Social Media Video Tips

It’s hard to imagine a tool that influences people’s opinions in such a powerful way as social media does. But if the times of long reads in the LiveJournal style are a thing of the past, and the text itself today causes only a yawn of the user, with correctly used video, you can achieve unprecedented efficiency and become a real head cheese. We have prepared a couple of advice for pros creating video content for social media.

• Normal video duration for social networks is up to three minutes. Earlier, some pros used to say that you need to publish short ones. Now it is trendy to post it from 90 seconds. Except, of course, Instagram, which limits one minute.
• Video should be convenient to watch on your smartphone. If you can, make a square. A square video can increase the number of views by almost three times.
• One video can be created up to 4 hours. If the hand is full – up to 2 hours. It all depends on the source. Sometimes you need to clean a lot, sometimes it takes a lot of time to get permission from the authors.
• Do not try to compete with classic TV ads in speed. Your audience is unlikely to constantly watch TV. Compete with other news media.
• Videos should evoke emotions in people. Of course, everyone is interested in funny and positive videos about cats and pandas, etc. But you should not abuse it if you are a news resource. Social media videos raise important social and not just social issues.
• Run a video in an ad. But only those that get good organic coverage. Many media outlets allow this opportunity, albeit on a paid basis, but increasing user returns and increasing the number of viewers is definitely worth it.
• You must have video editing skills. This is nothing complicated. If not, it’s better to contact a special studio, and do not set a deliberately terrible result – this will only scare the audience away. There are, of course, exceptions. But there are very few of them: sometimes the deliberately primitive style of the video, children’s special effects or a rustic podcast become a signature feature.

Signs of a good video for social networks

– Actual topic. It may not be entirely relevant, but rather unexpected.

– A strong story, a bright hero.

– Awakens emotions and carries energy.

– Powerful footage.

– A problem close to the viewer.

– Easy to read without sound. Sound is only an additional instrument, not the main one.

– Technically quality.

Signs of weak video

– Video for the sake of a video.

– A momentary topic.

– With mistakes. Especially factual. Very often, videos are built on an emotional message, and there are few facts or their source is not indicated. We always try to indicate the source of information.

– Boring even in production.

– Excessive emphasis on the text, everything flashes, appears, falls out and the person does not have time to read, not to mention looking at the picture.

– An ill-conceived scenario.

Videos for social networks gradation

– News. The main thing is to quickly and efficiently mount the most interesting fragments.

– Video citation. Someone said something interesting – quickly cut off, put captions and put up.

– Compilation / comparison. The most complex and fertile format. You need to watch hours and tens of hours of video. – Graphics/explanation – explanations on the fingers are really done on the fingers, manually.

– Story. – “Video blog”. Including a video of a television format adapted for digital, and not just social networks.

Technical quality: what is striking to the producers?

– Overloading information per unit time.

– Too big captions with a bad background.

– Spelling.

– Bloopers glued together (sound, picture), something flickers very quickly.

– Captions instead of demonstrations.

– Too fast animation. Tip: ask people who are reading slowly to approve your video.

– Be careful with the red colour in the video. It is the most dangerous in social networks because sometimes networks compress your material to such an extent that the red colour becomes very poorly visible.

What can serve as material for the video?

– Own shooting. This is your exclusive, profitable for you.

– Graphic arts. Need to draw.

– Custom content, if you agree with its authors.

– Official shooting. Presidential or government sites do not impose restrictions on the use of content.

– Materials of news agencies. It’s convenient with them, but 100% of your competitors buy the same materials. You need to try to process it as quickly as possible. Or add emotions, analysis, context, and so on.

– Photobanks.

What else should you pay attention to?

– Different stories – for different social networks. The news goes well on Twitter, on YouTube you can upload long videos, on Facebook it’s average, and on Instagram for just one minute.

– Remember the regional differences.

– Do not steal! Respect someone else’s content. Get permissions or don’t make videos.

– Always ask for the maximum raw video from the authors.

– Check and double-check the information.

– Remember the general quality of journalism.

– More positive, but do not abuse. Take wings of your fantasy – to generate video content ideas for social media is a quite simple and very interesting thing to deal with.