Social Media video. Did those words make your heart rate increase with anticipation or dread? If the very thought of video on social media makes your palms sweaty, don’t worry. You can stop stressing out now.
Smartphones have made video content a lot more accessible to the average business and marketer. You don’t have to have Coca-Cola’s ad budget to create a compelling video anymore, you just need a little heart, a little can-do attitude and this list!
Give It Some Thought
Those viral videos of someone getting cracked in the nether regions with a football are shot without a plan, but that doesn’t mean great video storytelling can be told without one. Go into content capturing with a plan and not only will you save time, energy and money, but you will also come out with a more engaging story. Write down your vision frame by frame and if possible, storyboard it. You don’t have to be Picasso to draw the frame by frame storyboard, stick figures will do.
Find The Light
Have you ever heard the term “the golden hour?” If you’ve ever worked in a marketing company, you know the term well. For those of you that haven’t, it is a magical time of day, about an hour or two before sunset when the sunlight imbibes everything it touches with a dreamy golden hue. Photographers and videographers alike will plan out their shoots around that time of day to get that authentic glow. You don’t have to shoot in the golden hour, but to get a truly good video you have to find some good light, if it is too dark where you are shooting, the camera on your smartphone will give you grainy, dark footage and no one wants to watch that!
Stabilize It
Keep your video steady! You don’t have to run out and spend a ton of money on a professional tripod. You really should go out and spend a nominal amount of money on a tripod for your camera if you are going to be gathering footage for social media use. Phone tripods are inexpensive and idiot proof, but they are worth their weight in gold for the good they will do for your videos.
Use a Mic
If you’re planning on interviewing someone or having an actor with a speaking role in your flick, you should put out a little bit more money on an external microphone. Don’t panic! It’s not a huge expenditure, these external mics are cheap like borsht and simply plug into your earphone jack (they also have wireless ones for people who have an iPhone7 or above.) They will help cut down on ambient sound and make voices sound crisp and clear.
Short and Sweet
Video length is where people working on social tend to go wrong. People always seem to think that because they are putting this planning and effort into making a video they should cram every possible thing there is to know into the story. This is not the case. In social media video storytelling, less is definitely more. Try to keep your edited version to under 60 seconds. While this may seem like a herculean feat, it will significantly up your engagement.
You want to shoot your video in landscape format (horizontally) to maximize the amount of space, use a video editor to polish up your video and add subtitles. Facebook and Instagram both have the autoplay feature but without sound. Subtitles can really grab people’s attention and make them tune into what you are saying – of course what you are saying has to be interesting.
Of course, if the thought of creating your own compelling social media videos is still making you queasy, we can help stop your panic! We make cool videos too! Check out our videography packages to learn more, or give us a call so that we can chat with you and find out how we can help make your social media marketing efforts take off!