By Drew Boehmker, Scooter Media
Social video is the key ingredient in any successful social media strategy. In fact, Social Media Today estimates that video is the #1 way customers are moving from discovering a brand to purchasing its products. Additionally, 54% of consumers prefer video over all other types of content.However, deciding to invest in social video is just the first piece in the much larger puzzle of social media strategy. Once you’ve created a video for your brand or business, how do you know which social platform to put it on? And once you’ve decided on a platform, should the video be a post on your page’s timeline, or is it better suited for the more ephemeral (but highly viewed) Stories?
Here are some of the most important factors to take into consideration, broken down by platform:
Facebook & Social Video
For most brands that take the time and money to start a social video campaign, Facebook should be the primary platform utilized. While the social media titan has endured its fair share of tribulations over the past few years, the simple fact remains that it still the most-used social platform by far, with nearly 2.45 billion monthly active users.
Furthermore, when it comes to achieving the overall business goals of your social media strategy, Facebook is still the premier platform for moving audiences to take action. For example, if you’re producing a video to show off a new product or to encourage users to purchase tickets to an upcoming event, the data shows that (for most industries) Facebook users are still the most likely to convert into new leads for your business.
Another finding that might surprise you: overall, social media users are more likely to watch a video on Facebook Stories vs. Instagram Stories or Snapchat. While Facebook was the last platform to adopt the Stories format, Facebook’s 1.59 billion active users have helped to make Stories on its platform the most visible of all. Just check out the findings of a recent survey conducted by the experts at Hootsuite and Lucid:
After you’ve decided to post your video to Facebook, the choices don’t end there! You can also consider experimenting with real-time video by going Live, or scheduling the video via Facebook Premiere so that fans of your Page will be notified the moment the video is available.
Instagram & Social Video
If your brand is attempting to attract a younger audience — or if your business is highly visual in nature (from food photos to fabulous furs and everything in between), it’s imperative to get into Instagram.
Even within Instagram, brands have numerous ways to tap into the power of video to reach fans and attract new audiences. Videos on Instagram can be utilized in the following ways:
When determining which of these formats to use for your video, it’s best to take a look at both the length and content of your video. Because regular feed posts will be visible on your profile forever, they are an ideal way to share professionally produced videos — such as those featuring your organization’s mission.
Meanwhile, the shorter life span of Stories makes the format ideal for more casual “in the moment” content, such as behind-the-scenes videos from company events. Lastly, IGTV videos are best-suited for more in-depth content; if your organization has a weekly video series, for example, IGTV is a great place to post them.
Other Platforms: LinkedIn, Snapchat and TikTok, Oh My!
While Facebook and Instagram are the primary platforms for posting video, the rapidly-evolving nature of social media means new platforms are always popping up or going away (we miss you, Vine!).
Although you should almost always be posting your videos to Facebook and Instagram to start with, some other platforms your brand may want to consider include:
Social video is here to stay. The key for businesses, public relations pros and social media managers is to figure out how to best utilize video content to tell your brand’s stories and attract new audiences in the process.
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Scooter Media is an award-winning boutique PR agency specializing in public relations, social media and digital communications based in Covington, Ky.
This post originally appeared on ScooterMediaCo.com.