The Roaring PJ Blog

Video Sharing: an Essential Part of Any Social Media Strategy

By Melanie Yunk | July 18, 2014

Social media is more than just an outlet for text and photos. Video sharing is quickly becoming one of the most important features on the social media scene. If you're not using videos as part of your social media strategy, you're missing out on a great opportunity to reach more people and increase your overall engagement with current and potential customers.

Video is Gaining Ground

According to a comScore report, more than 86% of internet users in the U.S. are looking at videos. The average user is spending about 16 minutes every week to watch videos and it's not just kids watching videos of puppies and bloopers. At least half of all viewed content is business related and 75% of all business executives are watching. This means that video is reaching a broad range of users across every possible demographic, and the videos are getting results: 65% of viewers will visit the company's website after watching the video.

Social Media Platforms are Listening

Social media platforms are responding to the call for more video. Facebook is continually changing what it serves to its users and the current layout now pushes more video to the people who are already watching a lot of video. They also recently acquired LiveRail, a technology company helps companies present ads in the videos that appear on their websites. This means that Facebook is working hard to get your video content in front of the people who will give you the best results.

Twitter recently acquired SnappyTV, a platform for producing shareable video snippets. Even Instagram, once a place for still photos only, now has room for video sharing. Let's not forget YouTube, where online video sharing all began. YouTube is currently the second most visited website in the world with 100 million people watching videos every day. What's more, 69% of the 2013 Fortune 500 companies have active YouTube accounts. Video has caught on everywhere.

How to Make it Work for You

Now that you're convinced that you need to start using videos, here are a few tips to help you get it right.

Target Your Viewers. As with any aspect of online marketing, you want to know exactly who you're trying to reach so you can produce the right content.
Show Them What You've Got. Use video to give an inside view of your company: showcase new products and services, offer a sneak preview for upcoming releases, create a tour of your offices, or record an interview with an employee. Remember, the idea is to build relationships, not just show commercials, so be creative and stay away from hard sell advertising.
Start Small. Before you hire a film crew to produce a feature film, try short- form video like what is offered on Instagram. You can make quick 15- second videos and instantly share them on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumbler for a simple start.
Easy Sharing. If you're placing videos on your blog, website, or other outlets, be sure teasy-to-find buttons are available to encourage viewers to share.

Stand Apart

No other content has the power to make an impact quite like video. Whether you're putting together detailed how-to videos or quick product teasers, set yourself apart from the competition by incorporating video sharing into your social media strategy.