How to Leverage Social Media Video with Limited Resources

Now more than ever, businesses realize the importance of incorporating video into their social media marketing plan. There is only one problem — producing high-quality videos can be expensive and time-consuming. Luckily, you don’t need to break the bank to create engaging and high-performing content to help reach your social media goals.

Social Media Is Changing the Way We Consume Video

Although highly produced videos still have their place on social media, most of what people consume on a daily basis is shot and edited from a smartphone. A majority of the content creators on these platforms likely have equivalent or, in some cases, fewer resources than your business. Despite this, creators still manage to build an engaged community with what little they have, and your business can do the same thing!

Creativity Is Key to Finding Success on Social Media

We know that all you need to make up-to-snuff content for your business is an up-to-date smartphone. But on social media, it’s not so much what you use to record, but what you are recording.

When coming up with video ideas for social media, you want to highlight what makes your business unique — your team, your values, and your culture. Social media is all about connecting with your current and potential customers, and when businesses highlight their personality in an authentic way, they tend to succeed.

5 Easily Executable Social Media Video Ideas

Create a Weekly Series

A video series can help keep your audience engaged with your brand on a weekly basis. Just make sure the content is relevant to your brand and that you can sustain a weekly production schedule, and this should drive traffic to your business’s social media accounts. Consistency is the best way to build your brand.

User Generated Content (UGC)

UGC is content created by your audience and shared by your brand. This is one of the best ways to engage with your audience and requires almost no resources from your business. Testimonial or product use videos are an excellent way to advertise your product or services on social media in a super authentic way.

Create “How-to’s”

Video tutorials are a great way to give your customers value and cement your brand as trustworthy and knowledgeable. These videos do not need to be highly produced, if you are creating value for your target audiences, they will continue to come back!

Go Live

Many social media platforms allow you to live cast video to your audience. This format is great to host AMA’s (ask me anything), tell your audience stories, and connect with your audience on a more personal level. These live videos can also be recorded and repurposed for other content later!

Conduct Interviews

Short interviews with industry leaders, customers, or even your own employees are a great way to captivate your audience. “Both interviewing an expert or being interviewed present exceptional opportunities to grow your credibility, authority, & respect.” – Virtuallina Creative

Re-purposing Your Video Content

In the examples above you can already start to see how many opportunities for recycling video content from one platform to another there are. When operating with limited resources, this is one of the best ways to save time and money. What starts as a live Q&A or interview can become a plethora of content shared across various social media channels, such as.

• Youtube Video — Repost the entire live video on Youtube for those who missed the original live session.
• TikTok/Reel — Share edited clips and highlights from the live interview or Q&A. One live video could give you weeks of content to share on these massively growing platforms!
• Story Post — Similar to Reels and TikTok, you can share edited topical clips on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat stories.
• Website Content — Use this video and the clips edited from it to spruce up your website with lively and relevant video content!

You Don’t Have to Create All of Your Video Assets

While creating original content using what little resources your business has can garner fantastic results, don’t be afraid to incorporate stock video assets into your social media strategy. There are many free resources you can utilize when creating video content, whether it be HD stock footage or a short gif incorporated into your text posts.

Some websites with free stock videos include:

• Pexels
• Pixabay
• Videezy
• Coverr

Keep it Simple

When ideating and creating video for social media it is important not to overthink your content. What type of videos do you want to see from brands you follow on social media? Keep your buyer personas in mind – what kind of videos would they prefer? Authenticity will always win and your business shouldn’t be afraid to try and fail while you work out what is optimal for your brand.

We at PHOS offer videography services but we can also offer strategic consulting to help your business ideate and implement a video marketing strategy for your social media!

Connect with us to find out how we can help bring your brand’s vision to life!