How To Cascade Your Video Across Social Media
- Use the right length video for the right platform
- Always track your metrics afterward
- Choose the right time to share your video on social
- Don’t neglect your follower comments
- Get your hashtag strategy right to boost views
Social media is a powerful tool in your toolbox. It lets you connect with people on a human level, so you can promote your products, raise brand awareness, and grow your customer community.
But social is also the perfect place to share your videos and get them seen not only by more people but also the right people too. However, it’s not enough to simply post a video and let it sit there — it’s worth doing right.
Read on to learn how to cascade your video across social for better results in 2023.
Use the right length video for the right platform
Each social platform lets you share different lengths of video. Facebook, for instance, lets you share videos of up to 120 minutes, while Instagram allows for videos up to 60 seconds long. Both cap the video file size at 4GB.
This means that certain types of videos are better suited to different platforms. For example, as Twitter caps videos at 30 seconds, it’s a platform better suited to brief teaser videos that can then be used to direct viewers to a landing page or a longer video.
However, just because you can upload videos up to a certain length, it doesn’t mean you need to use all that time. Each platform has an optimum length that gets the most engagement.
For example, while Instagram lets you host videos up to a minute long, data suggests that 30 seconds is the best length for encouraging comments and preventing drop-off. Do some research beforehand online to find the most recent figures and edit your videos accordingly for each platform.
Action Item
How Long Should My Explainer Video Be?
Always track your metrics afterward
The act of simply sharing your video across social isn’t enough. If you really want to get the most from your video, you need to track the key video metrics that matter. These include, but are not limited to, the following: The act of simply sharing your video across social isn’t enough. If you really want to get the most from your video, you need to track the key video metrics that matter. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Views
- Engagement
- Shares
- Drop-off rate
- Click-throughs
There is a number of ways you can find these metrics.
Start by looking at the platform you use to host your video. For instance, YouTube offers plenty of ways to track video metrics, such as watch time and audience retention. These are all available for free on your video hosting dashboard.
But the metrics provided by the social platform you share your video on are also worth looking at too. Your Instagram or Facebook analytics let you see which posts receive likes, comments, and shares, and you can use these to see how popular your videos are too.
Collate metrics for each video in a spreadsheet. If you notice that a certain video length or content type performs better or worse, use this information to inform your future video creation.
Choose the right time to share your video on social
You might already be familiar with social media algorithms. These complex algorithms decide what kind of content gets seen at what time, and it varies from platform to platform. This impacts who sees what content at a given time.
As well as the algorithms, different people check their social media at different times of the day. Consequently, you need to find the optimum time to share your video across for social for maximum impressions and engagement.
Plenty of social platforms offer metrics that let you see when your posts receive the highest engagement. Facebook Business Manager, for instance, offers in-depth graphs that show you when your posts get most likes, comments, shares, and so on. These should be your first port of call when deciding when to share your video online.
But if you need a quick way to find out, there are plenty of guides that offer a year-by-year breakdown of optimum posting times. Check online for the most recent research and schedule your posts accordingly.
Remember, the right time for your country of residence might not be the right time for your target audience.
Action Item
Where Should I Host My Business Video?
Don’t neglect your follower comments
Once you’ve posted your video to social, your efforts shouldn’t stop there. As your video starts to accumulate likes, shares, and comments, it’s important to engage with those responses.
Try and respond to as many comments as you can on your videos. Not each comment will warrant a response, of course. But if there are any significant comments or questions, try and reply as soon as possible.
It’s important to be genuine here. Provide an authentic response that offers value. Above all, ensure your responses are written in a way that feels human. Robotic, impersonal responses feel cold and distant, and social media is all about human connection — so in short, keep it real and relatable.
Get your hashtag strategy right to boost views
Hashtags are a vital part of social media. They are the threads that tie all content together on social, helping connect users with the images, video, and other content that matters to them.
Consequently, it’s important to conduct some comprehensive hashtag research and tag your videos accordingly. Hashtags help get your videos seen by relevant people on social, boosting views as a result.
Of course, not every platform uses hashtags. For instance, Facebook toyed with them briefly a few years ago but ultimately eschews them today, and Twitter only allows enough characters for a few.
But on those platforms that do allow hashtags, ensure you take advantage of them completely. The optimum number of hashtags for Instagram is between 9-11, while Twitter works best with two.
Use only those hashtags that are relevant to your video. While it might seem obvious, choosing relevant hashtags are what drives relevant traffic, i.e. the right kind of viewers. This ensures your video message resonates with your target audience by appealing to their interests.
Social media and video go hand-in-hand. If you’re sharing your video across social, heed the tips above and do it the right way to ensure your videos land with a splash in 2020.
