Trends to Incorporate into Your Social Media Marketing Strategy: Short-Form Videos
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Q: What kept millions of people sane during the insane and continuous lockdown period this year?
A: Short Videos on various social media channels like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat etc.
There is no doubt that short videos that have a time frame between 20 seconds and 2 minutes are now a part of our lives that cannot be detached. What started as just another “hyped” form of content via TikTok, a short video-based social media giant in 2020, quickly spread like wildfire across the globe. Instagram was the first one to join the bandwagon by launching a new feature “Instagram Reels” then it didn’t take long for YouTube to follow into the footsteps of IG and release YouTube Shorts.
Through short-form videos, the entire demographics, functionality, and quality of engagement of social media have changed for the better. People around the world are now consuming information from the comfort of their homes with a few seconds or minute-long, fun, entertaining, and catchy videos. The younger population has responded enthusiastically to this trend so far. People between the ages of 13 to 29 seek information quickly but they prefer online searches and entertaining formats. Short-form videos are quick to find and quite entertaining and therefore, expert digital marketers are calling it a permanent fixture in engaging consumers worldwide.
As a social media marketer, you must stay in the game at all times. Your prime responsibility is to improve your SMM strategies quickly by following the newest and most popular trends. The best thing about short-form videos is that they are quick, convenient, multifaceted, and quite fun for both creators and consumers. Therefore, we have shared a few tips in the remaining section of this article to help you ace short-form videos so that they can be easily integrated into any SMM strategy effortlessly.
- Looking out for brand challenges
Brand challenges have provided millions of brands and amateur influencers with fresh opportunities and the spotlight that they needed to pique followers’ interest in what they had to offer.
Back in 2020, when the market of short-form videos was being built on TikTok, a lot of global brands started “challenges” to allow TikTok users to show off their own skills using their idea. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this type of viral content introduced short-form videos and TikTok to the world.
As a social media marketer, you could focus on relevant brand challenges on different platforms to gain a lot of exposure as well as a burst of traffic that can be converted into a loyal community later on.
- Releasing teasers and sneak peek videos
In 2021, in the post-COVID world, teasers, short trailers, and sneak peek videos are not exclusive to movies and TV shows. Short-form videos are also being used to release teasers of an upcoming product launch, website release, or even a giveaway announcement. Watching average TV commercials has given consumers an idea about how new products are advertised through a minute-long short video. Social media platforms with short-form video features can be easily used to promote a brand’s new look, product, website, functionality, hiring, etc.
The best thing about using short-form videos as trailers for one’s upcoming products is that this promotion is completely organic and effective than any other form of content if you can make it catchy and entertaining for consumers.
- User-generated content is the best performing content
What is better than having your audience help you in creating content for your brand? User-generated content is not a new concept but short-form videos take it to a whole new level. A majority of content in short-video form is user-generated and authentic which is why it gets a lot of exposure. Your brand could get as real as you wish with the help of user-generated content where your followers feature and speak about your products/services.
A lot of user-generated content first appeared on TikTok and there are still thousands of global brands that actively utilize such content to capture more attention on different social media platforms.
From the above tips, it is clear to see that humanizing brands through short-form videos will continue in 2022.
