7 Social Video Stats Every Marketer Needs to Know in 2020

Many entrepreneurs (including some of you) wonder if it’s worth investing more in social video. Even though nowadays, all kinds of brands are succeeding in the social media marketing space! However, the importance and effect of having a strong social media presence should clear all doubts for most of us: social video marketing is paying off, big time!

It doesn’t happen by accident though. Developing a great video-centered campaign involves many tricky aspects of the social platforms out there and requires top-of-the-line, quality content.

The good news is that, in the age of the internet, knowledge is available to anyone willing to find it!

Today, we’ll discuss some key video marketing trends that the top video companies use to build a strong social media strategy in 2020. We’ll highlight the details of some of today’s most important stats in this regard, and their meaning for current and future implementation.

By the end, not only will you understand the basics of it, but you’ll have a pretty good idea about how to get the most out of them.

1. Shorter Videos Are More Successful Across all Platforms

Whether you blame people’s short attention spans or the way we use technology, there’s plenty of reasons why you’ll want to keep your social marketing videos short.

But probably the most important is that people on social platforms are scrolling down their feed just to find something interesting to look at to pass the time! If your videos are not gripping enough from the get-go, most people will ignore them altogether.

Figuring out how to keep your audience engaged and deliver your message in a short time can be a challenge though. So, here are a few tips that will come in handy in this regard.

• Capture viewer attention by introducing a well-crafted hook right from the start. A thought-provoking question, data point, or story that is impressive enough will make them stay until the end.
• You usually tell your most compelling stories when you do it fast. Videos of 30 to 90 seconds give you ample time for that if you focus on a singular idea or core message. You don’t need your followers to know your product in detail, but only what they miss and what they can hope to get.
• If you absolutely feel that such a short video can’t possibly be enough, consider doing a series of short videos instead of a single, longer one.

2. How-To Videos Perform at Their Best on YouTube

How-to videos are one of the most popular types of videos on YouTube. “How-to”-related searches increase year to year, and brands like Tasty, 5 Minute Crafts, and Brightside are leveraging the format to keep their audience engaged, learning about cooking, home-improvement, beauty treatments, or creative crafts.

People love tutorials because they want to learn new skills, pursue new passions, or simply solve a need. The great thing about How-tos is that they deliver instant value! As they turn more to YouTube to get familiar with brands and decide what to buy, marketers should be using the power of these videos, promoting self-generated learning about their own products or niche.

3. YouTube Delivers Insane Organic Reach Potential

With a massive pool of more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users, YouTube is one of the most widely used advertising venues out there.

More importantly, views on branded content are growing every year. Due to its potential to increase user engagement and purchases, most business owners today regard YouTube as the best social media platform for effective video distribution.

Mind you, such a staggering number of potential viewers is an audience any marketer would have killed for 20 years ago. But nowadays, it can also be a detriment, since competition for attention is so fierce.

Which is why effective is the operative word you should focus on here.

Along with its innate organic reach potential, YouTube also offers a robust, data-powered platform that helps you not only figure out what works and doesn’t but the type of audience you are reaching out to.

With a bit of know-how and a lot of attention, you can use these metrics to guide your social video content strategy. Effectively reaching the exact type of audience your brand or business is most interested in connecting with.

4. Mobile-oriented Videos on Facebook are the Way to Go

People love accessing Facebook from mobile. With a total of 2.26 billion mobile active users, it’s unsurprising that 94% of Facebook ad revenue comes from smartphone-users.

That number alone should give any marketer a pause. It stands to reason then, to improve your chances of capturing attention on this platform, you need to adopt a mobile-first strategy when creating your video content.

>Tailoring your Facebook videos (and ads!) to mobile-users preferences means:

• Accounting for the overall visual composition of the video. Mobile-oriented videos shouldn’t clutter the screen and be visually simple to understand.
• Editing the screen format properly (for example, square vs. landscape view).
• Taking into account the device they’ll use. A mobile-first approach means accounting for the “on-the-go” quality of content consumption. So, adding subtitles, for example, is a must.

Keep these things in mind if you are hiring a freelancer to design and produce your video content for this platform. Ideally, they should be familiar with these – and other – aspects of this individual platform, so they can find ways to adapt them to your campaign’s goals.

5. Instagram Videos Generate More Interaction than Photos

Instagram is not just about photos anymore! Video posts, stories, live streaming, and IGTV all heavily dominate the dynamics of the platform today.

And while the platform remains a photo-based service in terms of volume, sponsored videos garner 3x more comments than sponsored pictures!

Brands generally don’t have a problem building a follower count on Instagram because that audience enjoys branded video content. People are already inclined to follow companies and to learn more about their products on the platform, so there’s less friction with that type of content.

Build on this potential by fostering people’s interaction with your brand!

Show them that their opinion is important to you. In your videos, you can ask them about what they like and what their thoughts are, things that motivate them into engaging with you and your content.

6. Instagram Is the Leading “Stories” Platform on the Market

Nowadays, Instagram stories are just as important as their main feed.

Though they made many people cringe when they were introduced back in 2016, stories have proven to be a great move for any company: about 40% of Instagram’s 1 billion users are creating and interacting with stories on a regular basis!

The unique features in this platform are an important contributing factor to the popularity of stories. Through their “swipe up” links, Instagram stories offer brands the opportunity to connect with their consumers and drive their sales up.

More importantly, since stories are ephemeral content, there’s less pressure and a lot more leniency from a production standpoint.

It’s not surprising then, to see brands posting more “Stories” content on Instagram than even on sites like Snapchat. As users show more search interest in Instagram stories than their Snapchat counterparts.

7. Tweets with Video Generate 10x More Engagement

You bet, Twitter is a platform suitable for video!

Turns out, there’s more to Twitter than just microblogging and quoting witty thoughts. As Twitter itself has revealed, something as simple as using original, branded GIFs help businesses to generate 10x more engagement in their posts.

The truth is that people only get so much from what they read about a brand. Sometimes the inclusion of video encourages them to get a real sense of urgency about the need that is yet to be satisfied by your product.

Tweeting with video is not restricted to GIFs, though. Uploaded and live-streamed videos are among the options worth exploring on Twitter as well!

That said, just like with other social media platforms, users on Twitter have their own preferences when it comes to the type of videos they prefer. So, it might be a good idea to hire a Twitter expert to help you generate these pieces and speed up your learning curve if this platform is your primary focus.

Conclusion

Social video marketing might look like a complicated thing to pull off, but it doesn’t have to be.

Once you have some understanding of how the main social channels work, you’ve taken the first step to work out a long-term, successful strategy.

Video is accessible to all businesses that want to promote their brand through effective content, but not all videos are created equally! And accounting for the technical aspects of video production – especially from a platform-specific standpoint– can be tricky and involves knowing variables that require specialized skills.

Luckily, today we can connect with professionals with in-depth knowledge of how video and these platforms interplay with each other, which makes the whole endeavor a lot more manageable!

So, there are really no excuses not to start experimenting! Set up a budget and prepare yourself to reap the benefits that video content will extract from your social media presence.