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Building a Video Strategy for Twitter

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Building a Video Strategy for Twitter - #TwitterSmarter chat with Amanda Webb - June 18, 2020

Know how your thumb automatically stops scrolling when you spot a video no your feed? That’s the power of video—it makes people pause and observe. And if it’s a great video, it makes people engage, like, reply with their opinions, and share with their community.

We invited social media strategist, Amanda Webb, to share some insight about how to go about building a video strategy for your business. We discussed what makes for good videos, why or why you shouldn’t have a strategy, and more. Here’s a summary of our chat.

Guest: Amanda WebbTopic: Building a Video Strategy for TwitterFormat: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

Q1: What makes video such a great type of content to post on Twitter?

The obvious benefit of video over any other medium is that it’s so visual. However, unlike static images, videos add a more attractive element to your feed, especially since it can make people feel like they’re missing out if they don’t watch the video.

Besides, without a character limit, you can go ahead and share your message exactly as you want to. It’s a great way to showcase your personality, your business values, and even your colleagues and other stakeholders.

And of course, as John pointed out, being such a rich medium of content, videos tend to get far more engagement than any other format.

Mary explained why it’s so engagement-worthy. On video, you’re directly speaking to a person, which means you’re appealing to their emotions and enticing a response automatically. For instance, if you get them to smile at your video, you’re one step closer to getting them to reply with a positive message.

Q2: Is it necessary to have a strategy, or can you randomly post videos?

Generally speaking, you’ll be fine without a strategy. However, that’s true only when you’re posting videos occasionally. If you find yourself posting videos regularly, even just one a day, then it’s worthwhile spending time to create a strategy for your videos. After all, as our guest said, if you want to get measurable returns from your videos, without wasting your time, you need a proper strategy.

Christine gave us an image we can’t forget: posting random videos is like throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping something would stick. And while that’s a reasonably good way to identify what works, it’s only useful if you’re paying attention.

Once you identify what makes your audience engage with your content, you can use that information to create a strategy.

Q3: How do you go about building a video strategy?

First, identify your business goals. Then you can proceed to creating a plan that covers what types of video content you’ll share, how often, and what messages you’ll convey.

You can then create videos, starting from the ones that will speak to your audience the most. Some examples would be tutorials, short snippets extracted from webinars, high-quality industry news, etc.

And then you’ll get to a point where you’ve developed considerable trust in your audience. At that point, you can make your sales pitch. However, be careful not to be overly promotional. Here’s a blog post that our guest wrote about writing marketing posts without sounding salesy.

If you’re relatively new to the process of developing a strategy, consider the essential elements of a video strategy Richard shared:

  • Define the tone of your messages and the quality you want to offer.
  • Identify the ideal frequency of your videos and proper distribution times.
  • Familiarize yourself with the necessary analytics and metrics you need to measure.
  • Think about how you’ll customize your videos to fit into various social media.

Our guest also shared a few more ideas on how you can use video content. For example, make a video to answer frequently asked questions about your service or product. Or if you’re hosting an event, that this opportunity to showcase your team and have them invite your social audience through a video.

When you find a customer who’s happy with your service, ask the if they’d make a video testimonial for you. That’s such a great way to convince potential customers. Video testimonials are also far more easier to consume for your audience than a case study ebook.

And most importantly, use the video reply feature to respond to your audience one-on-one. Everyone enjoys it when a business they work with takes time out to appreciate them. As our guest added, you can even send videos on direct messages—just be careful not to overdo it.

Q4: How do you know if people are engaging with your videos?

Start by looking through the most common signs of engagement—retweets, likes, and replies. Then have a look at your default Twitter Analytics, where you’ll see the number of views and the completion rate for each of your videos. If mos people aren’t watching your videos through to the end, then it suggests that you might need to make shorter videos.

If you’ve got Media Studio, take a look at the Audience and Insights for more in-depth information. Knowing where most of your audience is can help schedule your tweets for appropriate times. For more tips about analyzing your stats, check out this article our guest shared.

Aside from the native Twitter stats, you can also include UTM codes in your links and track their performance on Google Analytics.

Rob and Kennedy brought their email marketing expertise to reflect video success as well. According to them, before you post your videos, spend time on your CTA, and then look for how many people responded to your call to action the way you wanted to. That can vary from visiting a blog post, downloading an ebook, or registering for a webinar. Whatever it is, if people respond, then that’s a success.

https://twitter.com/RobandKennedy/status/1273671154096627712

Q5: What types of videos work best on Twitter?

Though you can generalize somewhat, what works best often depends on your audience and what type of content they need. For example, our guest suggested curating news items into a periodic post. She runs a Facebook Live show that she summarizes every week.

You can also think about snappy, trailer like videos to promote your various other content. What’s more, you can even promote other people’s content that you’ve enjoyed.

If you haven’t heard of videophotos, take a look at the example our guest shared. This is also a handy way to create video-like content, even though it’s not a regular video.

As our friend from Brazen Jester Studios suggested, a good rule of thumb for your videos is to make it worth engaging. Some of the elements you can add are humor, light-hearted music, and a positive tone in addition to a relevant, useful topic.

Q6: How long should your videos be?

There’s no rulebook for video lengths. That said, what we know for sure is that shorter ones always perform better. With Twitter being such a fleeting platform, most people don’t have the patience to watch long-form videos on their feed. As a standard, Twitter limits video uploads to 140 seconds—that’s about 2.5 minutes—but you can still upload lengthier videos through the Media Studio if you wish.

One great way to make sure your videos don’t go overboard is to watch out for your message. As Jake pointed out, every video should have only one main message. Otherwise, you’ll end up diluting the point you’re trying to get across.

It’s also worth remembering that even though short videos have a high chance of engagement, people also like watching live streams on Twitter. That’s why it’s necessary that you test varying lengths and analyze for yourself what works for your audience.

Q7: What’s the ideal ratio of video to text tweets?

There isn’t one. Instead of trying to find a perfect ratio of video to text, try and identify what type of content your audience engages with the most. As our guest said, the more important ratio is between the tweets you share (broadcast tweets, as Amanda calls it) and the ones you engage with.

Smita made a good point about what to consider when you consider doing more videos. Aside from knowing what your audience prefers, think also about the costs involved in making those videos. If you have to outsource the job every time you want to make a promotional video, then you might be investing more than your returns. Be wary of that.

Q8: What are some do’s and don’ts of posting videos?

Here’re a few do’s that our guest and community shared:

  • Frame your message from your customer’s perspective. Don’t make it all about you.
  • Include captions in your videos. You can upload them on the Media Studio or use a third-part app to do so.
  • Give people a reason to respond to your tweet. Create your message in such a way that they’d want to engage.
  • Show your authentic self on video.
  • Check your surroundings before you take video on your handheld device.

Some don’ts to remember:

  • If you’re appearing in the video, don’t look at yourself looking into the camera. This makes you lose eye contact with your audience.
  • Don’t take on a salesy tone, or you risk sounding spammy.
  • Don’t use music that you’re not entitled to use. T nay lead to copyright infringement.
  • Don’t jump on a trend that doesn’t directly relate to your business.

Well, folks. That’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading, and for more insights from our chat with Amanda, check out this Twitter Moment that Joana out together. And if you’ve got some time to spare next week, join us on Thursday at 1 pm ET for our next #TwitterSmarter chat.

About me, Narmadhaa:

I write all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.

Say hello: Personal blog | LinkedIn | Twitter

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