Grow Your Reach Today With These Facebook Video Marketing Tips

Do you feel like your social media channels are stagnating? The steady growth just isn’t there anymore. It’s a painfully slow trickle. Like molasses.

You are still putting in the work and crafting exceptional content. Yet despite your efforts, your organic reach is dropping steadily and your click through rate is following suit.

It’s not you. It’s the algorithm.

The average Facebook page saw organic reach drop by a whopping 52% in 2016. One study found that the average reach of a post by a branded Facebook page is just 2.6%.

(Charts by Visualizer Lite.)

Why is this happening?

Facebook has been tweaking its algorithm to show people info that’s relevant to them, focusing on updates from friends, family and pages they’ve specifically interacted with recently. And of course, paid ads. While this should make scrolling through the feed better for consumers, it poses a challenge for marketers.

And it’s not just Facebook. Instagram updated their algorithm last year. LinkedIn openly favors posts that get a lot of engagement. Even Twitter moved away from the chronological time line. All of this is designed to put the right content in front of the right people. So how do you make sure that content is yours?

Facebook video marketing tips

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth?

Video has an irresistible appeal

People love video. Need some proof?

• Video will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021 (Cisco)
• Using video as part of your marketing strategy can double your conversion rate and increase the time users spend on your site by 105% (BrightCove)
• 43% of consumers actually want businesses to create more video content (HubSpot)

We love it in marketing campaigns, on landing pages and while browsing our favorite channels. Video is getting ready to rule social media land.

Growing your channels with video

When it comes down to it, there really isn’t an ideal, wave a wand and you are there type of way to grow your social media page.

Video works because it cuts through the noise and grabs our attention. We are attracted to fast moving shiny things. It’s biology. And once you’ve got the user’s attention, it’s time to follow the golden rule of social media:

Create irresistible content that answers a real question, solves a real problem and treats the viewer like an actual person.

So how do you get started?

1. Use what you’ve already got

Making your first couple of videos doesn’t have to be hard. Use your current assets to get some relevant video topics.

a) Your FAQ section

Customer questions are a gold mine. Use it. Go through the questions that get asked all the time, pick one and make a short video around it.

Why FAQ? Three things.

• Attention grabbing: You are answering something that actually matters to your audience. Something they’ve been searching for. The chances that it will grab their attention are pretty high.
• Establishes credibility: You are basically answering the question that has been on their mind for months. If you know what they are thinking, you probably know how to help, right? Instant credibility boost.
• It’s specific: Focusing on a single question lets people know what to expect. This makes them far more likely to slow down long enough for you to work your magic and convince them to stick around.

b) Blog teasers

You’ve got a great reserve of evergreen, high quality blog posts. It’s time to dust these babies off, dress them up and make them work for you again.

Create short social videos that tease the question the post answers. If your post offers “10 tips to solve problem x” then create a video that gives one tip and then tease the post in a corresponding social media post or the end credits.

This is a great way to bring older content out to play.

c) Share quick footage from your day

Consumers have more choice than ever before. They’ve got access to a huge online marketplace. This means they can be as picky as they want.

Use video to show off your personality and make a connection. Show them who you are and what your business stands for. This personal connection is crucial. So, use your phone camera to snap some behind the scenes footage and share it with your followers.

Here’s someone who does this well:

Gina shares a quick recording about a tool she just found. It’s short, informative and helps build that personal connection.

So turn that camera on yourself and share something: a tool, an idea, an update.

2. Tools you can use to craft compelling content

You know what to make. Now you need to find the best way to make it.

Making videos for social media doesn’t have to be hard. And it definitely doesn’t need to involve expensive equipment and tens of hours sunk into making it perfect.

Social media isn’t about perfection. It’s about connection.

It’s about reaching through that digital screen for some human on human interaction.

Let’s take a look at some tools you can use to make videos really quickly.

a) The easiest way to make a video

Previously known as ViewedIt, Vidyard’s GoVideo is a super useful free Chrome extension. You can do some serious magic with this thing.

How it works:

• Download the Chrome extension
• Use it to record your screen (and you can get your face in there as well)
• Share your video on social media straight away

GoVideo is quick and intuitive. Use it to make an explainer video or tease an exciting project you are working on.

b) Super simple (and suave) video makers

Animoto and Biteable *️⃣I write for Biteable and I've used the software a lot more than Animoto. I'm a fan. You do you. Try both and see which one your prefer. I've read great things about Animoto and from the quick trial I did while writing this article, it does its thing pretty well. help you put together great marketing and social media videos by pulling together images, short videos, text and music.

What to use it for:

• Video infographics: Pull together some data your followers just have to know about and make a short infographic video.
• Raise awareness: Tell people a bit more about your business or share something they haven’t heard before. Both of these platforms let you add your own voice over. You can even use a posh accent.

The options are endless. Animator Anneke Camstra used Biteable videos to land clients on LinkedIn and grow her following. Jill Gaynor from City Girl Flowers used Animoto to start a YouTube channel and landed three corporate clients.

Both tools require almost no set up and no special skills. It took me less than 10 minutes to make my first video with Biteable.

c) Easy editing

One of the key Facebook video marketing tips is that shooting a video doesn’t have to be super involved. With some decent lighting, a solid webcam like the Logitech 920 and a good mic like the Blue Yeti you can make a quick video from your desk. The problem is what comes after.

Tools like Camtasia and iMovie have made editing a video much easier. Camtasia is an intuitive editing software perfect for beginners. You can upload a video or record your screen and then edit it. You can even add animation and effects.

3. Keep it platform specific

Crafting the right type of content for social media is a lot like picking out birthday gifts for your best friends. If you want oooohs and aaaahs you need to put in the work and get specific.

a) Winning with Facebook video

This might probably sound a bit obvious considering that we’re talking about Facebook video marketing tips, but Facebook really is king right now when it comes to video platforms.

Over 1.3 billion people log into Facebook every single day. No matter what you do, you can find an audience there and grow your following.

If you want to make a video that wows, follow these Facebook video marketing tips:

• Create an explosive, attention grabbing start and keep it short and snappy: A user decides whether to stick around within the first three seconds. Grab that attention and don’t let go.
• Include subtitles and minimize the need for text: 85% of Facebook videos are watched with the sound off. Make sure the viewer can enjoy your video fully with just the subtitles.
• Autoplay with the sound off: 80% of users get annoyed if your video auto plays with the sound on. Keep that volume off until they choose to switch it on.
• Upload native videos: On average, Facebook native videos get 168% more interactions, 477% more shares and 530% more comments than videos hosted off platform. It really pays to upload your videos directly to Facebook.
• Optimize for mobile: Users are 5 times as likely to watch your video on a mobile device. Make sure the size works!

b) The other networks

Hang on. So I just singled Facebook out and gave you a bunch of data, but I’m going to lump the other social media platforms together like they don’t matter?

Kind of. But there’s a good reason for this. Right now, we have a lot more data on Facebook video than on any other platform. And while we know that video performs well on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, the rules haven’t really been established yet. This means that you’ve got a huge opportunity!

You can pioneer and test different videos and see what works for you. You may even want to try out Facebook Live.

Here are some best Facebook video marketing tips to help you get started:

• Optimize for length and size: Instagram supports pre-recorded videos between 3-60 seconds. Twitter supports short pre-recorded videos up to 2 mins and 20 secs and no bigger than 512 MB in size. Check your platform’s requirements and optimize.
• Make it relevant for your audience: Relevance will always win out, no matter what platform you are on.
• Measure everything: Track your video’s performance and adjust your strategy accordingly.

4. Rule the video waves

We’ve talked about video topics, software and best practices. Now we need to take a look at the big guy. The one thing that will determine whether your strategy succeeds or fails:

Your content calendar.

Create a content calendar (and do what it says!)

You’ve got a content calendar for your blog posts. You use a social media management tool for your updates. And you need a content calendar for video.

A content calendar will keep you accountable and help you track results. It will make sure you never run out of ideas and help you plan ahead of time.

Because just like with a blog, maintaining a consistent strategy is hard. Life happens. Other stuff comes up.

So, before you dive in, decide:

• How often you are going to make a video
• How you’ll track results
• What channel you want to experiment with first
• How the video will fit into your overall marketing strategy

Then, draft some topics and schedule publication dates.

By planning your content, using the assets you’ve already got and using the right software, you can create great videos for social media without decimating your marketing budget, renting super high-quality equipment or putting together a professional film crew.

Make some short videos, track the effect they’ve got on your social media and tell us about it. FOMO can push us into making some stupid decisions but in this case, missing out on video can have a pretty cruddy effect on your future strategy.

Don’t let the “lack of time” excuse keep you from using video to grow your social media channels. This is perhaps no.1 among all Facebook video marketing tips! Just try it, ASAP!

What do you struggle with the most when it comes to using video as part of your social media strategy? Let us know in the comments below.

By Sophia Dagnon