How Social Media Videos Can Help You Grow Your Audience

Social media video is one of the most popular forms of consumer content, with 500 million people watching Facebook videos on a daily basis. And with online video estimated to constitute 80% of all commercial internet traffic by 2020, social video’s popularity is only set to soar.

Consequently, it pays for you to know how to confidently use social media video. It delivers a host of benefits, from driving sales and email sign-ups to boosting engagement and strengthening audience rapport.

But as bloggers and fledgling entrepreneurs wanting to expand their presence online, you should learn how to use social media video to grow your audience. Here’s how.

Social media is an established marketing channel, and social video gives entrepreneurs and bloggers a wealth of ways to grow and connect with their audience. Read on for a few useful ways that you can use social video to expand your presence online.

Build your authority online by educating and informing 

To really grow on social, you need to give your audience a reason to return to your brand. It should be something actionable and valuable, something they can benefit from in real life.

A great way to deliver on this is by creating educational social videos. Your blog or business occupies a specific niche, one that you know inside and out. Consequently, you can share your unique knowledge to an audience that wants to hear it.

Sharing knowledge on social is especially effective, not least because of the digestible nature of social video. It lends itself to short but sweet video content that your followers can consume quickly and easily.

By creating educational social videos, you encourage your audience to return to you time and again for more concise but informative content. Beyond this, you will position yourself as more than simply a blog or business, but as a legitimate, respected resource for your industry niche.

Takeaway tip: identify issues and queries that your audience has by using keyword research to highlight regularly asked questions. Alternatively, reach out to your audience directly to find what they want to learn about. Create short, accessible videos that answer and educate, using simple language and visual aids.

Use humor to connect with your customers 

What kind of post makes you hesitate on social media the most? For many, it is humorous content that has them pausing mid-scroll. And if it makes someone laugh, it generally compels them to share it.

There are plenty of examples of big brands using funny social videos. Toilet paper brand Charmin for example use tongue-in-cheek videos to explore people’s toilet habits. And while they don’t necessarily have the value that educational videos do, they still resonate with consumers on social.

Using humour adds an extra element to your social profiles. Beyond a simply business-centric angle, it gives your brand personality. This creates a rapport with your consumers, who will return to your brand for more of the same irreverent content.

Takeaway tip: embrace humour in your social videos. Light-hearted glimpses of office culture, amusing promotional videos to encourage email sign-ups, and product ads with a tongue-in-cheek spin all make for humorous social videos that invite shares and strengthen your audience rapport.

Collaborate with influencers for engaging fan content

Influencers are a business’s way of bridging the gap between them and their consumers. Bombarded with marketing messages on a daily basis on social, savvy customers are almost numb to social ads.

Influencers break through that barrier by promoting brands in a genuine, authentic way. Rather than being simply an ad, influencer content is engaging and relatable. And, given influencers’ popularity on social platforms, they lend themselves particularly well to social video.

Using influencers to create social videos for your business attracts new customers by capitalising on their popularity. It draws in their existing fans, and lends your brand credibility.

And this is especially effective for niche bloggers or small ecommerce businesses who can benefit from more affordable macro-influencers. These are influencers with between 10K and 100K followers who, despite only having a relatively small fanbase, enjoy deep relationships with their audience.

Macro-influencers drive higher engagement than their micro-influencer counterparts, meaning bloggers and entrepreneurs can enjoy a wider audience that is more connected with their brand.

Takeaway tip: reach out to an influencer in your business niche to create a series of social videos. These videos could explain aspects of your business in a user-friendly way, or review your product or service in an informal style.

Sealing the deal: How social video can drive conversions

Social media is a powerful marketing route for entrepreneurs and bloggers alike, and video only serves to compound its efficacy. Video’s popularity is soaring with consumers, and social media is embracing it with aplomb.

Most social platforms are optimising their service for video hosting and sharing. Facebook and Instagram both now offer live video options within their platforms. And many social video formats easily integrate with blogging platforms or ecommerce storefront builders, letting customers swipe up or click-through to subscribe or purchase a product. 

For example, Facebook video ads can be linked straight to the product being advertised. And video Shoppable ads on Instagram let customers buy the products they see immediately in-app.

It’s this kind of seamless social-to-shopping integration that is helping drive the digital video revolution.

Finally, social video caters to the one of the fastest growing consumer groups: millennials. Generation Y embrace social video, consuming hours of it every day. This makes it a fertile (and prolific) marketing channel for bloggers and entrepreneurs alike.

Social media video offers entrepreneurs and bloggers the opportunity to grow their audience significantly. Use social video to build authority in the eyes of your consumers, and embrace influencers to source new followers from further afield. Follow the tips above and enjoy the benefits of a strong social video strategy today.

*** This Guest Post was from Patrick Foster***

Patrick Foster is a writer and ecommerce expert from Ecommerce Tips — an industry-leading ecommerce blog dedicated to sharing practical business advice and entrepreneurial insights from the sector. Check out the latest news on Twitter @myecommercetips.