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.
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.
A1:
?Photos and images are one dimensional. Video can add life to your Twitter feed.
?You can say more than you can say in text or an image, there's no character limit#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/ilE7q6GI8Z— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A1:
?A moving image grabs attention, you can stop that thumb from scrolling
?When people see you in a video it's almost as if they are meeting you in real life. It's a great way to get to know you and your business.#TwitterSmarter— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A1: Video, no matter what the distribution channel, is always the richest media, and usually results in high engagement. #TwitterSmarter
— John Cloonan (@johncloonan) June 18, 2020
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.
A1. Video is a great type of content not only on Twitter, but everywhere.
A video ignites the viewer's senses and emotions, hence it enables them to absorb information (of whatever kind or purpose) more easily. In that sense, it's more effective than blogs.#TwitterSmarter
— Draseum – Marketing Research, Insight & Consulting (@draseum) June 18, 2020
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.
A2:
You can get by without a video strategy but:
?If you want to make sure your time isn't wasted
?If you want to efficiently make sales from your activity ? you need a strategy ? You need to know your video making has a strong business purpose#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/gY2JycwFPc— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A2. I will say that throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks CAN actually be useful at times – it's low-investment market research – but make sure you're paying attention to the results to then CREATE a more long-term strategy.#TwitterSmarter
— christine gritmon ✨#VOTE (@cgritmon) June 18, 2020
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.
A3: (2/3)
? Start with videos that will attract the right audience. This could be tutorials, how-to video, humorous content or news stories.If you create stuff that will help your audience you'll get their attention ?#TwitterSmarter
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A3: (3/3)
Now you've started to build an audience don't forget to sell to them.
Here's a post I wrote about creating sales content that isn't too salesy.???https://t.co/iPk9vwyKjl#TwitterSmarter— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
If you’re relatively new to the process of developing a strategy, consider the essential elements of a video strategy Richard shared:
A3: The elements of a successful video strategy are:
A.) Tone and Quality
B.) Frequency and Consistency of distribution
C:) Measurements and Analytics
D:) Customization of video for each channel#TwitterSmarter— Richard Sink, Principal at Critical Connections (@Richard_Sink) June 18, 2020
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.
A3:
?Answer FAQ with your videos. This will help people who are considering buying to make the right choice.#TwitterSmarter— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A3:
?Use videos to reassure your potential customers they are making the right decision.
?Video testimonial rock, talk to your customers and see who you can persuade to make one for you. #TwitterSmarter— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A3:
?You can send a video message via DM.
Use this to offer a quick consultation call or personalised offer but only once you've got to know the person.
Don't overuse this, save it for special occasions and you'll delight your audience.#TwitterSmarter
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A4:
?In Twitter Analytics, there's a video tab that shows you the number of views and the completion rate of your videos.
? Obviously shorter videos get more completions but it's interesting to see which longer videos do the best.#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/dwM1qo02lP— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
?In Twitter Media Studio there's some extra cool video stuff under the 'Insights' tab.
In 'Audience' you can see when your followers watch video content on Twitter. I've used this to help me decide when to schedule videos.
More on that?https://t.co/rt8GcqFRBo pic.twitter.com/7bCxqBfq9q
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
Aside from the native Twitter stats, you can also include UTM codes in your links and track their performance on Google Analytics.
A4:
And of course there's UTM tracking, GA goals etc that will help too #TwitterSmarter
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A4. Our key metric is email list growth so if people are acting on our CTA that's a good sign that:
– The topic attracted people
– The content engaged them
– The CTA was strong enough.#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/AipnvjHdRJ— Rob & Kennedy ? The Email Marketing Heroes (@RobandKennedy) June 18, 2020
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.
A5:
?Trailers that promote other contenthttps://t.co/h6BYwJBuZtBut don't go by my recommendations. Test what works with your audience and do more of that.#TwitterSmarter
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A5: All sorts of videos work.
?Videophotos which you shoot like a photo but run your video camera instead of taking a still.Here's one I made of my town:https://t.co/POpTNjWJA6#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/OnozCIADMK
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A5) Funny, happy, positive. Have music. On topic, and relevant. https://t.co/PdCvR9JNFK
— Brazen Jester Studios (@JesterBrazen) June 18, 2020
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.
A6:
?I think the limit for uploading directly on Twitter is still 140 seconds but you can upload a longer video using Media Studio.I try and keep them short. People on Twitter love to scroll so to keep their attention for longer than a minute or two is tough. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/wOWIhUZjuX
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A6: As long as they need to be to get one point across.
Like a tweet videos should give one idea. Don't load it up like a full YouTube video.
If you've got more to say – do more videos! #TwitterSmarter
— Jake Symons (@jakeswrites) June 18, 2020
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.
But people do actually watch long live streams. It's a hard one to guess. It's all about testing and measuring results.#TwitterSmarter
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
A7: ? I'm not sure there is a magic ratio. I post at least 1 video a day and 1 text tweet a day.
?More important is the ratio between broadcast tweets and engagement tweets ? Your video tweets should be a step towards getting into more conversations.#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/sQ1oOFKA9G
— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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.
? Depends on what type of content goes down well with your audience
?If you get more engagement on videos then posting them more often makes sense..50/50
?You also need to consider the costs/resources involved to create videos while making this decision
— Smita (@Smita_DigiMarke) June 18, 2020
Here’re a few do’s that our guest and community shared:
A8:
✅ Caption your videos so they're accessible to all. You can do this using a tool like Kapwing or you can upload captions to Twitter Media Studio.#TwitterSmarter— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
Some don’ts to remember:
A8:
⛔️ If you are in your video don't look at yourself look at the camera. When you look at yourself you are losing eye-contact with your viewer.#TwitterSmarter— Amanda Webb ?? (@Spiderworking) June 18, 2020
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