Videos on social media are highly successful at entertaining and informing audiences. This is precisely why your business should be incorporating video into its digital media strategy. Current video marketing trends have changed consumers’ expectations of how they receive information and news from brands. 

According to Wyzowl, 73% of consumers said they would prefer to watch a video to learn about a product or service. In 2020, 78% of people report watching videos online each week while 55% of those watch on a daily basis. Marketers should take notice of the changing landscape of social media video trends. There is no doubt that videos are engaging, but the video format most effective at engaging and driving conversions is short-form video. 

What is short-form video?

Short-form videos refer to videos posted to social media that can range between 15 seconds and 3 minutes. They are prevalent on platforms such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and of course TikTok. Not only are short-form videos brief, but they are usually fast-paced and straight to the point. They rely on users’ shrinking attention spans to receive instant gratification. That gratification can be information or entertainment, but ideally, short-form videos combine the two seamlessly. 

Benefits of short-form video

There are several reasons why short-form videos should be a vital part of your business’s digital marketing strategy. Short-form videos are great ways of telling stories authentic to your brand. Videos also tend to be more memorable to users compared to text and image-based content. Lastly, videos receive higher amounts of engagement and increase brand awareness. According to the aforementioned Wyzowl poll, 87% of marketers say video has helped them increase traffic to their websites.

In 2022, 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 92% of marketers view short-form video as an ‘important part’ of their marketing strategy. Short-form videos are a powerful marketing tool that holds the potential to increase your following and sales. But as video formats, trends, and social media algorithms evolve, marketers also recognize the need to evolve their digital marketing strategies involving video. Here are six ways to enhance your short-form video strategy:

• Understand video platforms
• Take advantage of trends
• Keep it short
• Get the user’s attention
• Be authentic
• Utilize text and music

Understand video platforms

The first step to making a compelling short-form video is researching different media platforms. Different types of content work for different social media apps and their unique user bases. Tiktok might be the go-to short-form video app, but having a Tiktok account might not be useful if your buyer personas are not Gen-Z. The platform you create videos for also determines features during video production such as aspect ratio, length, and orientation of the video. 

Take advantage of trends

Social media trends dictate if your videos are relevant to audiences. Being mindful of trends means using trending hashtags, audios, or even dances to appear relevant to users. Be sure to capitalize on trends that embrace your brand’s voice or trends your business can put a unique spin on. Creating trending content entails brainstorming, producing, and uploading the video with a quick turnaround. But users don’t expect every social media video to have high production value, so it’s more important to get a video out before a trend dies down. 

Keep it short

Short-form video is called short-form for a reason! Marketers should be mindful of the maximum length of the videos able to be uploaded on their platform of choice. Different platforms also favor different video lengths in their algorithms. Publishing a video that is too long will lose the attention of most social media users. These days, a one-minute video is not guaranteed to keep everyone’s attention. Be as concise as possible with your messaging and save your followers’ time. 

Get the user’s attention

An intriguing opening frame or first few seconds is necessary in order to capture a user’s attention. Without an attention-grabbing hook, the user is going to scroll past the video you spent time and money creating. Within the first few seconds, the user should understand the purpose of the video and why it is relevant to them. A straightforward title card and bold visuals communicate the motive of the video without much effort or explanation.  

Be authentic

Effective short-form videos connect to the audience in a brief amount of time. It’s crucial to authentically represent your brand in your business’s social media content. Consumers are smart enough to know if social media content is fake or ingenuine. Focus on showing the authentic work environment and employees of your business. Marketers can compromise some of the technical quality of the video by making up for it with an enticing story with trending elements. Authentic content also forms trust between the business and the consumers. 

Utilize text and music

Along with quality visuals, text and music complete a well-rounded short-form video. Captions help tell the video’s story and can provide accessibility to deaf followers. When it comes to audio, consider if the platform you create for autoplays videos with or without sound. If you are uploading short-form videos to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (except Reels), then users will first see your video without sound. This makes captions all the more important to include. But if you are creating a TikTok or an Instagram Reel, using a trending audio can recommend your video to more new users. 

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