Social media feeds are crowded, fast-flowing and very, very competitive. As social networks pull back on the organic reach of posts, showing up is hard and getting attention is even harder. So, how can you stand out on social?

One answer to the organic social media riddle is harnessing the power of social media videos.  When you only have a few seconds to stop someone’s thumb from scrolling and grab attention, it’s paramount to create content that engages. But how do you actually go about generating engagement?

We chatted with Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media Studios on actionable tips to give you the recipe for video marketing success on social that will slow the scroll and capture clicks.

Video Production

Here’s the thing about video production: it’s less scary than you think. Andy Crestodina even says, “the best camera to use to make a video is the closest camera.” You don’t need a fancy camera or a big setup for social videos. It can be a simple camera on your phone.

Here's an example of a simple setup that consists of a camera, microphone, window (natural light) and video editing tool:

After you have your camera ready, Andy shares a breakdown of how he creates social videos under a minute that promote the content on his website:

0:00 Smile!

0:02 Introduce yourself. Your name and title are enough.

0:05 Tell the viewer what you’re doing here. “I’m sharing with you an article about…”; “This is just a quick video to tell you about…”; “Here is a quick summary of our latest advice…”

These are the seconds that are most likely to be seen in the social stream, so start with the energetic, punchy statements and an extra bit of body language.

0:45 Summarize the article. Make a quick summary of the article, not exceeding five points or so.

0:55 Your CTA: suggest that they click! Give a reason for your audience to click, why it would help them. “Click the link and check out the article for the full story…”; “The link in this post will take you to the complete process…”.

1:00 Thanks for watching!

When we think about content marketing videos, the length can vary there a lot. But these videos for social media are like short commercials. The length should be determined by the purpose and the topic and content promoting social media video it’s likely to be about a minute long, no matter where you put it.

We even found in our State of Online Video report that the average person watches 6 seconds of a Facebook video and nearly 5 minutes on a website. These quick videos on social channels help to move your audience down the marketing funnel where engagement is exponentially higher.

Use Captions 

Captions are the key to social media videos! Andy Crestodina says that the secret to why some videos get engagement, while others don’t, is the captions. Video gets the audience to slow their scroll but captions get them to engage and are the main differentiator between good and great social media videos.

Marketers don’t do more video because they think they have to go to a very high level of quality. But that’s not necessarily true. What does correlate directly with success on social are captions - something that is worth the extra time. Video on social will play by default and most engagements come on a mobile phone where sound isn’t available. Captions solve that.  

Now, that your video is ready,  what’s next? We’ll run through Andy’s checklist on making a masterpiece out of your social media messaging.

Tracking Codes

To measure traffic from your social post to your website, create a UTM tracking code to any links in the social video post that links back to you.

Headlines

A headline of a social media post is one or two sentences of a tweet or post copy. A catchy headline can help get much more attention. According to Quick Sprout, tweaking a headline by just one word can result in up to a 46% increase in click-throughs.

Numbers

Try to be specific and use numbers. The Content Marketing Institute found that odd numbers, specifically, attract and retain users - they have 36% more clicks and a 20% higher CTR.

Hashtags

Hashtags help to categorize content and improve the user experience. On most social channels they boost engagement, but only when implemented properly. Research and only use relevant hashtags in your posts, placing them at the beginning, middle or end of your social media post or comment, allowing your posts to be indexed by the social media network. With this strategy, people who are not your fans or followers can still find your content.

Line Breaks

Huge blocks of text on social are complicated to read and skim through. Turn your text block into organized small paragraphs to make it easier to read for your viewers.

Mentions

As Andy advises, mention those who provided the quotes for your content, as well as people who commented on the article.

Other ways to build engagement is mentioning those who comment:

In the end, here is an example of how your social media post should look like:

Lastly, grab a link to the post and share with your manager, friends, in the company group chat, etc, asking to go and interact with the post by liking it or adding a comment. Those early interactions will trigger the social network and make it much more visible to many more people that are looking for evidence that it’s engaging.

Now, you are ready to produce that short promotion for your content and get it out there. So hit the record button! Video might seem scary, but try to break through those barriers, because as soon as you get past the emotions that arise from creating more video, the sooner you’ll get more organic engagement.

You can watch the full conversation with Andy Crestodina on How to Make Social Media Videos That Engage here: