Social Media Tips: Using Video

Rene Looper

September 25th 2015

I am not part of a brewery’s target market; I am not a beer drinker and I have no particular interest in beer.  A video about a beer tasting would not, therefore, usually grab my attention.  This short clip by the Lossiemouth-based Windswept Brewing Company, however, not only did just that but also made me want to like and share the video.  That’s a couple of great big ticks for engagement and interaction, which is what social media is all about after all.   After watching the video it is unlikely that I will forget that the company produce a beer called Typhoon (I couldn’t have named any of their beers prior to watching it).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBgGFKdHwA]

Visual content is without a doubt the most shareable on social media.  With video set to account for 69% of internet traffic by 2017, you should definitely by embracing video in your marketing if you are not already.  Here are some of the reasons why I think the above use of fun video content is a good example of what businesses could be doing:

• The video is only 45 seconds long and shot on a mobile phone.  Videos don’t need to be a big budget affair, short video content can be just as engaging – all you need is a little imagination.  The idea here is simple: filmed at their stand at the Highland Military Tattoo, the tasting of their Typhoon beer is timed to coincide with a flypast (with Al, the taster, yelling that the beer ‘has something else that you don’t normally get’ seconds before an RAF Typhoon roars overhead).  Clever, entertaining, effective.
• The title is intriguing.  ‘Here’s beer tasting with a difference…’.  I wanted to watch just to find out what that difference was (ok, yes, I am nosy).
• Just as more and more companies are doing, Windswept Brewing Company uploaded the video directly to their Facebook page.  As Facebook is the biggest social media platform, with 3 billion video views per day, it makes sense to upload your video straight to your Facebook page.
• Although the company also uploaded the video to YouTube and Twitter it is on their Facebook page where their audience have really interacted with the post.  At the time of writing the video has had 4.5k views, 76 shares, 153 likes and 21 comments.  Video posts can undoubtedly increase engagement and are said to have the greatest organic reach on Facebook.

Tips for using videos:

• Make sure the video is relevant to your audience – think about who will watch the video and what they’d want to see.  How does the video tell your story?
• Share and upload videos to different social media platforms.  Windswept Brewing Company posted it across their channels – Google +, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
• Take a look at apps such as Vine and Instagram for creating short video content.
• Try to be imaginative.  The reason I shared the Typhoon video was because it was entertaining and a bit different.  Creativity wins every time.

For more tips on creating video content take a look at How-Tu: Create Shareable Video Content.