“Videos are becoming increasingly popular on social media, especially on mobile devices. Over the past year, the time people spent watching Facebook Live each day increased fourfold, and Instagram videos by 80%.”
To create engaging videos and succeed on social media, short videos are recommended. Sounds easy, but where do you start?
In this guide, you’ll learn step-by-step how to make short videos for social media, from just a few seconds to a few minutes. Learn how to capture attention with your content.
How to create engaging videos for social media
Creating videos can be more challenging than writing a blog post or designing an image. But it’s not as difficult as you might think.
Develop and implement a marketing plan
The first step is to generate ideas for your videos. Here are three quick ways to generate hundreds of ideas:
- Consider your blog posts. If you blog, like we do, you probably have a treasure trove of ideas in your blog content. Posts that resonate with your audience are likely excellent content for your videos.
- Analyze the most shared content. Do some quick research to see what content is most shared by your target audience so you can offer exactly what they need.
- Analyze the competition. Check out the social media of your competitors or similar brands to start your research.
Record in a suitable and attractive way
Now for the fun part: recording. Thanks to technological advancements (and smartphones), you can create engaging, high-quality videos with just a few simple tools and tricks. Here are some of our suggestions:
- Use your phone. You don’t need expensive video equipment to get started. One of the most powerful video tools is in your pocket: your mobile phone. You can also use it for editing thanks to the numerous apps available.
- Stabilize with a tripod. Stabilized video helps make your content look much more professional.
- Make sure you have good lighting, speak into a microphone, or create an attractive background.
Time spent on each social network
This is one of the most important tips to keep in mind: be brief and concise.
Each social network has different results depending on video length, so you need to know the ideal length for each platform. For example, Facebook videos under a minute tend to get the most attention, while Instagram videos on IGTV should be a different length than those on the feed or in Stories.
Be aware that Instagram limits video uploads to 60 seconds on the feed. Most other major social networks don’t have similar restrictions. Keep this in mind before recording to avoid wasting time and ultimately being unable to use your content.
Format on each social network
When creating videos for social media, you have several options when selecting the format you want to display: portrait, landscape, square, or full screen.
Portrait and landscape are quite popular when recording social videos with phones; however, the most reliable format is square. Why is this?
- It looks good on desktops.
- It looks good on mobile devices.
- Platforms like Instagram often crop parts of your video if it’s not square.
Choosing between horizontal and vertical mode isn’t the end of your decision-making process.
You can film videos for social media without considering video specifications. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other networks will reformat the videos so they can be viewed on their respective platforms.
However, for the best resolution and user experience, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the video specifications accepted by the platform where you plan to publish.
Learning how to make videos for social media might seem intimidating at first, but the goal is to make the process less tedious and time-consuming for your business. With the tips described above, you can create great content for your target audience across different platforms.
If you need help creating engaging content for your business’s social media, you can opt for video marketing from salago.design, experts in this type of content and with the professional tools you need to stand out.
