2016 was undoubtedly the year of video. The darling across most social media platforms, video is raking up up to 10 billion views daily. Social platforms responded by optimising their newsfeed to facilitate and capitalise on the growing desire for video consumption by adding subtitles, enabling autoplay, and introducing live broadcasting features. As social media continues to be a priority for many marketers (and should be!), here are top three reasons why video needs to play a pivotal role in their social media strategy in 2017.
Social Video Boosts Buying Decisions
If you consider that 59% of users would rather watch a video than read text-based content and 51% of marketers named video as the content with the best ROI capabilities, it is clear that video marketing is not a trend but a necessity. It continues to rise in popularity and represents an immense opportunity for brands to reach a massive audience of 2.3 billion active users. According to recent Brightcove research, users spend an average of six hours per week watching video content on social networks alone, and 79% of respondents agreed that video is the easiest way to get to know a brand online. When we follow social video in tandem with the customer journey we find that nearly three quarters (74%) of consumers pointed to a connection between watching a video on social media and their purchasing decision-making process, followed by 46% of consumers who said they actually made a purchase as a result of watching a brand video on social media. Clearly, social video is a quick and strong driver for influencing consumer behaviour across the buying journey.
Implementing or Streamlining Your Social Video Campaign Has Never Been Easier
The challenge with social networks is that each platform is a unique creature that begets varied consumer behaviour and demands a robust social video strategy. Marketers need to deliver what consumers want through careful targeting, a tailored approach to each social network, and by paying attention to their audience’s ongoing preferences so they can monitor and adapt the video content they serve. Add to that the complexity that arises from different video lengths considered optimal for each network: Facebook advises video of maximum 120 minutes, Instagram recommends under 1 minute, Twitter recommends video under 30 seconds, Snapchat for under 10 seconds, and Vine under 6 seconds. Why do the video lengths vary based on the social network? It is because each of these social networking platforms offer a different social viewing experience for their user base which ultimately impacts viewing habits.
When marketers can easily publish video to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all from one platform, they save time and resources that would otherwise be dedicated to managing video on individual social networks. By using a social video hosting platform, marketers can edit, clip, add video bumpers, categories, descriptions, and tags to their videos, then publish this optimized video to each networks native player. But just publishing video to social media networks isn’t enough-- gaining awareness and engagement from audiences is paramount. This year, marketers will be looking for the tools to make this happen simply and easily.
Marketing is all about Measuring Performance, Even on Social
On social media platforms, we no longer need to seek out video content; instead we discover it wherever we are, based on recommendations from friends, social connections, and algorithms that recognize our habits and preferences. Visibility into what is being watched or how a video is performing via a single dashboard is a delight to marketers. With Brightcove Social, marketers can consolidate their social video analytics across all social channels, track social interactions per video, and quickly assess what’s working and where--ultimately getting a true ROI picture.
As a new year begins, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the challenge social video poses. Luckily, marketing technologies are available in 2017 for marketers to optimise their social video and demonstrate ROI faster than ever before. To learn more about Brightcove Social, contact us.
Create a Better Social Video Strategy