Businesses today continually seek new ways to connect with their audiences. Social media platforms are an excellent way to reach new customers, turning likes into hot leads. Businesses across sectors are harnessing the power of social media to educate, inform and entertain users—not with typical text or photo posts but with videos. So, if you’re seeking the expertise of a video production company or you’re simply trying to understand the fast-changing social media video landscape a little better, use this article to guide you.

Why Are Social Media Videos So Powerful?

The popularity of video content is skyrocketing. Social media platforms like TikTok revealed that people love fast content—they want information in a few seconds, or they’ll keep scrolling. So, what exactly makes social media videos as powerful as they are?

Arguably, the most powerful thing about social media videos is how engaging they are. Video works well for social media because it receives the most engagement. People are far likelier to watch a video than skim through an article and will shell out likes, comments and shares that propel content reach. One study found that social video generates 1200 more shares than text and image content combined!

Social media video content is also highly versatile. Different platforms tend to cater to different demographics and preferences. For example, TikTok is popular with Generation Z, who prefer fast, entertaining content, while LinkedIn caters to professionals seeking longer-form thought leadership content. Video content can also be repurposed to work on different platforms, ensuring you maximise your reach and engagement without having to invest money and time in starting from scratch.

How To Craft Impactful Video Content

Crafting compelling video content is no walk in the park. It takes meticulous planning, optimisation and analysis. Here are some helpful tips for crafting truly impactful social media video content:

Target the right audience

For your video to be effective, it needs to resonate with your target audience.  Important factors like age, location, and personal interests. You can further improve your video content development process by utilizing AI script generators. These AI-powered tools analyze your target audience, product or service, and objectives to craft compelling video scripts that resonate with the right viewers. To do this, you must understand the interests and online behaviours of your audience. The good news is that social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer granular targeting options, allowing you to reach audience segments based on important factors like age, location and personal interests.

Choose a suitable video format

Once you’ve established who your target audience is, it’s time to choose the most suitable video formats. The ‘right’ format depends on your goals. Let’s explore some of the most popular social media video formats. Explainer videos detail your product or service, and testimonial videos hone in on your customers’ positive experiences. Tutorial videos are step-by-step guides to achieve a particular outcome, while behind-the-scenes videos give social media users a look under the hood at how your business is run or how your product is made. 

Optimise video ads

Once you’ve established who your target audience is, you’ve chosen a video format and filmed your video, it’s time to turn your attention to optimising video ads to increase their reach and (hopefully) generate leads. But how you do this differs by platform:

Facebook: There are various tools and features to help you optimise video ads for different objectives, including stories, reels and shopping ads. Creator Studio allows you to optimise videos through the video manager with custom thumbnails, SEO-friendly tags and an extensive audio library. 

Instagram: Instagram’s video feature, Reels, allows users to optimise videos in the app, including their duration, audio, captions, speed, stickers and filters to make them more informative and engaging.

TikTok: TikTok offers a range of features and tools for video ad optimisation, including in-feed ads, brand takeovers and top view ads, all through TikTok Ads Manager, where videos can target different demographics and adjust campaigns in real-time.

X (formerly Twitter): X also allows users to post videos and recommends that videos should be between 6 and 15 seconds long. You can also add captions to make content more accessible and logos to create brand awareness.

Understand social media analytics

To make social media video marketing even more confusing, you now have to contend with the analytics tools for each platform. 

Facebook: Facebook Analytics allows you to view how well your video has performed, providing data on key metrics, including but not limited to engagement rate, reach, impressions and more.

Instagram: Instagram also has built-in analytics tools, which detail how many accounts were reached, the number of plays, likes, comments, saves and shares. 

TikTok: TikTok’s in-built analytics feature provides information on several key metrics that allow you to assess your video content strategy, including video views, followers, profile views, comments, shares and more.

X: Media Studio allows X users to view several metrics, including video views, completion rate, average watch time and more. 

Track leads with social media video content

Ultimately, the main goal of video content is to generate leads and drive conversions. The good news is that there are several ways for you to track leads generated through social media video marketing efforts. 

For example, Facebook’s Pixel and Instagram’s shopping features allow businesses to track user actions after watching video ads. Facebook also offers video lead ads, which allow you to capture customer details while offering them opportunities to connect, such as demo requests and newsletter subscriptions.

X allows users to measure ROI on ad spend by tracking the specific actions users take after viewing or engaging with an ad. But tracking leads doesn’t have to be confined to in-built social media tools. Custom URLs, which can be created using tools like Bitly, are a great way to track user actions after viewing video ads.

Final Thoughts: Social Media Video Marketing

There’s no doubt that social media video marketing is a real game-changer for businesses across the vast majority of sectors. The power of a well-made video is its ability to engage viewers and encourage them to take action, be it sign up for a newsletter, fill in a form or visit a website. As social media platforms continue to push video and optimise their in-built video creation, optimisation and analytics tools, businesses can increase their reach and get in front of their target customers.