Creating engaging videos for social networks
Among marketers, for once, there is consensus: video is considered the most effective medium. And no wonder: 30% more interactions than photos, and up to twice as many shares on social networks (eMarketing) are generated with videos. Video has become the star format of these platforms which gather a large audience: 500 million Instagram users daily and 1 billion hours of videos viewed on YouTube every day!
Marketing directors and CMOs have understood the strategic importance of their video presence on social networks. And marketing teams have all integrated the use of these platforms into their communications and media plans to gain visibility, promote their brand and acquire new customers.
The rush to this new Eldorado has increased the competition for audience attention! So, to get ahead of the game, here are 5 tips for creating truly engaging videos for your social networks.
Integrate a hook to attract attention from the start
The first few seconds of a video are crucial: they must present content that is engaging enough to capture attention and make people want to watch the rest of the video, so that the audience doesn’t skip your content.
There is a trick on social media called the hook. Start your videos with a very short teaser or a few seconds’ excerpt. For a staff interview video, for example, you can put a surprising scene in the first few seconds to get the audience hooked.
Adopting the codes of video on social networks to engage
Video on social networks follows the trends imposed by the audience of these platforms. For brands and marketing teams, this means:
- snacking videos ( short, easy to consume videos),
- a more informal tone, in order to connect with the audience,
- invitation to connect with the aim of creating a real community.
Creating videos that follow these trends while being authentic and original is the key to boosting engagement with your social media videos.
To sell and recruit, don’t forget the call to action
Many forget to include a call to action in their video. But as the advertising executive George Lois said in the 1960s: “always ask for the sell”. Indeed, a simple call to action can boost the effectiveness of a video.
Very simply, the call to action is a request made to the person viewing the video. And depending on the objectives and the network, there are a plethora of options:
- An invitation to subscribe to the YouTube channel or to comment
- A suggestion to download a white paper
- A call to visit a website
- A contact request button (e.g. Facebook Lead Ad)
- And of course a button to your online shop
Sometimes just inviting comments and “likes” on the video is a good start: for example, for LinkedIn, experts agree that videos that are commented on within an hour of publication get more visibility!
Adapting content to the constraints of social networks
Each platform has its own type of video:
For the best engagement, it is important to choose the type of video adapted to each platform:
| Landscape (16:9) | Square (1:1) | Portrait (9:16) | |
| Youtube | 1280 x 720 | 720 x 720 | 720 x 1280 |
| 1280 x 720 | 1080 x 1080 | 1080 x 1920 | |
| 1080 x 1080 | 1080 x 1920 | ||
| 1280 x 720 | 1200 x 1200 | 1080 x 1920 | |
| 1280 x 720 | 1080 x 1080 | 1080 x 1920 | |
| Tiktok | 1080 x 1920 | ||
| Snapchat | 1080 x 1920 |
Thus, the most versatile format is the square! With Kannelle, it is possible to create videos in landscape, portrait and square formats in one click.
On social networks, subtitle to engage even without sound
According to Publicis Media, 90% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound! This gives an idea of the importance of integrating subtitles into your video when it is intended for social media.
And subtitling videos on Facebook or Youtube not only lets you reach a wider audience but also makes your video accessible. Finally, the advantage of subtitles is that you can reach an international audience.
Psst: did you know that you can generate subtitles automatically on Kannelle?
Optimising your content on YouTube
7 steps to promote your YouTube video in SEO
YouTube is a platform that reveals impressive statistics:
- It is the second largest search engine in the world, behind Google
- 500 hours of video are uploaded every minute
- The platform has 2 billion monthly active users
These figures show that it is the preferred platform to share your content, but also that the competition is tough! You need to know the best practices to make your video visible. At Kannelle, we have tested several practical tips to promote our YouTube videos, and the results have been impressive! Here are the 7 steps to promote your video and optimise a video for SEO on YouTube.
Creating a catchy title to boost your YouTube video
The title is one of the first things we look at before clicking on a video. To make people want to watch the video, it is necessary to have a catchy title. This means:
- Short and to the point: if the title is confusing, nobody will click on it!
- Between 30 and 60 characters: otherwise it will be cut off
- With a keyword that is the subject of the video
- Important words in capital letters to catch the eye
- One or two emojis (at most!) to illustrate
Writing a detailed description for an SEO video
The description of your video is crucial. If it is read before viewing, it must be appealing. And since Google references videos based on the keywords in the description, it has a key role in appearing in search results.
Thus, consider :
- Put a catchy text before the “show more” tag: it should make people want to watch the video
- Set hashtags for your important keywords
- Write a description that is at least 150 words long
- Using keywords and variants for the YouTube algorithm
- Include external links to social networks, blog posts…
- Putting a transcript of what is said: orally, in voice-over or in an interview
Note on hashtags: they are displayed before the title (in blue above) and boost the visibility of the video because they are a clickable link to other videos with the same hashtag.
Upload custom thumbnails to promote your YouTube video
Besides the title and description, the thumbnail is an important element that captures the attention of your audience and helps promote the YouTube video! A good YouTube thumbnail should meet a few criteria:
- Be attractive and of good quality
- Respect your branding and visual identity (colours, logos, etc.)
- True to the content of the video
- Have a resolution of 1280*720 pixels
- Do not exceed 2MB
Here you can see the difference that the miniature makes!
Generating subtitles to boost SEO
Subtitles let you target a wider audience and improve the user experience, while also helping Google to understand the content. Adding subtitles on YouTube is very simple:
- Create a .srt file: simple text files with subtitles and display times for each sentence.
- Add this file to the video when uploading
- Translate and add a file per language to target an international audience!
Note: It is better to add your own subtitles with a .srt file: the automatic subtitling generated by Youtube studio is often inaccurate and needs to be corrected. And if you are a Kannelle customer, these files can be generated on the platform and exported in SRT format.
Add a call-to-action at the end of your YouTube video
Call-to-actions are essential to promote your video. Here are several CTA you can include to boost the SEO of your video:
- Request an action: like the video, comment, share
- Invite your audience to subscribe to your YouTube channel
- Create a “YouTube card” screen to offer to watch another video or to subscribe at the end of your video
Note on the Youtube Card: These additions are made in the Youtube Studio. Think of including a dedicated visual that will make the integration of video and subscription areas more attractive. Otherwise, leave 20 seconds of white or black screen at the end of the video to avoid that these elements are added while the video content is not finished.
Put the video in a playlist that contains the keyword
With videos that are categorised by keyword and arranged in playlists, you maximise your engagement rate.
Using playlists for other obvious benefits:
- The videos will scroll one after the other
- The audience will be able to watch your other videos that are relevant to their interests
- The playlist boosts video SEO thanks to the description of the playlist and of all the videos grouped together.
For example, all our advice videos are grouped in the “Enterprise Video Tips” playlist of the Kannelle YouTube channel.
Share the video
Finally, the last tip for promoting your YouTube video: simply share it! Several platforms are required depending on the audience you wish to reach: customers, prospects, employees, partners, etc.
- Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…
- The internal or external newsletter
A survey conducted by Backlinko shows a correlation between the number of shares a video gets and its positioning: the more a video is shared, the better its positioning.
The big winners on YouTube are those who offer relevant content, but also those who have figured out how to promote their videos! And now that you know how to optimise a video, let’s look at tips on optimising and promoting your whole YouTube channel.
5 tips for optimising and promoting your YouTube channel
At Kannelle, we realised that our channel, created two years ago, was far from being optimised: no presentation video, no playlist highlighting, disparate titles and thumbnails…
In short, it was time to ask ourselves what we could do to optimise our YouTube channel in order to harmonise our presentation and boost the referencing of our videos. If you play the before and after game, you’ll notice the difference!
So what questions did we ask ourselves? What choices did we make? Here are our tips if you too are looking to refresh your YouTube channel and optimise your content.
Tip 1: Use a banner to promote the YouTube channel
Fully customisable, the banner is very important because it occupies a large place on the channel’s page. You can put an image that represents your company, and that respects your visual identity. The ideal size of the image is 2560 x 1440 pixels, and the file must be less than 4 MB. Attention: the banner can be cut by Youtube depending on its location, especially on the mobile app. So remember to centre your key message. The safe area for your text and logos to appear on mobile is 1546 x 423 pixels. We opted for our slogan Video for all with the Kannelle blue, and a nice picture of the team. Sober and effective!
Tip 2: Welcome with a channel trailer
The trailer is only visible to visitors to your channel who are not subscribers. This video starts automatically when they arrive on the homepage. It is therefore the perfect opportunity to introduce them to the type of content shared on the channel and to invite them to subscribe.
For our YouTube channel Kannelle, we have uploaded a video of our CEO Carole explaining our video solution, and the different playlists corresponding to the contents regularly published on the channel (we will come back to the playlists later).
Tip 3: Add links to social networks and website
If you’re wondering how to display the links (and icons) of the main social networks and your site on your banner, look no further: just go to your YouTube studio, then to “channel customisation”, and finally to “general information”. Add the links you want!
By including a link to your website (and to some extent to your social networks), you increase the chances that the visitor will be interested in your company and continue their buying journey.
We have chosen to highlight our website and our presence on the social networks where we are most active: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Tip 4: Write a detailed description of your YouTube channel
In the “about” part of the channel, you can give a detailed description of your channel and the content you offer. It is not to be neglected: the first sentences of the description often appear first in searches! We have described our video solution, then detailed the content we offer, and ended with a call-to-action: the invitation to subscribe to the channel.
Tip 5: Create playlists and add them to the homepage
Playlists on YouTube are useful for organising your videos so that they scroll one after the other. Your audience will be able to watch other content related to what they are interested in! The playlist also has an SEO advantage. The keywords included in the title and descriptions of the playlists help the videos to be better referenced.
You can also highlight playlists that are likely to be of interest to your audience on the homepage, just below the trailer! We have highlighted 3 main playlists:
- Corporate Video Tips: video tips for developing a corporate communications strategy, and how to create professional corporate videos
- Success Stories – Kommunity: videos of our customers sharing their experiences and stories with Kannelle
- Video Tips & Tricks: videos with technical tips to improve the quality and content of your videos
You now have all the keys to refresh your YouTube channel and enhance your video production!
