This year has been called “The Year of Video Marketing” as businesses find new ways to reach customers.

Videos stand out on social media, giving customers a quick overview of a product without overwhelming them with text.

In less than thirty seconds, a customer can get the information he needs about a business through a short, personal video.

Why the explosion of video content? It’s the progress of mobile technology and the ease with which people can shoot footage on their phones and then upload it to the Internet is incredible. It’s easier than ever to create a fun video at little to no cost.

The main goal of social media video for businesses is to make a connection, get shared and start a dialogue with the target audience.

Today any type of business can benefit from the production of a short video to communicate with their customers to introduce products, services and special offers.

Remember, as companies engage through social media, content has to be relevant, not spammy, providing current and potential clients with value. This means video has to be interesting, compelling and relevant to get engagement and results.

Where to use video marketing in social media networks:

• Facebook and Facebook Video Advertising
• YouTube and You Tube Advertising
• Vimeo
• Twitter 30-second videos and Promoted Video ads
• Vine (6-seconds)
• Instagram (15-seconds)
• Pinterest (Videos hosted on YouTube and Vimeo are pinnable and playable on Pinterest) and Pinterest Promoted Pins, Cinematic Pins
• Snapchat
• Periscope and Meerkat are live streaming video mobile apps allowing you to “go live” via your mobile device anytime and anywhere. Y become your own “on the go” broadcasting station
• Blab is a video chat app, like Periscope for groups

We cannot escape the growth in video content!

Facebook is poised to overtake YouTube…they say

In this second half of 2015, Facebook is poised to overtake YouTube and become the leading video viewing and online hosting platform. This was unheard of just a few years back as YouTube had massive market share of online videos, but 2015 looks to be the year that Facebook changes that.

Facebook’s video traffic has reached 4 billion daily views, making the social network YouTube’s first real rival in online video. Time spent per user on Facebook each day is at an astounding 40 minutes! This blows away any other social network by nearly triple the time and to businesses it means Facebook is the best online place to reach potential customers.

In a recent report, Socialbakers found “native Facebook videos get more reach than any other type of post.” In fact, when you post a video instead of a photo, you’ll see an average boost in reach of 135%.

More businesses are bypassing YouTube to instead upload NATIVE video content directly to Facebook.

Facebook vs. YouTube

But don’t ditch YouTube for Facebook just yet. Facebook may be on the rise, but there are still of benefits to sharing videos on YouTube as well. It may just be time for a strategy re-adjustment.

One of the biggest differences between Facebook and YouTube is intent and discovery.

Users go to YouTube with the sole intent of watching videos and to search for them on their own, creating their own personalized viewing experiences. YouTube is considered to be the No. 2 search engine in the world, according to Mushroom Networks.  If you want your videos to get discovered by new people via search, YouTube is still the place to be. Any video content you’d like people to be able to discover through organic search should be uploaded to your YouTube channel. When formulating your video titles, descriptions, and tags, be sure to include the keywords that people would likely be searching for when trying to find a company or product with your offering to make it easier for them to find your videos, both in YouTube search results and via Google.

With YouTube, you are able to do your own thing and choose the exact videos you want to see.

Facebook, on the other hand, curates videos for its users: The videos show up in the news feed based on what Facebook’s (Mighty) Algorithm determines that particular user might want to see. There’s no real way to search for video: You either watch what it gives you or you don’t. With Facebook you are relying on the service to curate videos for you. If they’re accurate most of the time, you’ll stick with them, as it’s a lot easier than sorting through things yourself.

Facebook’s announcement of embeddable video is a clear move to compete with YouTube since it’s a way for videos to be discovered outside of Facebook, then brought back into social with commenting, liking or sharing.

Native Facebook videos get more reach than any other type of post and incorporating it into your strategy can help your content get in front of more people than if you simply stick to photos, links, and text status updates.

It’s also important to note that Facebook records a view after just three seconds, whereas YouTube records a view somewhere around 30 seconds. (The exact science of YouTube view counts is still unknown.)

Why is Facebook the place to be for video advertising? It makes it really easy for advertisers (large and small) to target very specific groups of consumers with the much known information that Facebook advertising provides.  This tied with analytics and Facebook Ad Exchange, allows advertisers to do advertising and messaging in a way that’s never been done before.

But Facebook isn’t only great for advertisers because of targeting — it’s also great because of the engagement factor!

So YouTube is inherently good for search engine optimization and driving views. However, views have become a less important indicator to marketers and advertisers in recent years. A Mixpo study revealed that, in a ranking of the most important metrics when running video ads on social, views placed fifth. Engagement, shares, conversions, and total time spent watching was more important.

Facebook offers a larger opportunity for engagement and shares, which is why more and more advertisers are turning to Facebook for their video campaigns.

Both YouTube and Facebook are integral parts of an effective online video strategy. Use the strengths of both platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your video marketing strategy. Reach prospects with YouTube and engage with your community on Facebook!

Statistics for Videos

• Facebook sees more than a billion video views daily.
• More than 70% of marketers say that video produces conversions better than any other type of content.
• 73% of U.S. adults are more likely to make a purchase after watching an online video explaining a product or service.
• 75% of business professionals watch promotional videos to discover relevant products and services at least once a week.
• While status updates on Facebook have a reach of 5.8%, links 3.7%, and photos 5.3%, social video has an organic reach of 8.7%.
• Native Facebook videos can boost your reach by an average of 135%.
• More than 60% of all web traffic, including social, comes from online video.

Why Is It Important to Use Video?

• Businesses are starting to realize the powerful emotional connection that social video drives.
• One in two consumers say video influences their buying decisions.
• A page or post with video holds the viewer for seven times as long as a page or post without video.
• A social post featuring video is 41 percent more likely to get shared than a post without video.
• When combined with sound SEO techniques*, a web page with video is 53 times as likely to reach page 1 of the Search Engine Results. (*Hint: Use video’s transcript for Search Engines to read)

Ideas for Creating Videos

Inspire, Educate and Reveal Secrets! These are the top ways to use video in social media so that your business is making connections, getting shared and starting a dialogue.

Share behind-the-scenes clips, customer testimonials, product videos, “how to”, interviews, tips, inspiration, success stories, and personal experiences…and reveal some upcoming secrets about your product or company.

User Generated Content – videos created by your users/customers/fans – is even less work and can be just as successful, and sometimes even more successful, than the content that you create. So don’t forget this powerful option. Check out 10 Great Examples of User Generated Content Campaigns.

Here are more GREAT ideas for creating short videos for your business:

• 6 Ways to Use Short Video for Social Marketing from Social Media Examiner
• 3 Ways Small Businesses Can Use Video Marketing from Mashable

Budget

Whether a solo entrepreneur, small or medium business owner, the good news is you don’t need a HUGE budget anymore to produce a great short videos! Some of the best short videos don’t rely on big-budget design and animation. They use everyday items and create video with the objects at hand. Businesses can use their own smartphone cameras or sign up for a service that creates animated explainer videos.

Editing Tools

Thanks to DIY video editing tools, it easy to produce good videos on smartphones. Here are 10 Hot Tools for Creating and Editing Short Video:

1. Instagram’s built-in video tool.
2. Hyperlapse
3. Flipagram
4. Videohance
5. The Stop Motion
6. Adobe Voice
7. 8mm
8. Cinemagram
9. The iMovie app an
10. Kinemaster Pro Video Editor

If Facebook says you should go with video, you know that there’s only one thing to do: Grab that camera or even better….your phone and start shooting!

In 2015 and the coming years, video will dominate as the social media content format of choice. Businesses that want to see increased results in their social media marketing need to definitely integrate video into their marketing content.

I hope this give you a good guide on how to do this!

More great reading here from Gary Vaynerchuk: The Rise of Video Marketing on Social and How It Affects Your Business.

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