Social media is regarded as a fundamental component of a successful inbound marketing strategy and immensely increases brand awareness. Here's the proof: According to Facebook, more than 60% of Instagram users surveyed discover new products via the platform.
Already, 91% of retail brands use two or more social media channels for their corporate communication and 81% of small and medium-sized businesses are also represented on social media.
According to a 2019 study, 94% of companies surveyed worldwide used Facebook, closely followed by Instagram (73%), and Twitter (59%).
The proportion of companies using the following social media platforms: Almost twice as many companies use Facebook compared to YouTube.
Welcome to the Social Media Boulevard! Fancy a little sightseeing tour? Here virtual hearts fly through the air, chirping birds fly around excitedly and small Polaroid cameras capture every moment of the day.
Around the busy hustle and bustle, masses of different people stream past each other in opposite directions and the murmur of passers-by condenses to a sonorous noise. They are right in the middle of the social networks. Stay alert and listen carefully.
#1 Social Listening.
What is important to your target group? What influences is it inferior to and what new trends are emerging? Oh yes, and what is the competition actually doing? You will find answers to these questions on the various social media platforms where your potential customers exchange experiences, discuss different opinions and gather relevant information (usually measured as social buzz).
Social networks live largely from user-generated content (UGC) - i.e. content that is not created by the corresponding site operators but by the users themselves. Evaluating these conversations through professional social listening helps you to better understand your target group and to realistically assess your company's reputation.
This is how it works: IBM's Social Business Manager Tori McCllelan provides valuable tips for successful social listening.
#2 Customer Service Tool.
Showing a company's presence on appropriate social media platforms is particularly useful for building and maintaining customer relationships. If customers have a problem, helpful solutions can be provided in real time, creating a trustworthy and reliable basis for their own target group.
In addition, the own social media presence optimizes the complaint management, so that dissatisfied customers can be dealt with without any loss of time.
Many companies today already use social media as a customer service tool to meet user expectations for short response times. Explainer videos are a useful supplement to explain the functional scope of your own product or service.
#3 Brand Personality.
Social media leaves enough room for different content formats: From blog posts and interviews to guest articles and videos, anything is allowed on the social platforms that gives your brand personality and authenticity, communicates your brand values convincingly and reflects the interests of potential customers and your own employees.
The American insurance company Progressive Insurance, which broke out of the shadowy existence of the dull insurance landscape with the introduction of the fictitious character Flo, proved how this can be achieved.
The insurance expert was given her own Twitter account under the name "Flo from Progressive" and is described on her profile as follows: "Progressive's always-happy-to-help insurance expert. Lover of discounts, unicorns and tacos. Plays a mean air guitar."
Probably the video with the strongest identity is still the image film. It lays the foundation for your brand personality and should not adhere to supposed content guidelines, but rather emphasize what makes you unique.
Image film by Mynd: Antoine Monot, Jr. gives various office insights and leads entertainingly through the production process.
In addition, video formats that allow a glimpse behind the scenes also promise a positive influence on the target group's sense of attachment to their own company.
The advantages of social media shown here shed light on the manifold possibilities of dialogue-oriented marketing, which can aspire to much more than a click on the Like button. At this point, the social relationship platform Hootsuite speaks of so-called meaningful relationship moments (MRM), which are characterized by positive changes in attitudes and/or behavior among (potential) customers or community members.
Social media offers the perfect conditions for the integration of moving image formats. Gripping storytelling can awaken emotions in the viewer and consolidate one's own corporate identity.
That's why videos are perfect for social media.
According to a recent Hubspot study, online video content is still on the road to success: The report "The Future of Content Marketing" proves that users consume videos most frequently via social media. In particular, the younger target group (18 to 24 years of age) would like to see even more video content.
Quote:
"Companies should react to consumers' preference for videos and take them into account in their communication strategy. Audiovisual content can be used in many useful ways: from entertaining image films to product demos for sales to explainer videos to support customer service".
Inken Kuhlmann, Senior Manager Growing Markets, HubSpot
The attractiveness of moving image formats is also increasing significantly against the background of increasing mobile use. According to expert estimates, mobile videos will account for 78% of all mobile data traffic by 2021.
Video embedding in social media: You should pay attention to this.
The statistics show that social media plays an important role in Germany. Don't waste this virality potential of moving images. For a professional embedding, however, it is often advisable to have a special social media version of your video produced, which, in addition to a thumbnail with a high click rate, can also be equipped with subtitles or text insertions that enable understanding without sound.
Social media video specifications:
For the successful placement of your video on social networks, it is necessary to familiarize yourself in advance with the differentiated format requirements, runtimes and design recommendations.
In addition, the following quality characteristics should be considered when creating a social video:
- Use Autoplay to generate more views.
- Incorporate CTAs that provide a specific action prompt (e.g., "More," "Buy Now," etc.).
- Focus on one core message per video in order not to overwhelm users.
- Convince in the first seconds to hold attention.
- Choose a heading that is specific and arouses interest.
- Use keywords & hashtags for the purpose of better findability.
- Insert company logo to create recognition value.
- No video marketing without social media.
- The decision to integrate video marketing into your corporate communications was already the first right step to respond to current user preferences. Now it's time to get out on Social Media Boulevard. Do you remember?
No video marketing without social media..
The decision to integrate video marketing into your corporate communications was already the first right step to respond to current user preferences. Now it's time to get out on Social Media Boulevard. Do you remember?
It's like the US movie Coyote Ugly: Shy little town girl with a gifted voice moves to the mega metropolis of New York and experiences her breakthrough as a singer after a few setbacks and hard weeks. Meaning: Have the courage! Even if your video has a weaker performance in the social media at the beginning than you had hoped, you shouldn't be discouraged. It is important that you leave your comfort zone and remain competitive.