Let’s get it out of the way by saying, ‘Thank you, TikTok, for changing video marketing’.

Tiktok did what Musical.ly (pre-rebrand) and Vine couldn’t do: change the marketing from long-form video content, photos, and graphics to short-form engaging content. With this shift, every social media site has incorporated the short-form content formula onto their platform, from YouTube shorts, Facebook and Instagram reels, Snapchat Spotlight, to whatever Twitter is calling their new Explore page.

As a result, Facebook and Instagram feeds are heavily promoting short-form content on their websites rather than pictures due to the increased retention rates of their users, allowing them to make a larger profit from ads. Businesses now need to shift their marketing efforts towards creating short-form content to continue appearing on the feeds of their followers.

SEO

SEO tends to be easier with video because it’s so responsive across different devices. You are able to reach a larger audience because of how many video platforms are out there. A great example of this is YouTube. With YouTube, you are able to adjust to different screen sizes and are optimized to be mobile-friendly. Google tends to emphasize pages that contain video content. This makes it even more critical for businesses to start making videos and using them in their digital marketing strategies.

Videos attract attention.

Videos are far more interesting than any text on a page and will help keep the viewer's attention. People are able to process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Most of the information from the brain is visual. This means that the average viewer remembers around 95% of a message when it’s watched. To give some comparison, only 10% of content is remembered when it’s read. This will help translate to higher session times on your website and boost your algorithm on social media.

• Videos on social media get around 1100% more shares than text and image content combined, according to wordstream data. If we use a platform like LinkedIn as an example, videos are shared 20 times more often than any other type of content format. Videos are entertaining, and they offer practical value through different means, which is why they get shared more. Videos also keep people on pages for way longer.
• The average user spends around 88% more time on websites that have video content than any other type of content. This could be for a multitude of reasons, like that most people find videos more enjoyable or that video explanations are more effective at helping people learn and retain information. Videos help a lot with attracting attention.

TikTok

It’s impossible to talk about how important video is without discussing TikTok. TikTok is a short-form video hosting service. Users submit videos, which can range from 3 seconds to 10 minutes. It is currently one of the most popular video websites and social media platforms in the world. Big companies are using TikTok everyday to not only increase their brand awareness but also their conversion rate. At 4U, we post on TikTok weekly. This is for a number of reasons.

• It’s easy to post.
• Videos can be short and take little time to make.
• We see the analytics of each video.

One reason I personally love TikTok is that I can see just how well a video does whenever I want. I can see how many views it gets and how many likes it gets, all within seconds. This lets me know if the video I posted was worth posting and if I should make more content like that. Yesterday, we posted a video for National Poetry Month. The video was 10 seconds long, and I read a short poem that was a total of 20 words. It got over 150 likes within 24 hours. This is huge for us because, although we thought it was just a random video and something to post, it got way more reach than we could have ever hoped for. We don’t always post poems, but with TikTok, we are able to post a wide variety of content to test out what's good. And regardless of what content we do post, we still end up getting around a few hundred views per video, which is a great reach for us.

Things like this are a huge reason why companies should market on TikTok and use video in their marketing strategy. You can make any type of video and still get more reach for it than you would if you posted it on your website. It is obvious that if you don’t take advantage of these trends and things like TikTok, you are at a huge disadvantage and will be missing out on plenty of potential customers. These video sharing sites are a great way to test content and figure out our brand identity.

YouTube

Youtube was founded all the way back in 2005. Google ended up purchasing YouTube for $1.65. Last year, YouTube reported revenue of $29.2. This not only shows the constant growth of video, but it also shows the reach and impact the website has. As of 2019, videos were being uploaded at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per day. Youtube has been praised for its great home interface and amazing Explore page.

YouTube shorts were introduced in September of 2020. YouTube shorts surpassed 6.5 billion daily views within a few months. YouTube shorts have their own page or section on the YouTube website. Shorts were initially released in response to YouTube's Tiktok competition. Shorts are videos up to 60 seconds long and allow users to add licensed music. A feature that YouTube lacks is fast-forwarding and rewind functions.

YouTube Shorts are a great way for users who make content on YouTube to post shorter content on their channel. You are still able to post on your channel and have the option to post 10-minute videos and 1-minute shorts. Youtube is great for offering variety, and just recently (February 2023) it offered a revenue sharing model that let monetized partners earn money from ads that happen to pop up on their videos and in their Shorts feed.

Instagram

Instagram was primarily seen as a photo-sharing website, but because of the growth of video in the social media world, Instagram released a feature called Reels. Of course, the intent of this release was to compete with TikTok (TikTok really changed the social media world). Reels are for you to create fun videos that you can share with your friends or anyone on Instagram. Reels are great because, like photos on Instagram, they will pop up in the Explore tab for users outside of your followers to find.

Instagram reels get far more engagement than your typical Instagram videos. Conviva looked at the Instagram Reels engagement rates of different sports leagues and ended up seeing significant improvement over the traditional IG videos. At launch, Instagram Reels had a maximum video length of 30 seconds. Today, because of competitors and how much the video market has grown, it has been raised to 60 seconds.

Reels still have a long way to go before they end up catching up with the success of TikTok and Youtube. Many people believe that Instagram is the best platform for promoting your products or services. It is still a wonderful platform, especially for an audience in their 20s and 30s. With continuous growth, Reels have a chance to get just as big as their competitors.

Conclusion 

Social media is growing and changing every day. It’s important to stay up-to-date with trends and technology so that your business can also grow every day. At 4U Agency, we specialize in branding, social media, and content creation. We can help you reach and engage with your target audience, which drives results. Don’t let your competitors get ahead of you. Contact us today so that we can help drive growth for your business and help you succeed.

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