Somehow, inexplicably, people are still spending more and more of their time on social media, with an ever expanding percentage of that time taken up with video content. The growth of the short-form video platform, TikTok, to over 1 billion monthly active users in 2024 (who on average spend 95 minutes a day on the platform (backlinko)) has made two things clear: people want video content and the brands that get it right, can reap big rewards.
According to Forbes, video is the best performing content marketing format in 2024.
However, this continual increase of video consumption represents an opportunity and a challenge; the bigger the audience, the bigger the opportunity but we don’t operate in a vacuum so you are not alone in looking for a slice of your audience’s attention.
In this blog, Social Media Account Manager Faber Whitehouse explores what makes video so engaging, why it is important to include in your social media strategy, and how to engage with the latest trends in social media video content with authenticity.
Why social media video content is so effective
So why is video such a great medium right now and why use it in brand marketing?
Video works because it is the most engaging. You can tell stories with a video in a short period of time which you cannot tell with a static picture, or with words. It is a format which lends itself to educational content, personal stories and authentic content which builds trust with an audience. According to Forbes, 97% of marketers reported in 2024 that video helps customers understand their products better, and 95% observed an uptick in brand awareness through video marketing.
Audiences today expect more from the brands they interact with. They want to engage with brands with which they feel a connection; brands that align with their interests and values. They expect consistency across touchpoints, with the right associations and advocates, and increased personalisation. Video is the perfect way to deliver all these requirements. It enables you to convey your brand personality and tone of voice, as well as provide meaningful value to your consumers regularly, promoting brand loyalty as well as audience engagement.
A social media video strategy for the new year
Having a solid strategy as the basis for all your social media activity is crucial to ensure you keep your goals front of mind and stay true to the brand. A section of your wider social media strategy should address video specifically, and needs to cover:
Your objectives for using video on social media
The types of content you will produce
What you will communicate - the message
The different channels you will use
With this in mind, here are our tips for creating a social media video strategy that stays true to you and drives measurable ROI.
1. Define your audience, and work out where they are
The first thing you should do is consider who your customers are. Conduct the necessary research and analysis to identify distinctive audience personas that accurately reflect the needs, motivations, challenges and channels of those you are looking to reach. This will inform which messages and channels you should spend the most time focusing on.
2. Think about your objectives
Why is your brand on social media in the first place? This can be anything from general brand awareness and name recognition, to promoting a specific line of products or directing consumers to an ecommerce platform.
Different channels and types of content lend themselves to different objectives. For example, if you are a professional services provider, your objective may be to educate, and position your organisation as the thought leader for your specific industry. In this case, a good channel would be LinkedIn, and a useful type of video content would be interviews with key team members or podcasts discussing emerging trends in your industry. This type of content works for this audience because you have the opportunity to convey your perspectives at the right level in an environment that you control.
You can build out your strategy on this basis, by matching up your objectives with content ideas and the channels that will work best.
3. Don't try and do too much
Remember, you do not have to be on every platform or producing content on the daily. The questions you should ask yourself are: is my audience using this platform? Does the platform align with my brand’s identity? Can we create worthwhile content on this platform specifically? Can we track its performance and evaluate its return? If the answer to any of these is ‘no’, then chances are, there will be better opportunities to pursue.
For example, if you are a beauty brand primarily targeting 18-35 year olds, LinkedIn is not the channel to focus on. Meanwhile, Instagram and TikTok will likely align well with your audience, brand persona and objectives.
You can do your brand more damage than good by trying to fit into a space which doesn’t align with your brand proposition and personality.
4. Think about efficiency
When coming up with ideas, explore how you can recycle and repurpose video content for multiple channels, and for different points within the customer journey. Capturing video content is a time and resource-heavy operation and as long as you keep the conventions of each channel and edit accordingly, there is no reason you can’t make the most of it.
For example, you can cut up short sound-bites of a long-form discussion video meant for a platform like YouTube, and repost them on a platform like TikTok.
5. Leave room for manoeuvre
Part of a social media strategy is working out your approvals process and the specific individuals that need to see and approve content before it’s published. Whilst a rigid approval process is good for consistency of brand messaging and accuracy, it is important to strike the right balance. Opportunities don’t last forever so an agile social media team with a certain level of freedom can pivot and take advantage of trends or industry developments in a timely manner and capture the moment effectively.
Train and empower your social team or agency to work within agreed parameters, but with the ability to jump on new opportunities when they happen, not three weeks later after you had to pitch the MD with a TikTok trend they clearly don’t understand.
B2B is coming
Historically, the brands you hear about doing pioneering work on social channels tend to be the big B2C players but this does not mean that businesses across the B2B sphere should not get in on the action. Nor does it mean that they cannot achieve massive success through video.
B2B social media marketing is often guilty of being uninspiring, with generic messaging, too many stats, lacklustre imagery, irrelevant announcements or boring PR-approved statements. However, the world has moved on and the gap between B2B buyers and B2C buyers gets smaller by the day. B2B buyers and influencers want the same engaging, polished, and rewarding experience as their B2C counterparts, so it’s time those operating in a B2B space sit up and listen.
Of course there will be distinct differences in how business and consumer-focused brands communicate, but different isn’t always a bad thing. Video gives B2B brands the opportunity to compete with the best; to tell their story, and demonstrate their proposition, culture and values in a way that aligns with your audience’s preferences and feels authentic.
If you are looking to get started but are unsure about what you should be saying or who to say it to, exploring some social listening tools is a great way to gain some valuable context and identify the topics and messages your competitors and the wider industry are using. Social listening is the process of analysing online conversations to better understand the world in which your brand operates. Have a look at what conversations are happening within your industry; are there any legislative changes, amendments or controversies which your brand can provide expert content for? Also pay attention to your competitors, how are they developing their content, what topics are they covering and where are they posting?
How do you measure the success of social media video campaigns?
Annoyingly, the answer to this question is - ‘it depends’.
You can measure the success of your social media video activity using a range of metrics including likes, shares, saves and watch time. You can use a unified analytics dashboard like Brandwatch to see all of your activity from various platforms in the same place and compare. Measuring success in this way comes with a caveat - success looks different on each platform. You should have independent goals for each platform laid out in your social media strategy and that is what you should measure success against, not measuring each platform against the others.
It is also important to remember that metrics are not all made equal. There is an argument that some metrics such as likes and comments are ‘vanity metrics’, because ultimately you should ask yourself: what have we actually achieved from that engagement? Even ‘watch time’ can be fickle. If someone clicks off a video after five seconds that might suggest they were sold on your offering within the first five seconds, not that they lost interest.
The following metrics are more key when measuring social media video success:
Saves
Shares/reposts
Watching a video more than once
Consistent returning visitors
These metrics indicate genuine interest, that your content has provided value and that the user is considering ‘converting’, meaning making a purchase or reaching out to your brand. You could describe this kind of social media activity from your audience as ‘buying signals’.
Key takeaways for the new year
With the continued surge in video content we have seen in recent years, it is clear that video will remain the medium of choice in 2025. With that in mind, you need to consider how your strategies are going to keep pace. Video represents a unique opportunity to foster increased brand awareness and salience, promote product and service offerings, increase trust with relevant audiences, and ultimately deliver meaningful growth.
Social media is a fast-paced world and it is important for brands to stick to a strategy which aligns with their authentic brand voice, personality and goals. Keeping an eye on metrics which indicate consistent engagement and conversions rather than ‘vanity metrics’ will ensure a brand makes the most of its social media presence in the year to come and ensure maximum return on investment.
For support or guidance with getting started, or to give your existing strategy a shake up, speak to the MTM team.