August 22, 2018

Ensuring compatibility: Matching videos to the right platform

video platforms - a cloth tag saying "ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL"

Videos are the best medium to reach your audience – they are engaging and help you break down complex subjects. The dominance of video is only increasing: research by HubSpot claims that 78% of viewers watch videos online every week, while 55% watch videos online every day. With a plethora of video platforms available, how do you decide what works best for you? Read on to find out what video content platform matches your strategy best:

Facebook video platform

Facebook as a platform has 2.23 billion monthly users, with 500 million viewers consuming over 100 million hours of video content each day. As a content creator, it’s important for you to remember that over 95% of users watch Facebook videos on mute. It’s wise to put up videos that make complete sense – think bold, crisp captions – even with the volume off.

Audience attention spans are at an all-time low, leading to 75% of published videos being less than 2 minutes long. It’s best to create quick, snappy videos that are of a minute’s duration and grab the viewer’s attention before it begins to wander to what’s next on their feed.

Facebook is a great platform to conduct live Q&A video sessions with your audience, run a longer dedicated web series, or conduct frequent contests. But if you’re planning to share content through Facebook Live, it is best you have content that is around 10 minutes long, for maximum reach.

Check out this campaign Visa created for its online and mobile payment ecosystem. The videos were less than 10 seconds long and perfectly communicated the message to viewers regardless of the sound being on or off.

Also, check out this GFX video Scatter made to share content ideas for Daughters’ Day.

YouTube

All vloggers and social media celebrities place YouTube at the centre of their strategy. However, in an age where we need to keep our videos under two minutes, YouTube works a bit differently. Viewers today consume entire web series and feature films on the platform, proving that longer videos outperform shorter videos on YouTube. The average mobile viewing session lasts for over 40 minutes.

Where does this leave video content creators? For starters, YouTube is a volumes game; the higher the number of consistent, engaging videos, the higher the chances of increased viewership. It is the second biggest search engine, and your content is competing with 500 hours of video uploaded each minute.

Creating a channel with an attractive layout, paying special attention to video titles, and choosing eye-catching thumbnails are some easy ways to build a loyal audience base on YouTube. But getting viewers to subscribe to your channel is a different ballgame, and requires you to familiarise yourself with YouTube’s SEO algorithm.

To learn more, take a look at Neil Patel’s guide to getting 25,000 YouTube subscribers in under a year.

Also, check out this dramatised narrative Scatter helped Amway India create for YouTube.

Instagram

Almost 80% of influencers prefer Instagram for brand collaborations. 2017 and 2018 have been significant years for videos on Instagram; the app introduced features such as GIFs, superzoom, animated face filters, and reactions to stories.

With 72% teenagers using Instagram and 400 million people using Instagram stories daily, it is imperative for creators on this platform to make the next big move on the video front: IGTV, a standalone long-form content feature, showcases videos from your favourite creators. The app allows creators to post videos up to one hour long.

The possibilities provided by IGTV are endless. Imagine taking your audience on a beautiful walk in the lanes of Spain or taking them wedding shopping. You could show them the fascinating process behind an intricate piece of art or piece your followers’ questions into an interview.

IGTV is also a wonderful platform to showcase product reviews and tutorials. With this feature, Instagram has made itself a wholesome platform for content creators with the availability of long-form and short-form (IGTV and stories), photos, and animated filters.

Check out Louis Vuitton’s 12-minute Men’s Spring Summer 2019 fashion show that makes appropriate use of IGTV; the vertical format makes for ideal viewing of the catwalk, given its profile and layout.

Twitter

A Wyzowl report claims 79% of users prefer to watch a video than read when learning about a product. As a video content creator, you cannot afford to ignore Twitter and its 330 million monthly active users. This is the perfect platform to tap users on-the-go since 93% of users access video content on the mobile. Between IGTV, Facebook, and YouTube’s longer videos, Twitter’s 0.5 to 140 second videos might seem a tad small, but they sure pack a punch.

Use these quick videos for a bevy of uses, such as how-to videos, Q&As with Twitter’s live video app ‘Periscope’, new product announcements, promoted videos (which can go for as long as 10 minutes), or just for shareable bite-sized content.

Check out Doritos’s Twitter campaign around an adorable Baby Dragon to introduce a new line of spicy hot chips.

Snapchat

If you haven’t considered Snapchat as one of the video platforms you can leverage, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. Snapchat users are watching a whopping 10 billion videos each day. And 60% of Snapchat’s user database is below the age of 25, so it’s obvious you need to be present here if your content speaks to this demographic.

The ideal Snapchat video will have text and graphics since research shows 33% of videos are viewed on mute. Apart from Instagram, this is also a great platform for influencers to tie up with brands for innovative content-led campaigns.

Take a look at this ‘Back-to-School’ campaign by IKEA, where the brand leveraged an influencer duo to promote products for college dormitories.

Apart from interactive videos as in the link above, Snapchat is the perfect platform for content featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, Q&As with followers, and of course, where it all began, stories.

What to remember

  • Facebook videos get the best traction when they are less than 2 minutes long and have snappy and short captions.
  • Having turned into a common viewing platform for web series, YouTube receives greater traction for longer videos.
  • Instagram and Snapchat are the ideal video platforms to target the youth; both can be leveraged for influencer-backed content.
  • Twitter is an ideal video platform for live videos or bite-sized content.