Don’t Make These Mistakes with Your Social Media Video

This article was written by Chad Shoonmaker and published by Crossroads Professional Coaching

 

Have you opened your social media accounts today? If so, what caught your attention first?

Was it a puppy video? An influencer sharing about some product that they are “totally in love with and have an exclusive offer for”? Or was it a business doing a trending TikTok dance together?

No matter what you saw, there’s a huge possibility that you consumed video content. Let’s read over a few stats on video content published to social media provided by Sprout Social.

• 26% of marketers state that Stories are the most valuable type of social content.
• 25% of marketers say live video is the most valuable type of social content.
• Half of social media users prefer video over other types of content.
• 85% of social media users want more videos from brands.
• 35% of all North American B2C marketers use live video.
• People share video content with friends twice as much as any other type of content.
• 58% of viewers will watch the entirety of a business video if it’s less than 60 seconds long.
• More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• 73% of businesses report acquiring new customers from an Instagram Story.

Needless to say, video in all formats on social is only going to continue to grow and needs to be a priority for new and growing businesses.

So how do small business owners and content creators keep up? It seems like a lot to tackle for one person or even a small team of people who already have a full-time jobs.

We put together a few do’s and don’t’s when it comes to creating video content for your business’s social media accounts.

Don’t edit your personality

Consumers are ALWAYS going to connect with a person before connecting with a product. Consider this: People make decisions based on emotions. A product cannot emote but a person can.  People aren’t likely to buy from you if they don’t remember you. Don’t make the mistake of editing your personality OUT of your video content.

Don’t Compare

Comparison truly is the Theif of Joy… Don’t look at other users’ views or follower count. It’s wasted energy. Creating video content needs to come from an authentic place that is not trying to recreate something someone posted. It’s your brand’s story to tell and only you can tell it.

Don’t Over-Think

JUST POST SOMETHING. I’ve seen over and over again that manufactured, overly produced videos take up too much time and don’t yield any more significant results or views. The more time you spend overthinking is more time you spend talking yourself OUT of posting anything at all.

The time you spend THINKING about a video is time you could have spent actually shooting and posting an authentic, real-time video.

You may hear people say things like, “we’re going to wait to do video until we grow the business or the book is published or we hire someone to do it…” There’s no RIGHT time to start doing videos for your business. Come up with ways to share your story visually DURING the process. This will entice people to follow along and, hopefully, buy into whatever you’re trying to sell.

PRO TIP: Give yourself a 10-day challenge to post a video every day. Don’t plan, don’t over think. Just do it. You will be surprised to compare engagement of each video, see what works and what didn’t and learn from your

DO Think of Video Like this:

There are many use cases for video. TikToks, Instagram Reels, YouTube videos, Facebook Posts… It’s hard for a business owner to balance so many plates and to know where all of these plates need to go.

Here’s a quick way to think of where your video content for Instagram should live.

• Instagram Stories are the Behind the Scenes videos of what you’re doing that day. This content is meant to be raw, unfiltered, and genuinely you. Documenting your day with quick, behind the scenes story posts is a great way to show up authentically to your audience!
• Instagram Reels are Commercials for your Profile. These videos can be as short as a few seconds up to 60 seconds that quickly tell the story of your brand or product in a fun, creative way. They are meant to capture users attention, bringing them to your profile to connect. Instagram is prioritizing Reels on the platform and incentivizing users to create more content. So if you’re going to spend any amount of time spend it creating Instagram Reels.
• Longer Format Video Posts are the full episodes of you telling your story. Maybe you’re a jewelry designer and you have a new product line coming out. A 3-5 minute video explaining why you choose to create this line, what’s your inspiration and how can people purchase would be a great video to share with your audience. And potential customers!