Video is becoming increasingly popular on social media. It is a great tool for small businesses to help you highlight your brand, build loyalty with your customers, and attract new customers.

People are on their phones or devices all the time and they love watching videos – you’ve only got to look at how some of the TikTok dances have become a thing to see why. And who remembers the iced bucket challenge that was around a few years ago – it went viral with people from all over the world joining in and posting their own videos.

So why is video so important for small businesses?

Well, primarily, it’s good for your brand as video makes it more visible to a huge number of people. If you make a video using your products/services, it’s a good idea to use a logo watermark, as this will help establish that it’s your brand.

It also draws your audience’s attention. A video can grab attention quickly, compared to wordy text. The only problem is keeping it short, sweet and to the point, as people don’t have a long attention span! But practice makes perfect.

Video tips

So, when you make your video, here are some tips to keep in mind…

• Ensure that the content is relevant to your target audience and is engaging enough to grab their interest.
• Include headings and short descriptions, using SEO keywords and phrases so they will be found in a search.
• Include relevant hashtags and a call to action.
• Ensure that your video can be shared.
• Think about using a video on your website or on your landing page for email sign up, so that your potential audience can learn more about you and your products/services in a more engaging way.
• Try and inject some humour into your video where you can.
• Show behind the scenes video – this helps your potential customers to see you have a transparent brand – people are generally nosy, so they like to see where and how you work.
• Having yourself speaking in a video shows you are human, and people can engage with you, the business owner.
• Videos can be made at any time and anywhere, so if you think of something you want to tell your followers and you’re at a coffee shop, go ahead and do it!
• Video is low cost and more likely to remain online, available, and searchable for longer than ordinary text posts.

The most efficient types of video content for businesses are demonstrations, live performances, testimonials, ads of events and brand awareness, so it’s a good idea to keep that in mind.

You don’t have to be in the video and speaking if you don’t want to – you can show products or services with a musical background without actually having to appear in person.

Keep an eye on your engagement.

Just like any form of content that you put out, it’s vital to keep an eye on the engagement your video brings. You can see what’s working and what’s not! Then if you decide you want to use video for a paid ad, you’ll know what will work before you shell out any money.

You can see your engagement stats through the insights on all your social media channels, so it’s worth checking this out regularly for all your posts – not just for video.  

Conclusion

Video is a great addition to your social media marketing strategy. It helps your brand recognition and can help you reach audiences you may not reach with text/image only posts.

Just ensure that your video content is relatable and relevant to your target audience and just give it a go and see what happens! I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!