There’s no better way to generate awareness for your brand than social media. When you engage with followers and fans, you build trust and loyalty with your customer base. But it’s important to note that not all engagements are equal. For growing your fan base and increasing conversions, video marketing on social media is one of the best things a brand can do.
Let’s look at a few simple ways you can improve your social media engagement.
- Be funny and lighthearted
Keep in mind that most people on social media aren’t necessarily in the mood to see advertisements. When your audience feels like you’re just trying to sell them something, you’ll lose engagement very quickly. Before long, you will see less and less followers enjoying and interacting with your brand.
Light hearted fun can draw in your audience and keep their attention. If you can make them laugh, there’s a good chance the video will be liked, posted and shared amongst friends. These are the occasions where your post has a chance to go viral.
When using video marketing over social media, that last thing you want is to inspire any negative emotions such as anger or sadness. Make them smile, and you can make them share.
- Never Fade to Black
Regardless of how aggressive your video marketing strategy is, the end goal is to connect with your audience and turn that audience into paying customers.
When your video is over, use that opportunity to redirect your viewer to another video of yours, or to a website or related offer. If they were on the fence before this point, this is your chance to convert them or continue selling to them.
Bottom line: Don’t let a good video go to waste by not including a call to action at the end.
- Show People instead of Products
Yes, you want to educate your audience on your product, but not every video made for social media should be showcasing your products or services. This can be boring and turn off a viewer very quickly. Instead, put a face to the company. You can do this in a few ways.
Interview management. Give your audience a look behind the scenes at your brand. Letting your audience get to know your brand on a more personal level can help build the trust needed to turn them into a long time, loyal customer.
Another way to do this is by including real customers. Ask them to share their success stories. A real testimonial from a customer is often more valuable than any advertisement you could come up with, as well.
Clearly, this is still advertising your product and engaging your audience, but in a personal, and non-intrusive way.
- Keep Videos Short
We’ve all been there – tagged by a family member or friend in a video. What is one of the first things we always do? Tap our screen and see just how long this video is going to be. The longer the video is, the less likely it will garner our full attention.
Keep in mind how much competition you’re in for your audience’s time. Their time is valuable, and it’s important to show an understanding for that. Also, viewers have a short attention span. You’ll need to grab them quickly and get your message across clearly without beating around the bush.
And besides, videos of this type aren’t meant to give an in-depth explanation of your company. They just need to be short and to the point.
- Brand your videos
It’s quite easy to add a small watermark of your brand to your videos. This is a good deterrent to stolen content – because anyone who uploads your video will have your brand on it. It’s also a simple way to enhance your professionalism.
- Use tags
Promoting your social media is similar in ways to promoting a website. Namely, without traffic, everything else is irrelevant. Any the tried and true way to get traffic is from searching.
For social media, tagging is the lifeblood of searches. When you discover the tags that your goal audience is using, you can get yourself in front of the people who fit your ideal demographic. Use more of these, not less, to increase relevance and optimize your posts.
- Respond quickly
Social media has changed the landscape for customer service. The days of waiting days for a customer service e-mail are long gone. When people contact a brand or business on social media, they expect a quick response.
Smart marketers use this as a tool for their advantage. Yes, it’s nice to answer questions and be helpful when engaged by a follower on social media. What’s more powerful is actively reaching out to your followers when they have posted/tweeted/shared something. By consistently engaging with your followers, you can build an interactive and loyal community.
Which Tip Will Work For You?
Now you are armed with a list of things you can start doing right now to increase your engagement on social media. These platforms offer a great way to get your message out, but it’s important to work smarter, not harder. Chances are you are doing a lot of things right, and a few tweaks here and there will have you on the path to social media video marketing success.
Minh and Julie Ho
