Category: Facebook

Posted on March 11th, 2021

How Long Should My Social Video Be?

  • #transform
  • Business
  • Business Growth
  • Content Marketing
  • Facebook
  • Social Media
  • Strategy
  • Uncategorized

“How long should my social videos be?” From all the presentations I’ve given and all the prospective and actual clients I’ve talked to, it’s the number one question I get asked. 

The answer is it depends. It depends on who you are, what you’re doing, the nature of your business, and, most importantly, whom you want to reach – your target audience and where they are within their buyer’s journey. That’s why before telling you how long your social videos should be, I need to explain what you need to know first.

Where should I post my video?

Post your videos where your audiences are hanging out. 

If your audiences are under the age of 30, TikTok would be a great place to start posting video content. 

For B2B businesses and those working with corporations, LinkedIn is the place to go. 

If your business is about entrepreneurship and you want to reach regular people thinking of setting up their businesses, Facebook and Instagram are good places to post videos. 

If you want to talk to seasoned fellow entrepreneurs, LinkedIn might be a better channel for you.

Relating video length to the funnel

Now back to the question about the length of your videos. 

Every platform has a recommended video length. If you’re on TikTok, you can’t create videos longer than a minute, for example. 

But let’s go beyond that. Before creating your videos, figure out what portion of your target audience you are trying to reach and where they are in your funnel. Their place in your funnel will determine the length of the videos you create for them. 

Top of the funnel – shorter videos

Those at the top of the funnel are people who’ve never heard of you, your brand or your offer.

For such people, who don’t know you but want to learn more about you, 1-2 minute videos work well. They would be willing to invest only a couple of minutes in your content to see what you’re about.

Middle of the funnel – 5-10-minute videos

People in the middle of the funnel are those who know a little bit about you and your offer, seen some of your content or watched some of your videos. 

These people are most likely engaging with, commenting on, and watching your videos. They may be willing to watch more of your content and of longer duration. 

I do 10-minute Facebook Live videos for my business to target people in the middle of my funnel. These audiences already know who I am and then see the specific content I create for them.

Bottom of the funnel – longer videos

And, of course, the bottom of the funnel is where conversions happen. 

You are safe to create longer videos for this portion of your target audience. These can be your courses, training, and webinars. Design those videos to prompt your viewers to take a specific action – whether it’s filling out a lead, getting on a call, or subscribing to a newsletter.

Conclusion

The length of your social videos should match (1) the requirements of the channel you are posting on and (2) where your target audience is within your funnel. Create 1-2 minutes videos for people at the top of the funnel. Create 5-10 minutes for people in the middle of the funnel. And create longer videos for people at the bottom of the funnel to increase conversions.

 

If you’re not sure if you and your brand – whether it’s your personal or company brand – are getting enough exposure through video content check out THIS blog on the Best Tips on How to Get Past Your Shyness with Video

 

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Posted on January 18th, 2021

Repurposing Content Through Social: Video

  • #transform
  • Business Growth
  • Content Marketing
  • Facebook
  • Social Media
  • Strategy

In the last several years, social media has really blown up. Especially the last several months, it has gotten even so much bigger because people are staying home and not going out as much — thank you Corona. They’re more on their computers and smartphones, and that means they are much more actively engaging on social media platforms.

This focused attention is the perfect time to take advantage of beginning a conversation with your audience.

The question now is, what is the best way to effectively engage your audience?  The answer – create content.

It could be anything from video and podcasts to social media posts, articles, and blogs. Start a discussion about your area of expertise, what are you good at, what you do, how you do it, how you can help, and generally how you add value to your niche and the lives of your target clients. 

Competition is now getting tight in social media

Now there’s a lot of individuals creating content, and there’s a lot of competition. So you have to stay ahead of the competition and create content regularly.

Maybe a few years ago, it was acceptable to create some content and post it a couple of times a week on social media. Now, because many individuals and brands are on social media, you have to be aware that there’s a lot of competition going on, and your content will get lost and not seen if you don’t post consistently and more often.

The importance of video content

Today’s social media platforms are focusing more and more on video as content.

Facebook, Youtube, Tiktok, and Instagram favor video a lot more than they used to in the past. Social media platforms are moving in the direction of the video.

Also, video is something that would be very beneficial because it’s much easier to connect and convey your message through compared to written words and images. Your audiences can see your personality and how you put yourself together. They get an in-depth feel for you by just watching a 1-minute or 10-minute video! 

Repurposing video content

For content purposes, it’s easier to create a video and then repurpose it. 

With a single video, you can create audios, transcribe it, get quotes, and even split it into several blog posts. 

It’s a very versatile type of medium that you can repurpose in many different ways down the line. 

Best practices for making your video content

Live videos on social media are the best — Facebook lives, YouTube lives, and Instagram lives. They are favored very much so by the social media networks. These platforms put you front and center in your Live videos. 

If you aren’t comfortable creating lives, I would also recommend doing just regular videos. It is as easy as using your phone and starting to create videos. 

When it comes to creating video, audio is crucial because if your audio sucks, then it is probable that your audiences are not going to finish watching the rest of the video. So use a microphone!

Lighting is essential for your video too, so people will see you and your products easier. It allows you to set the mood for the video.

Lastly, depending on the platform, match your orientation, whether it’s horizontal or vertical.  Horizontal tends to be the most commonly used: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter videos are either horizontal or square. But if you’re doing lives on Instagram, use vertical.

Now go out there and start creating content for your brand!

 

— Published on 1/18/2021

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Posted on December 16th, 2019

What type of content should I post on social media?

  • Business
  • Entrepreneur
  • Facebook
  • Social Media

What type of content should you post on your social? You might be promoting something or simply populating your social media accounts. This corner is an excellent question to ask and a smart way to start giving your audience what they want. 

Understand your audience

Let me first start with this point. It’s not about the actual like logistics of the content. The first point to consider is everything you post should be valuable to your audience. A lot of people actually miss that part. These are the social media pages where the posts are more like ads. They get no engagement, Likes, or comments. 

The content you create, whether it’s a video, blog post, or whatever you enjoy making, every single piece has to be valuable for your audience, for your community. 

Who’s your audience and community?

Who is it that you’re talking to, and why? Who are you targeting? Who are the segments or groups of people (there can be more than one) that your product or service is helping? 

Being able to answer these questions, to identify your ideal target market, is the foundation and the salt.

If you don’t know who your ideal target market is, then you are not going to know what kind of content to create for that perfect target. Your might even turn off your audience and community.  

There’s bound to be a disconnect if you can’t define them, and you don’t want that. 

First, you should understand your target market. 

That’s how you can plan content that will be valuable and attractive to your ideal target market.  

Types of content you can do on social media

Facebook Live videos 

Facebook Live and Instagram Live are fantastic because they get priority in the Facebook and Instagram feeds and algorithms. So, if you do a Live event, you get better visibility and distribution across all of your clients, your Facebook or your Instagram.

Videos 

Create and post videos that support your community and provide valuable content. I do a lot of videos, so check those out in my Facebook. According to a study, video gets more than twice as much engagement on social compared to other types of content.

Blog posts

Blog posts are another type of content that is valuable to your audience. You should post your blogs on social, whether it’s published on your site, or posted as a full-length note on Facebook. Plus, there’s lots of opportunity for great content.

I take my videos and get them transcribed, and have my team create a blog post around that video. It’s very easy to do, you just need to edit it lightly. 

Images

Quote images are a big hit with audiences, so I use a lot of these. If you go to my social media, I take quotes out of my blogs and have my team create quote images that I post several times a day, typically. 

Lifestyle images are very popular on Instagram. If you have a lifestyle brand with a physical product, or you simply want to highlight something from the personal or professional sides of your life, those are really great to post. 

A note on content length

Keep your videos short, especially if you’re just getting started. But once you’ve established a connection, your audience expects longer, meatier content. 

  • If they haven’t heard of you yet, your brand is new, or you’ve just joined the community, keep it short. 
  • If you’ve already engaged with your audience before, if they’ve liked or commented on your published content, and they know a lot about you and your brand, make it longer. 

For example, I keep my initial videos — the ones I show to communities who haven’t heard of me — short at 3 to 5 minutes. 

For those who already know me and may have expressed interest in seeing more of my content, I go longer. These videos are 30 to 45 minutes long and are related to a specific topic. They’re usually done to highlight my digital courses and webinars.

In both instances, I think of my audience and what they would like from me. It all comes back to them.. So, like we asked in the beginning, who is your audience and what do they want?

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Posted on December 16th, 2019

Are you grabbing the opportunities in social media platforms?

  • Content Marketing
  • Facebook
  • Social Media
  • Strategy

Social media marketing is essentially free, or you can pay a little to gain a lot. 

There are plenty of opportunities here, whether you start campaigns on an established platform like Facebook, or a new one like TikTok. Gary Vee, founder of VaynerMedia, gave us a lot of insights during my talk with him and I want to share them with you.

The uptick and monetization of social media platforms

Facebook is on its 15-year run. Veterans in social media marketing have been marketing successfully on Facebook for over a decade. YouTube is over a decade old. Twitter, too. A lot of developments have happened in the way these platforms attract people and help marketers. 

Platforms are monetizing — or they soon will — and you’ll need to adapt. 

You often see comments about how mean Instagram is now, because it’s killing organic reach in favor of those who pay to run ads. Come on, Instagram is still free to use. 

You don’t get mad at the bus for charging you for transportation. You’re not mad at cable, your ISP, or Netflix for billing you each month. You happily pay your hairdresser. 

These complaints are bewildering. These same people use Instagram for free. It’s still free for businesses too. You don’t have to pay and you still get visibility for your services or products. You just get less organic reach. 

You are more than welcome to be in control of your life and your business. Go and crush TikTok and LinkedIn while it’s still organic, or you can spend money on Instagram. And guess what? Instagram ads are underpriced right now while they’re still going through this transition. 

Embrace today’s chances

Social media platforms change, and you can’t control it. But, you can take charge and grab today’s opportunities in social media marketing. People are always resistant to change, especially if they think the change seeks to take advantage of them. 

In the case of social media platforms monetizing their use, I don’t understand the complaining, especially with experts yelling at the top of their lungs:, “Hey! This opportunity exists! Take advantage of it!” 

But it’s amazing how people don’t. It’s also a big advantage if you do.

Social media platforms evolve

Hundreds of millions of people use TikTok right now. It’s the number one app in the app store right now. There’s an enormous amount of attention. 

We’ve all seen TikTok content. It looks like it’s for the younger generation. But social media platforms evolve. 

Instagram evolved out of being for photographers posting nice landscaping and sunsets. Facebook grew out of being a glorified white pages for college kids. Twitter moved on from being for nerds and the tech elite in Silicon Valley talking. Tumblr grew out of acting like junior high. YouTube evolved from  a place where you found ripped and pirated uploads of copyrighted content, and is now the second largest search engine on the planet. 

In the same way, TikTok might evolve too. You don’t have to be an expert to predict that. We already have a pattern to observe from the other platforms. 

A marketing framework you shouldn’t miss 

Creating content on platforms where the attention is free or affordable is a framework everybody should consider. 

Do you write or do audio? Do you make videos? Do you need organic reach like I did with email, or do you have the money to spend on Instagram ads or pre-roll on YouTube and Facebook?

A strategy of creating content where people are is very basic, but it’s incredibly powerful. If you’re not a modern-day content creator who moves where the attention is, you are basically already outdated. 

Everybody should have an understanding of podcasting, blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and any other new platform that catches attention.  

“Everybody. It’s as required as taking care of your health, as required as balancing your checkbook. It is a requirement to success going forward, creating lots of content where it’s going to get attention.” -Gary Vee

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Posted on December 16th, 2019

Content marketing and going where the attention is

  • Business
  • Content Marketing
  • Facebook
  • Social Media

I had a great talk with Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of VaynerMedia, one of the leading agencies building stories on the Internet. 

Here’s the best tip from Gary about creating your stories: go where the attention is. If it’s TikTok, go there. If it’s Instagram Stories, are you there yet? 

Sure, these new platforms or features can be trending today and gone tomorrow, but we need to take the opportunity anyway. To quote Gary, “I don’t care if any of them stick around forever. I care about when the attention is on them.”That’s as good a guideline as any for deciding where to take your marketing for the most impact. 

Go where opportunities are

Let’s think about TikTok. It’s like Instagram, only for short videos. It reminds me more of Vine. 

What I’ve done for the last 12 years is continually beat a drum publicly about the best opportunities for organic reach. For many people right now, that’s new social channels. You post something on TikTok, and 200,000 people watch it. Or you get lucky and hit 400,000 views. That’s what early Twitter did. That’s what early Facebook and YouTube did. 

Most of the people right now know that you don’t upload to Youtube, tweet a tweet, or post on Facebook, and all these people magically see it. 

In fact, including Instagram, almost nobody sees most content. Lots of things never get any views at all.

Content needs to be seen, so ride the attention

There are always times when you need to ride the opportunity of a platform is getting attention. Your organic reach is going high because of that new attention to the platform. 

Content fills that attention. Currently, there are two places where that’s happening: TikTok and LinkedIn. 

Obviously, for a lot of people listening and watching, LinkedIn is going to make more sense. TikTok is where most people’s 11-year-old daughters are. They find it funny. It just seems weird to use it for business. But look at Facebook now. Some people still consider it a college social network! 

You need to be open to places where there’s an opportunity. And think about other avenues that respond to create their own opportunity. It is like Instagram adding Stories to stop a fast-moving Snapchat which was gaining market share. 

Learn about your audience and about great content

When platforms evolve, they become important places of opportunity for sellers and marketers. Anything you want to sell — real estate, sneakers, courses, clothes! —  has an audience because these platforms attract attention. They have hundreds of millions of people reacting, getting used to that content type, and sharing it. 

So some of the behaviors in this bubble should definitely be added to our repertoire as content creators and communicators. You become a great creator when you’re everywhere where things are happening. Even if they don’t win, you learn things about your audiences and creating great content.

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