Making videos for Facebook

It was late last year that we discussed how putting up videos to the social-networking site Facebook, really empowers your business and increases customer awareness, as well as interaction. In ‘The Power of Facebook’ we said:

“For video enthusiasts, Facebook is, along with YouTube and to a lesser extent, Vimeo, the number one place to attract viewers and customers alike. There are also many indications as to why creating a video exclusively for Facebook is likely to get more views than if you upload to YouTube. In 2015, Facebook videos officially surpassed YouTube videos on the Facebook platform altogether, with 80% of all video interaction on Facebook being with natively uploaded videos, and since June 2014, there are 1 billion views daily of video content on the social network.

Business 2 Community found further evidence of Facebook’s power, finding that videos have a 875% higher organic reach compared to text posts on the social network and 250% higher compared to image posts. Finally, video ads have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 84%, the highest of all digital ad formats.”

Now, we thought we’d give some tips on the style of videos to use on the site, ranging from the amateur to the professional.

Amateur style

The amateur style, that is to say a video which could be filmed either with a semi-professional camcorder or your iPhone, is one that has little editing done to it. Sure, the big Hollywood style videos are important, but the amateur style goes a long way in showing a bit of fun and reality to your customers.

Even some big name brands, like Coca-Cola and McDonald's, have gone down this route, toying with amateur shots of their customers having a fun time with their product. It helps to create a sense of reality and dispel the image of a brand being too cold and austere, purely out their to make money, rather than sell a product that people really enjoy.

Iphone videos can be the perfect solution, if you’re looking to create something amateur - but still have that professional edge. With the variety of editing apps and additional attachments, such as lenses and camera phone stands on the market, you can easily fashion something together that mixes the two styles.

Professional style

A professional style is what most brands opt for when creating a video for Facebook and other social media platforms, generally a brand will want to showcase how innovative and cool they are in a short space of time, and the professional video, with a good director behind it, is something that will absolutely gain a lot of interest from Facebook users.

Telling the story

The average length of a Facebook video that brands have learnt to be effective is between two to four minutes, anything longer is likely to see a loss of interest from the users, as Facebook, like most social-media sites, has a ton of content ready and waiting for people every few minutes, the necessity for something that is fast and informative is essential.

Telling a story in your video, one that mixes the key ingredients of emotion, exhilaration, and sense of connection, is what you need to do to seriously gain those converted likes and shares. Writing in Hubspot, Ryan Philemon explains what Facebook users are after from brand videos:

“Quality branded video campaigns allow companies to project said story in some really creative and unique ways. Whether you're spreading brand awareness, announcing a new product, or launching a company, great branded video makes customers feel an emotional connection. And that emotional reaction can be really powerful.

In fact, a recent survey by eZanga found that 30% of respondents were less likely to skip video content if it was humorous. And research by Dr. Karen Nelson-Field found that 65% of videos that elicited a feeling of exhilaration were most remembered.”

So, whichever style you go for, make sure that you use these methods in order to really give your brand some social-media clout.