Social media has exploded.
From the early days of MySpace to the multi-billion dollar industry now cemented within society. That said, it’s an ever-changing landscape. What worked at one point in time may be rendered obsolete today.
Which brings us to video content.
Video content on social media is a relatively new phenomenon. Twitter users were once restricted to 140 characters of text as their creative medium. Instagram used to be a place to upload poorly filtered pictures. The only place for video content on social media was YouTube (or Daily Motion… *shudders*).
But now, all of that has changed.
Video content is rife on social media, with platforms embracing the change and encouraging users to make use of the features, both as creators and consumers.
It’s a change that hasn’t gone unnoticed for big brands – and nor should it. So without further ado, here is how video is dominating the social media space.
Video vs Image | The stats
There are countless stats out there that we could cherry pick to favour video or image content, but here are some of the most reputable links from respected social media researchers around the world.
– By next year, videos will account for 82% of ALL internet usage.
– The engagement rate for videos is 5.49%, compared to 4.67% for images.
– Video generates 1,200% more shares than image and text content COMBINED.
How video is dominating the social media space
Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen an evolution in social media that nobody could have predicted. The social media space is now so entwined with our daily lives that we barely even notice it’s there.
The same is true when it comes to video on social media. Platforms are adapting to be more inclusive of all types of video content.
Take Instagram for example.
They began with introducing 15-second video capability to people’s feeds. Then it was IG stories, then IGTV, then lengthening the feed cap to 60-seconds and now we have Reels. Virtually all lengths of video are accounted for, offering businesses a unique opportunity to capture all segments of the market.
Benefits of video on social media
With more and more businesses realising the infinite potential of video on social media, here are some of the benefits that have been reported.
1. Shareability
Video content is shareable, period.
It is a lot more engaging to audiences and users are 477% more likely to want to show their friends and followers an interesting video compared to a still image.
That level of shareability is huge and having 477% more eyes on your brand could result in much-improved profit margins.
2. Conversions
Not only can video content on your social media platforms result in more eyes on your brand, it can increase the amount of those eyes that convert to paying customers.
Video content that centres around your product or service has been shown to increase conversions by up to 80%!
3. Grabs attention
Video has an uncanny knack for capturing attention unlike anything else.
It’s human nature to be inquisitive, and if your video can capture somebody’s attention within 3 seconds, they are 65% likely to watch 30 seconds of your video and 45% more likely to reach 60 seconds.
To get a customer to listen to your brand message for that long is invaluable free advertising, so you have to nail those first 3 seconds!
By now it should be pretty clear that video is here to stay. We believe that video content is king and that it will remain that way for a long, long time.
If you want to bring your video content for social media up to a level that crushes the competition and sets you apart from the crowd, find out more about our services and see how Dragonfly can help.