“Videos on social media must have relevance, cut through, visual appeal and human connection.”
The dynamic and ever-changing world of social media can be overwhelming…so we thought it would be helpful to simply some key learnings to consider when commissioning video for social media.
Here are our 5 top tips to consider when creating social media videos:
- Most people consume video on their smart phones or tablets. Whether it’s at home, work, on public transport or in a café, no one else around wants to listen to your feed. Whilst some consumers are permanently attached to their headphones most of us are scrolling without sound. Captions are a must to ensure that your videos reach their full potential.
- You must consider the length of your video/s, and the several platforms available to publish your content. For example, a case study video you share on Facebook may be too long to share on Twitter and Instagram. Here are some guidelines to follow when creating videos for social media channels:
Facebook – up to 45 minutes but the ideal length is up to 90 seconds (one minute even better!)
Instagram – post to Instagram Profile: up to 1 minute (ideal length is 30 seconds)
Twitter – up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds (ideal length is 15-45 seconds)
LinkedIn – up to 10 minutes but ideal length 30 seconds – 5 minutes
- Motion graphics. Capture attention with animated text and icons. These can be overlayed on real footage (e.g. interview, face to camera) or purely animated videos. Whichever way, motion graphics are attention grabbing and great for highlighting key messages. Animated videos can be text driven and therefore don’t require captions.
- Differentiate. If you are producing a series of videos for a campaign, make sure they all have a slightly different visual appearance. This can be done by creating a colour palette up front and assigning each video a different colour opening slide. Therefore, when the suite of videos sit together on YouTube or your website, they won’t appear to be the same video!
- Find the heart of the story. Whether a story is 15 seconds or 2 minutes long, it must have a pulse that your audience will connect with. To do so, don’t drown your audience with information. Focus on one key message, less is more!
