Why use Rich Content Like Video in Social Media?
In today’s world of social media, especially on Facebook, it is vital to remain in the news feed of your target market. As you know, Facebook has been slashing organic reach for years. Research conducted by Olgivy & Mather shows that changes to Facebook’s algorithm has reduced the average exposure of unpaid posts from 12% in October 2013 to around 6% in February 2015.
Your business just won’t get cut through and visibility until your followers – likers – whatever you want to call them, engage with you or you start paying for your posts. One of the goals of your activity on Facebook is to have a highly engaged audience.
What do we mean by engage? It’s simple – they either have to:
- Like your post
- Add a comment to your post
- Share your post with their friends – getting your post to go viral is the holy grail!!!
To get your target market to do one of these actions is to make sure your posts are compelling, interesting, and most importantly, relevant and applicable to them.
One sure-fire way to enhance the chance of this happening, is to include ‘rich content’ such as video. And your footage should tell a very short story about your product. Telling stories with video increases engagement, triggers social sharing, and gives people a reason to talk about you – both online and offline.
So how long and high tech should the video be?
Here’s the good news! Your video can be anywhere from a few seconds up to a couple of minutes. But, if it does go longer than about 15 seconds, make sure the content isn’t boring or people will switch off and move away from your post.
Your video does not have to be high tech – in fact, research shows that the content of the image is more important than the quality of the image. Using your smart phone is the perfect instrument to start with. Just make sure that you film your content with your phone in the ‘landscape’ position, not ‘portrait’. Just turn your phone sideways before hitting the red record button!
Very importantly, Google now indexes shared content which means video can improve your search engine optimisation (SEO).
Lastly, not all video is created equal and getting your video seen in the first place in the first hurdle. You may need to consider paying Facebook for what is now becoming considered as a privilege, rather than a right.
Massey Online Management knows the tricks of the social media trade and can advise you honestly about what direction your business should be taking. Contact us today and ask us for our opinion.