How to Create Great Video Content to Support Social Media Marketing Success

You’ve probably heard a lot of buzz recently about the huge impact of video content on social media marketing success.  Video content is SO successful, because visitors LOVE visual content.  So, today, I’m going to share some secrets of how to create video content that rocks your social media marketing.

OK, so I’m NOT an expert on the technical aspects of how to create video content — the lighting, composition, filming, editing, or all those other tips that create a polished video product.  There are lots of folks online who can help you with those aspects of how to create video content. Or, you can hire a company to create great video content (in fact, we have several suc individuals in our agency who’d be happy to help).

What I can do is show you how to create video content that supports your social media marketing success.  And, unless you’re a professional broadcaster, that’s the name of the game — getting visitors to view your great video content and using that video content to convert visitors into buyers.

Create Video Content that Helps Customers

Remember, to create great video content it should give CUSTOMERS value, not focus on what gives YOU value.

• What do customers need to know?
• What are their problems?
• How can you make customers’ lives easier?

Create Video Content that’s Sharable

Make it easy for visitors to share your video content by using services such as AddThis, which creates share buttons so visitors can Tweet or post your video to Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, etc.  But, go beyond this simple sharing to help make your video content go viral.  Here are some tips:

1. Use a service that allows visitors to embed the video content in their own websites. Unlike a share, an embed doesn’t just copy and paste your content onto another site.  An embed actually brings visitors back to the original site to view the content.  This is seamless to visitors — who assume they’re watching the video on whatever site hosted it — while really taking the visitor back to where ever YOU host the video.  While this may seem like a trivial difference, it’s HUGE because then YOU get all the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value and authority from the content, not whoever re-posted your video content.
2. Network with other authorities in your industry.  Send them the embed codes and a personal invitation to share your video on their websites or social networks.  You’d be surprised how effective a personal note is in getting others to promote your content.  Face it.  All bloggers are constantly looking for great content so you’re doing them a favor (BTW, when you create great video content related to social media, please send me the embed so I can share it here).
3. Develop and maintain an active, engaged community so when you create great video content, your network is motivated to share it, thus amplifying your content.

Branding Your Great Video Content

So, you’ve worked REALLY hard creating awesome video content that’ll change the world.  Great!  Don’t hide it under a bush.  And, here I’m talking about more than just sharing your video content to your social network.  I’m talking about creating a strong brand and identifying your video content with your brand.

I can’t tell you how much great video content I’ve received that didn’t do a good job of branding the creator.  This is your chance to really shine and get all the street cred you can from your great content.

I recommend video producers create a donut and placing your video content inside.  A donut is a snippet of video before and after your content.  For instance, here’s the video I created as part of my “Hausman Marketing Letter” series.  See how the beginning highlights the brand with the banner and color scheme from the website … and Facebook page …. and Twitter (although these were created before I changed the the URL and banner so I need to go back and redo these with the new branding).  And, the end continues to brand by listing ways to connect with us.  You can also say A LITTLE about your company and what you do well at the end of the video donut.

OK, so that’s all for today.  Be sure to ask questions if you don’t understand this or need more information. Certainly, I could go on to present other tips for how to create great video content, but I’ll leave that for another post.

If you want help creating great video content or other strategies to make your marketing SIZZLE, we’re here to help.  Simply go to our services page to request a proposal or use the contact form to set up a FREE consultation (for prospective clients only).