5 Tips For Increasing Video Engagement On Social Media

21st July 2017 by CH

With video content on the rise and social media platforms encouraging the creation and sharing of video (Instagram stories, Facebook live, etc), it’s become increasingly challenging for brands to stand out, as more and more visual content is being created.

We’ve been creating bespoke video content  for the past 12 years, including videos tailored specifically for social media.

So check out our 5 tips on how to increase engagement of your videos on social:

1. Add subtitles

It’s incredible that 85% of videos on Facebook video are watched without sound. All videos on social should ideally have subtitles as the majority of users will be watching the video, but have their sound off. So it’s a good idea to make both options available.

2. Choose The Right Length

Videos on Facebook should be no longer than 30 seconds, and usually they should go straight into the footage with no title card. Full length videos will perform better on YouTube, so it’s worth creating two edits for the different channels, if possible.

Learn more about the best duration for an effective video here.

3. Keep It Clear

To make the most of your content, your post should be very directional and only have ONE call to action. For video, this would usually be watch, e.g. ‘ Watch our video to find out… ’ but you could also use other actions like ‘ Tag someone who will love this video… ’ or ‘ How would you build on this? Comment with your idea’.

4. Tag, tag, tag

If a person/brand/company etc. is featured in the video, tag them in the post and also ask them directly if they can feature it and promote it for you via their own social media pages as well.

5. Advertise

Finally, this is an important one. To really boost your video post (especially on Facebook), you will almost certainly need to put some media budget behind each video to get it seen, as Facebook is giving branded content virtually no organic reach these days. Start with £50 per video to see what works.

You can target very specific audiences too, so it can pay off quite well, and at the end you can analyse the results and insights of your ad campaign to understand what works and what doesn’t.

To see examples of successful videos for social media, check out our Portfolio and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel.