Video in Your Social Media Pipeline

We at Metamer Studios constantly examine the digital communications landscape, and over the past decade that we have been in business it has changed significantly.

It used to be common for platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to be filled with mostly images and text. In fact, Instagram was founded as a photo-based app. That’s why for the longest time its logo was a polaroid camera. It was of course capable of video, but that was not its main focus in its inception. Even Facebook, LinkedIn and X were capable of video, but not until the rise of Youtube and Vine did these apps really start to shift their focus to video. 

The Social Media Video Landscape

While Vine is no longer in existence, it helped shift the focus of other apps to see the importance of short-form video content. Instagram and Facebook quickly started to adapt to a more video-friendly platform and LinkedIn and X followed suit. This of course led to the rise of TikTok, which is now the leading app for social video content. TikTok’s success has even driven Youtube to create Youtube Shorts. 

Where once a single, 5-minute video was novel and enough to reach and exceed engagement goals, speed and frequency have become the new mantra on social media platforms. While there is still a time and a place for a three-hour podcast, an hour-long episode of a show or even a three-hour long movie, audiences are often consuming 60s or less clips on Meta or TikTok where they can easily scroll to the next video if they don’t like what they see or get bored. We’ve even heard from friends that they barely ever take the time to sit down and watch a show or a movie anymore and instead scroll through these social platforms for hours.  

With the ability to endlessly scroll, audience attention has shrunk to minuscule levels.  Not to mention that the media marketplace has become saturated with low-value “click-bait” videos. And that’s not just the case for driving impressions, but for building meaningful, authentic audience relationships. Social media influencers have changed the landscape too, building relationships with their followers by posting frequently and speaking directly to viewers. It’s almost as if their followers are watching short episodes of their lives, coming away from each clip feeling like they know the person and are becoming closer friends as they continue to watch. 

This can distract audiences from more meaningful content that can provide valuable information or drive them to create meaningful change in their lives or the lives of others. With so much noise on these social media platforms, how can organizations and mission-driven businesses compete? 

Breaking Through the Noise

The solution is cost-effective, consistent, authentic, and audience-minded video content which engages viewers and keeps them coming back for more. High-value and expertly crafted short-form video content is the #1 way to meet audiences where they already are and with content they are hungry to consume. Video captures attention, compels emotion, and communicates core messaging faster and more effectively than any other medium. But what kind of content will work best for your audience?

Some businesses and organizations have opted to adopt their own influencer model by curating or sourcing their own social media influencers. By finding someone, or a few someones, who look, sound or feel like your target audience, you can start to build a meaningful relationship with your viewers with relatable content that adds value. Instead of your organization’s influencer talking about their #OOTD or what they eat in a day, they can talk to your audience about the services they’ve used through your organization and how they’ve made an impact in their lives. They could take a tour of your facilities.

They could give the audience three ways they can make meaningful change in their communities. Whatever it may be that conveys your core messaging and adds value to your clients can be conveyed through someone who they feel is trustworthy and relatable. Someone they see on a regular basis on their feed and feel they are building a relationship with. 

Another low-cost source of consistent video is user-generated content. This typically consists of reaching out to people who have used your services or are familiar with your organization to create their own videos and send them in. This could be as simple as sending them some guidance and examples on exactly what you are looking for. Or you may receive their video and it requires light editing, color correction, and some motion graphics. Regardless of either scenario, most of the work is developed by the “user” themselves and in turn drives down cost for your business or organization. This not only creates real, authentic content but helps your brand feel more trustworthy. These aren’t paid actors or celebrity endorsements, but real people with real stories and lives. The videos may not be perfect but that mere fact adds to the authenticity of the content.

We’ve used this type of content creation to help our client, Union Plus with their Unions Power America Campaign. Every year they host a contest and sweepstakes for union members to enter and win big prizes. And although they have been doing it for years and have had dozens of real winners, their audience had a hard time believing it was all real and thought it might be too good to be true. So we had previous winners send in a video talking about their personal experience winning, what they did with the prize money, and encouraging their fellow union members to sign up. This helped to drive historical sign ups for both the contest and the sweepstakes. You can check out an example here.

Another great way to reach audiences with video is animated content. Sometimes all audiences need to be captivated is beautiful imagery. Art is one of the most popular types of content consumed on social media, regardless of whether it is in image or video format. Animated content can be very useful for telling complex stories or conveying complex ideas in a simple and digestible way. The type of animated content can also vary widely. From character-driven stories that drive emotion to visually engaging abstract shapes and text that convey key messages, animated content can be used for a variety of purposes.

Although either of these options can be achieved at a cost-effective price point, animation that includes characters tends to be a little more costly since it requires an extensive amount of time to design, illustrate, rig, and animate each character. In these cases it can be helpful to use one or two characters across a number of videos so the design, illustration, and rigging part is done and the cost is driven down after that initial video.

Reuse & Repurpose

Speaking of a number of videos, one way to create a frequent social media video pipeline is by taking long-form content that you’ve already developed  and breaking it out into shorter clips. This is one of the most common and cost-effective ways to feed your pipeline and one that we suggest to every client on every project. If you’re taking the time to develop any long-form video, it only makes sense to get the most of that content by making it stretch farther. For example, we worked with a client to capture about eight testimonial interviews. Each interview was about 30 minutes long. We created a 1-2 minute video with the best clips from each video for their website, but we had enough content between the eight interviews to create over a hundred short clips for their social pipeline. That many videos could feed your content pipeline for a year!

With another project we created an animated video with a client that was about 90s long. We were then able to break out 4-5 clips from that animation for their social platforms. While each short clip didn’t convey the full messaging the client wanted to convey, it was able to drive traffic to their site to not only watch the full video but to reach out or sign their petition. Even Youtubers and podcasters use this method to drive more engagement to their long-form content and connect with a wider audience. We’ve met many clients who have shot a lot of content in the past and just don’t know what to do with it all. But we’ve been able to work with them to repurpose and reuse that content to feed their social media video pipeline. 

Add Value & Build Relationships

The bottom line is that regardless of your business or organization, you absolutely need video in your social media pipeline and short-form content that is frequent is key. Cost-effective, consistent, authentic, and audience-minded video content will engage viewers and keep them coming back for more. And while there are a number of different types of content you can provide to your audience, it is probably best to develop a combination of several types to fill your pipeline. This keeps your audience engaged, not getting bored with the same kind of content over and over. Regardless of the type of content, it’s most important to have a strategy that is not only focusing on capturing and retaining your target audience, but is providing them value and making them feel like they are getting to know you, building a relationship with you each time they engage.  

If you’re interested in filling your social media pipeline with video but aren’t sure where to start, or you have a reservoir of footage that you don’t know how to utilize, feel free to reach out today! We’d be happy to chat with you and see what works best for your business or organization.