Images have been dominating the social media landscape for a while. This isn’t surprising since they immediately catch the eye and are much more appealing than text content. However, videos can be just as effective to engage your audience. A Quintly study found that although there are a lot more images than videos on Instagram, videos see 49% more interactions than image posts.
Clearly, videos can drive tons of engagement on social media and may be able to help you gain more visibility. Now the big question is – what types of videos should you post? Let’s take a look at nine of the best types of social media videos you should include in your strategy.
9 Best Types of Social Media Videos:
1: Tutorials and How-to Videos
If you’ve ever tried learning something online, you might find that learning through videos is much easier than learning through other content formats. For instance, a detailed video on how to build a kite may be easier to process and understand than an article explaining the steps.
So you have a huge opportunity to add value and engage your audience through videos demonstrating how to do certain tasks.
Start creating tutorials and how-to videos that show your audience how to do something related to your industry. For example, a brand that sells household cleaning products could provide useful bite-sized tips on how to effectively clean certain objects or certain areas of the house.
Since it’s for social media, you’ll need to keep them short so as not to lose people’s attention. This is where it gets tricky because you still need to make sure that you’re conveying the information clearly for everyone to understand.
You can get inspiration from Tasty, as the food network masters the art of creating bite-sized and entertaining recipe videos. They include in-video text to clearly explain the ingredients and processes involved in delivering their delectable dishes.
Cozy Recipes To Have In Bed pic.twitter.com/K6YmDYRFpH
— Tasty (@tasty) December 12, 2022
2: Product Demo Videos
The right social media posts can influence people’s purchase decisions. So you definitely want to create posts that clearly demonstrate your product features to entice buyers. Instead of just confining yourself to product images, you should start creating product demo videos to better highlight some of the key features that people would be interested in.
You can showcase an overview of the product or even highlight a specific feature for each video. Since it’s an informal social media video, it’s going to be much more authentic than a video ad, which can seem too polished and promotional in the eyes of consumers.
See for instance how Le Creuset used an Instagram video to demonstrate one of their latest cast iron rice pots. The video features Justin Chappele, the Culinary Director of Food and Wine, explaining the product features and why it’s perfect for cooking rice.
3: User-Generated Videos
If social media videos are so impactful, why isn’t everyone creating them? This is mainly because it can be extremely time-consuming to create videos for social media. It’s not enough to just capture videos; you also have to edit them to fit your brand identity and social platform. The whole process can take days in some instances.
So instead of sharing original brand-created videos every time, you can help from your customers. Get your loyal fans involved in your social media content strategy by sharing some of their videos. If you’re an established brand, you probably already have a ton of people creating high-quality content featuring your brand.
In addition to engaging your followers with fresh content, sharing user-generated videos gives you the opportunity to show your appreciation for their loyalty. This may even encourage more people to create content for your brand.
For instance, Huda Kattan regularly challenges her fans to create themed makeup looks using Huda Beauty products. She then shares these fan videos on her Instagram profile.
4: Announcements/Reveals
Social media is also an excellent platform to update your fans with the latest products and features from your brand. According to Hubspot, 26% of consumers want to see posts that showcase new products or services.
Rather than making a generic announcement, you could keep things interesting and engaging by adding fun elements to the video. Maybe you could add fun colours and fonts, put a creative twist on your product features, include eye-catching graphics, and more.
See for instance how Everlane announced their new Uniform collection for men with captivating graphics that highlight some details about the collection.
5: Interview and Q&A Videos
Interview and Q&A videos are another excellent video format to engage your audience while satisfying their informational needs. You could create videos in which you interview industry thought leaders and influencers, team members, or even customers. While you can prepare the questions yourself, you could keep your fans more engaged by collecting their questions.
You could make an announcement beforehand and gather their questions through social media. Then compile and vet those questions to see which ones would suit your topic or theme.
Besides interviewing other people, you could also have a solo Q&A session where you address your audience’s pressing questions. While you can pre-record the session, you could also experiment with live videos. This allows you to connect with the audience more effectively as you are maintaining a conversation with them in real time.
Like Oracle, you could even create videos showcasing a casual (yet informative) chat session between two or more people. The idea is to exhibit an exchange of ideas and opinions to add value to the audience.
6: Event Videos
You typically share posts about your event to trigger your audience’s fear of missing out. However, images and text posts aren’t always enough to really showcase the excitement in the air and the energy that your event is exuding. Videos are much more effective for this, as they give the audience a more realistic picture of how exciting the event is.
Live videos are ideal if you want to broadcast the entire event as it gives a real-time glimpse of what’s happening. However, it may not always be possible to go live during the event. At the same time, people don’t always have the time or patience to watch a full-length video over 30 minutes long.
The best solution here is to create teaser videos that show bits and pieces of the event like Dyson did in the following tweet. You can then upload small sections of the event into shorter videos on YouTube and promote them through other social platforms.Opéra, Paris. ?? Experience Dyson in the heart of Paris. Explore, test and try our technology and learn about invention and creativity in our new exhibition and interactive space. Take a peek at what we revealed at the exclusive event, hosted by James Dyson.
Opéra, Paris. ?? Experience Dyson in the heart of Paris. Explore, test and try our technology and learn about invention and creativity in our new exhibition and interactive space. Take a peek at what we revealed at the exclusive event, hosted by James Dyson. #dyson #dysondemo pic.twitter.com/D9QQsWnrp7
— Dyson (@Dyson) September 20, 2019
7: Behind-the-Scenes Videos
Give people a glimpse of what it’s like behind the scenes through authentic and engaging behind-the-scenes videos. These videos are perfect for showcasing your company culture and giving recognition to the people behind your brand. In other words, they can help you humanise your brand to build trust and strengthen your connection with the audience.
You could provide your audience with office tours and take them backstage at an event you’re a part of. You could also show them your employees in action or even the process of how your products are manufactured.
Here’s an excellent example from de Gournay, a brand that sells hand-painted wallpaper and fabric. They published a short sneak peek video of one of their wallpapers being painted.
8: Promote Exciting Offers and Deals
According to Clootrack, 64% of consumers buy when things go for sale. You may already create original graphics promoting your latest offers and deals, but you could go a step further by making an initial announcement through video. You can then use the original images to continue the promotion in the days that follow.
Ideally, you should include eye-catching in-video graphics and uplifting music to get people excited for the sale. You don’t even have to shoot a new video for the sale announcement. You can put together some of your product photos and turn them into a video montage along with the appropriate graphics and music.
9: Tell Relatable Stories
You can also use social media videos to tell stories that your customers can relate to. The story should be centred around your brand and/or your products and services or relevant to them in some way or another. You could showcase client stories or stories of industry influencers, for instance.
An excellent example is how Mailchimp has created an animated video on relatable stories called “A Collection for the Curious”. While they air the series on their site, they create bite-sized teaser videos for social media.
Our new film series, A Collection for the Curious, is coming soon. Five filmmakers document their discoveries as they dive into found footage and photography, cave drawings, pyrotechnics and bugs.
Tune in on Nov. 1, only on Mailchimp Presents. https://t.co/4sYATjr8xT pic.twitter.com/fXDJCjREqK
— Intuit Mailchimp (@Mailchimp) October 25, 2022
Final Thoughts
These social media video ideas can help you come up with brilliant and fresh content ideas for your social media strategy. Make the most of the examples and tips above to strengthen your social media marketing efforts and engage your audience.
