10 Tips to Create Engaging Social Media Videos in 2023

We all see how video is becoming increasingly important on social media (hello TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram Reels and Stories). According to Sprout Social, 54% of marketers say that video is the most valuable content type for achieving social media marketing goals, and half of social media users prefer video to any other kind of content. Ninety-three percent of companies have even acquired new customers through social media videos.

Hopefully, your 2023 marketing strategy will include social media videos. If not, now’s a good time to incorporate them, and below are ten tips to get you started:

1. Start with the end in mind.
   What are your goals? Why are you creating videos? Don’t do them because videos are popular, and everyone says you should. Videos should be part of your overall content marketing strategy and work to achieve a goal: sell a product, increase brand awareness, make a company announcement, or tease something on your website that you want people to click on for more information.
   
   
   

2. Gather ideas.
   Watch videos on several social media platforms to get ideas and see what resonates with you and what you share with friends/colleagues. Of course, not everything works for every brand, and not every video will go viral, but if it captures your attention, see if there are elements of it you can use in your videos. Social media videos can: inform people about new products or services, give company announcements, show people how to use your product or service, provide tips or how-tos, showcase customer testimonials, and more. You can even repurpose existing content, such as blog posts, customer testimonials, email newsletter content, or photos from a recent event, and reformat them into social media videos.
   
   
   

3. How many videos?
   Decide if you will make one standalone video or if it will be a series of videos to be part of a more extensive campaign. If you’re filming new content, thinking through this ahead of time will help you maximize production time and budget. You can film for one day and create multiple videos, such as a brand video or longer explainer video for your website and several shorter social media videos to tease the concept and hook the viewer with a call to action to click to the website for more details or to watch the full video.
   
   
   

4. Which platform(s) will you use the video on?
   It’s essential to think of this ahead of time so you can create the right kinds of videos in the proper format and lengths of time for each platform and audience. This decision will also help you decide if you’re creating these yourself or hiring a professional video production company (or a combination). Quality matters less for Instagram or Facebook Stories that disappear in 24 hours. If this is a brand video that will live on your YouTube channel and website or for a series of videos in a campaign with clear calls to action, it may be better to hire a professional.
   
   
   

5. Script and plan.
   Once you decide how many videos you’re making and what platforms they’ll be on, write the script(s), plan out each shot, and decide if someone will be speaking on camera or if you’ll be recording a voiceover and using text on the screen. Think about the tone you want to set and what kind of music fits best. Often it helps to create a storyboard, but you can also use a visual table in a word processing program with the script/talking points in one column and visuals in another.
   
   
   

6. Remember, people like stories!
   Ensure storytelling is at the forefront of your strategy, even if it’s a short video. The video should have a character(s), a beginning, a middle, and an end. Stop the scroll by hooking viewers in the first few seconds with a compelling image (like faces or beautiful product images). Consider a title that instantly tells people what the video will be about, such as “5 tips to sell your house fast” or “How {your product name} will improve your life.”
   
   
   

7. Accessibility is critical.
   Make sure to include captions and titles. Including these things will help people with hearing impairments and can capture the attention of viewers watching in places where they can’t put the sound on. Many video editing programs and social media platforms have auto-captioning functions (but check them and edit as needed).
   
   
   

8. Maintain your branding.
   Be sure to include your brand voice, guidelines, colors, and tone in your videos so that your clients or customers can easily recognize that it’s one of your videos. There are many online templates if you’re creating your video. Or, if you’re hiring a professional video production company, give them your brand assets and guidelines.
   
   
   

9. Prioritize quality over quantity.
   Make sure you are providing value and have a reason why your audience would want to watch. It’s more important to provide good content that people want to watch and make them take action than to post low-quality videos more often.
   
   
   

10.  Have fun with it!
    Videos are not only excellent sales and awareness tools, but let’s face it, they’re fun to watch and should be fun to make, too! If you and the people on camera are smiling, passionate about what they’re talking about, and enjoying themselves, that will shine through to the viewers. 

Example social media campaign videos we’ve produced:

• Giving Machines: No production was done. We used user-generated content provided by the client, stock images, a script, and music. They used three versions on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok (and we provided files in the correct formats for each platform): 1-minute, 30-second, and 15-second. 

• Denver Jewish Day School: We created a series of three videos to promote the private school’s upcoming admissions preview days for High School, Middle School, and Kindergarten. We had one production day to film all three videos, where we conducted interviews and filmed B-roll content. We created two versions of each, one with a call to action to visit a web page to sign up for an admissions sneak preview day and one that ended with their logo to use at any time.

• Avochato - As part of a multi-part social media ad campaign, these videos comically show how Avochato's text messaging platform works better than sales professionals trying to handle multiple phone calls at once and is the preferred alternative to customers waiting on hold over the phone. 

If you’re ready to take your social media video campaigns to the next level, contact 6162 Productions today to get started! We’ll talk through your goals and ideas and figure out the best way to maximize your budget to produce creative, high-quality videos that meet your goals.