Creating video content for social media should be central to any digital marketing strategy. That’s because videos drive more engagement and sales than any other social media content type. But if you’re not reaping the benefits from your videos, you may be making some critical social media video mistakes.
The good news is that once you know where you are going wrong, you should be on track for some wins with practice.
Let’s go over a few of the most common challenges so that you won’t fall into any more of these traps.
Why Creating Video Content for Social Media Is a Must
The biggest mistake is not including any videos in your social media marketing strategy!
Here’s why…
Including videos in your marketing campaign will get you more:
- Reach and engagement than conventional posts
- Trust through deeper engagement
- Conversions from leads into sales
Common Mistakes When Creating Video Content for Social Media
Your research may indicate your target audience doesn’t care too much about video quality. But there’s still a baseline standard your content should be hitting.
Even the most receptive audiences will drift away if they’re dealing with low-quality, glitchy video that’s a drag to watch. Here are some common social media video mistakes you should avoid.
1) Using the Wrong Social Media Platform
There are now multiple competing platforms for creating videos for social media. Each one offers a different video experience and potential for reaching your audience. But using the wrong one can cost you engagement and conversions.
As a marketer, you must note the benefits and drawbacks of each platform and place videos accordingly.
- Use Twitter for shorter and newsy videos that will briefly engage interested users.
- You can use Facebook for regular, short, and live videos. Creators can earn money from Facebook videos that run for one minute or longer. You can also choose between 30-second Reels short-form video, Facebook Stories, and Facebook Live.
- Instagram has more than a billion users. Instagram Reels can now be up to 60-seconds, and creators can earn income by running in-stream video ads.
- Snapchat is great for authentic “in the moment” and live video streams.
- YouTube is good for longer bigger-picture content but now has shorts too.
- TikTokhas 1 billion users and strong social commerce features. Use TikTok for 15 seconds trending video clips. They’ve now enabled 5-minute videos too.
2) Focusing on Yourself Instead of Your Audience
People watch videos to find out if your awesome product or service can solve their specific problem or transform their life.
But you can’t hope to help them without understanding their needs and motivations. So, if you are creating video content for social media but it isn’t getting traction, you might not have done enough research.
Focusing on the features or specifications of your product is another mistake when creating video content for social media. Depending on the product, these details will only become important when a buyer is getting ready to finalize their commitment.
Make sure you…
- Speak directly to your audience and focus on helping them
- Focus on how the benefits of your product will transform the viewer’s life
- Research your audience and focus on them
- Keep your videos authentic and avoid bragging
3) Creating Unfocused and Rambling Content
Viewers won’t wait long to find out if your video will answer their questions or solve their problems. Nobody wants to waste time watching an unfocused video with little to say.
- Use an accurate title that summarizes the video
- Focus on your central message.
- Make the video an appropriate length for your subject.
4) Having Shaky Camerawork
It’s hard to hold a camera steady at the best of times. But a shaky image will irritate your viewer, so a steady camera is a must.
Here are things you can do to prevent camera shake and improve your image:
- Make sure to frame every shot with composition in mind.
- Use a tripod. If you don’t have one, rest your camera on a suitable solid object.
- Use a camera or smartphone with optical image stabilization.
5) Using Patchy Lighting
Poor lighting can also ruin your viewer’s visual experience. Highly contrasting light can lead to uneven lighting, silhouettes, shadows, underexposure, and overexposure.
To overcome poor lighting, consider the following:
- Use artificial lighting to control the exposure and keep it consistent.
- Use natural light to your best advantage. Bright indirect light is usually the easiest to work with.
- Try to keep the lighting intensity for the background and foreground consistent.
6) Lacking Basic Video Equipment
Without the right equipment, you’ll struggle to create video content for social media that looks professional. So, you need the following video tools:
- Camera or smartphone
- Tripod
- Artificial lighting, such as a ring light
You may also consider getting a high-quality handheld or lapel microphone. Although it’s not necessary, it may be nice to have when sound quality is an issue.
7) Having Poor Sound Quality
Nothing turns viewers away faster than not understanding what they’re hearing.
Think carefully about where to position your microphone, background noise, and so forth.
Also, remember to include closed captioning so that viewers understand the content when they watch with the sound down.
8) Editing Carelessly
Editing videos involves joining clips to create a coherent story. Most people know the timeline is just an illusion. But you shouldn’t remind them with poorly edited clips that are clearly out of joint.
Social media video mistakes caused by poor editing can shatter an illusion of a time sequence. These include continuity errors, where someone may be wearing different shoes or earrings. Also, avoid joining clips that have different quality lighting, sound, or image definition. And don’t mix portrait and landscape camera views.
Here’s how to avoid these editing problems:
- Join clips of matching quality.
- Watch out for continuity errors.
- Make sure the sound quality is clear and of a uniform volume.
- Remove any stray video clips that don’t belong.
To make professional-looking videos, you also need the right editing software. The functions on most photo and video apps you get with your smartphone are limited to very basic adjustments such as cropping, brightness, and a few filters. Here’s a list of our go-to video editing software tools:
- Adobe Premiere Pro is a suite of powerful editing tools for organizing and editing video and sound, as well as enhancing audio and image quality.
- Adobe After Effects is an editing tool that is also great for creating animation and visual effects.
- InShot is a powerful all-in-one editor for social media content creators using their mobile phones to edit video content. For example, you can add music, effects, text, emojis, keyframes, and video collages.
- CapCut is another all-in-one editing app that works well with mobile devices. You can easily cut, reverse and change speed, apply advanced filters, use songs from a music library, and add visual effects.
Don’t Neglect Marketing When Creating Video Content for Social Media
When creating video content for social media, you need to make sure your videos reach the target audience and allow viewers to engage. Otherwise, your ROI will suffer. Use the following tips to ensure your video content fits your overall strategy.
Include a CTA
When creating video content for social media, you need a call to action (CTA), whether you are driving brand awareness, engagement, or moving prospects down the funnel. If you don’t, you’re defeating the purpose of making the video.
You can use a CTA to encourage users to react or look at additional content. This will help to drive engagement and may get your video to rank higher. For example, if you’re offering tips, your CTA could say something like, “more in the caption!” or “see more in the comments.” Make sure to respond to viewers’ comments, especially questions. But avoid clickbait such as “leave a review,” “comment,” “like,” or “share the video” because they can actually hurt your rankings.
You can also use a CTA to convert a lead into a customer. Your CTA could be to accept an offer, read your blog, or take a step to purchase a product.
Balance Production and Promotion Costs
Video creation includes two main areas—production and promotion—both of which cost money.
You can determine how much to spend on promotion with A/B testing. Test a small portion of your video marketing budget to test each new campaign.
Test several audiences. Try various platforms, video types, and pacing options to see what resonates with your target audience.
If your audience likes watching your video, you’re ready to invest more in production.
Analyze and Learn from the Data
Creating video content for social media that wows your audience and attracts viewers is a learning process. Without data, it will take you much longer to improve your technique.
Comments, reviews, and other feedback can help you gauge how popular your videos are. But data is necessary to see if you’re achieving your goals for reach, engagements, and conversions.
Most social media platforms include data analytics, so you can compare how your videos perform on each. You can then improve targeting and allocate resources to versions that provide the best ROI.
Here are some key performance areas you need to consider when evaluating the success of your video:
- Reach — how many people did your video reach?
- Impressions — how many people saw your video?
- Audience growth rate
- Engagement — likes, actions on post, shares, comments, saves
- Conversion rates
- Click-through rates
Takeaway
Creating video content for social media has been the single strongest force in online marketing and advertising for most of this decade. And it’s only becoming more and more popular with every passing year.
But if you don’t see the benefits, it can be frustrating. When creating video content for social media for your marketing plan, check the recommendations above to see how to correct basic video mistakes.
When you avoid these social media video mistakes, you will start to enjoy higher engagement and conversion rates.
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