The Social First Video Marketing Strategy Guide 2022
This is the ultimate guide to the Social First Video Marketing Strategy.
This guide will teach you:
How to create video for Youtube and social media at the same time.
Which platforms to focus on and how to post on them.
How to leverage social-first video to increase website traffic.
If you are ready to step up your marketing game with video then this guide is for you.
Chapter 1:
The Social First Video Marketing Basics
Instead of starting with a big piece of content and chopping it up later as an afterthought, you start small, in one-minute chunks and build up from there.
For example, the Youtube video at the top of this post was a social-first marketing video.
I know getting really meta right?.
Take a topic, and section it out into smaller sub-topics.
Create one-minute videos for each subtopic that are entertaining and helpful.
This way when you later group all of the smaller videos together you have a Youtube video or podcast where every single minute is helpful and engaging along with shorter videos that will crush on social media.
However, when we talk about social media, not all platforms are created equally.
The Best Social Media Platforms
For Video Marketing
Social media platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Youtube Shorts use a different algorithm than other platforms like Facebook or Linkedin.
Most platforms limit you by your follower count and the hashtags you use on a social post, more on hashtags later.
However, Reels, TikTok, and Shorts operate by taking into account:
The title
Transcription of the words you say in your video,
watch time, along with your
Hashtags
to decide if it's worth showing to more people.
Basically, if you can make a good video, you can have it seen by way more people. What’s more, is that it will show it to people who are interested in the stuff you are talking about.
The Guidelines Of High-Quality Reels, TikToks, and Shorts
Since platforms like Reels and Shorts cut videos off after a minute, it makes sense to break up content topics into one-minute subtopic explanations when scripting out your videos
This ensures that you waste zero time, and maximize the value of every single minute of your content.
If you absolutely have to, you can also break content down into sub-sub topics, but the point remains, that you should make every minute of your video count.
People do not have short attention spans.
We pay to watch three-hour movies all the time.
However, we will not stick around for a boring or unhelpful video.
Chapter 2:
Scripting and Topic Finding For Videos
Scripting your videos is the best way to ensure your content won’t get time capped on social media and that you don’t waste time when filming.
Also, this can make it way easier to edit later on, because you’ll know exactly what should and shouldn’t be in your content even if you are not the one doing the cuts.
I divide my script into one minute parts and set a timer to see if I can say everything at a normal pace in the one minute time frame during the writing process.
Then when filming, I upload the script to a free teleprompter app, put it next to the camera lens, and make sure the text is just big enough for me to see without squinting, but not too big so that you see my eyes tracking back and forth.
Yes, I read off a teleprompter for every video I create.
How To Add Specific Scripting For Youtube
When chunking social videos together for a longer youtube video you will need to add some scripting for youtube specifically. Your youtube specific content can be broken down into 3 parts.
1. First, Script a topic intro. Start with a pain point you are trying to solve for your potential customers, then your solution will be more interesting. Keep this around 30 seconds to a minute.
2. Next, Script a short intro for yourself and/or your company. This should be no longer 15-30 seconds and it should come only after your first subtopic clip. People don’t care about who you are until they understand that you can help
3. Last, Script an outro by giving them a call to action.
Do you want them to give you a call?
Leave a comment?
Subscribe, or download lead magnet?
How To Find Youtube Video Topics
Before you go writing video scripts or blog posts there is one super important thing you need to do first.
Make sure there is demand for your content.
For Youtube, you can do this for free by typing in your content keywords and seeing the auto-suggest fields underneath.
The first topics are searched more than the bottom topics.
You can also put an underscore sign before or after your keywords for more ideas.
Also, adding a superlative, like:
How to
Best
Worst
Most
into the search field can generate even more specific ideas.
When you choose a topic idea see the view count of the top ranking videos and check out their profiles.
If all the videos have a solid amount of views regardless of subscriber count and # of videos uploads this could be a great topic.
If you are just looking for topic ideas this is also a great free tool.
How To Use Tubebuddy For Even Better YouTube Topic Ideas
A next-level topic generating tool is the youtube extension Tubebuddy. You can type in a content idea, and get the search volume and competition for that video.
It even gives you a score out of 100 for that video topic.
Newer channels should try to find videos that have high search volume with lower competition because it will be easier to rank for that content in search.
For example, I created this video with the 100/100 blessing of Tubebuddy.
The Secret to Out Ranking High Performing Videos On Youtube
Here is the secret to outranking top-ranking videos on Youtube.
Create a better video.
This doesn’t mean you need fancy equipment either.
Think about doing more.
Be more entertaining, more helpful, or more visually engaging.
Use lower thirds (Those words that appear on screen)
Jump cuts
Sound effects
B-Roll
It all matters.
Like all search engines, Youtube’s main goal is to put the best piece of content in front of a person's question.
You’ll only beat out a top-ranking video if your video is better.
Period.
When you create a great piece of blog or video content you can bet that it will be evergreen, meaning that it will work for years to come.
Chapter 3:
How To Repurpose A Landscape Video To Vertical Video For Social Media
There is a problem with creating video content that works on TikTok or other vertical social platforms and content that works on horizontal platforms like Youtube.
One is tall and one is wide.
In order to create video content that works well on both, you’ll need to do two things…
Shoot with a 4k camera. If you film on a phone, when you crop the video in for vertical it will be blurry. However, I will show you how one creator uses just their one and this strategy to get millions of views at the end of this post.
2. Shoot far enough away so that you have room to punch in without cutting the figure off.
This is how this video was originally shot
This is how I zoomed in for Youtube.
This is how I punched in for vertical social videos.
Should Vertical Video Be A Part Of Your Social Media Marketing Campaigns
If you are thinking to yourself, is it worth it to create a video consider this:
People are consuming more and more content on their phones compared to desktop.
Also, Google has even started mobile-first indexing, meaning they measure how a website performs on a phone above how it performs on a desktop when determining which web pages to show in search results.
Vertical videos take up the entire screen on a phone compared to horizontal videos.
How To Reformat A Youtube Video For Social Media.
To optimize a youtube video for social media you are going to need to do some reformatting.
You'll need to adjust the horizontal video to a vertical video.
I like to reformat for vertical video using cloud-based editing software Wevideo, All I have to do is change the format to vertical and all of my lower thirds and b-roll is ready to go with minimal adjusting.
But no social-first video is complete without one thing. Subtitles. 80% of people view social media content with the sound off, so if you don’t have subtitles, no one is gonna know what you are saying.
I use Descript to create subtitles in a flash. They have a free version, but it’s worth every penny of the paid version too.
Chapter 4:
How To Use Hashtags For The Social First Video Marketing Strategy
Hashtags play a big role in expanding your content reach on social media.
They let platforms know what your content is about.
Log into a platform like Instagram and click the search option to research different hashtags.
What you really need to focus on is hashtag posts and follower count.
If a hashtag like #mentalhealth has millions of followers and posts, your content will get lost in the noise.
If you can use a hashtag like #mentalhealthcheckin that has around 50 thousand posts, you have a much better chance of getting some traction.
Think about hashtags that are within that 25k to 60k range.
Also, if you can find a hashtag specific to your target audience like #mentalhealththerapist in that 25 to 60k range, that's even better.
Don't Let You Hashtags Go Stale
One more thing about hashtags.
Maybe you posted a video with some hashtags and it got great results. So logically you thought, "these are my hashtags, I will just use these all the time!"
The problem is that hashtags can go stale. Each social post can have some overlapping hashtags sure, but they should also have content-specific hashtags.
For example, this content has the hashtag, #socialmediahacks, because it is a hack for social media with around 60 thousand posts. I won’t use #webdesigntips, because it's not relevant to this particular piece of content even though I do have tons of web design tips elsewhere.
Chapter 5:
Next Level Tips To Increase Your Video Marketing Efforts.
Turn Your Youtube Videos Into A Podcast.
Once you have a collection of youtube videos, sort them together under a common topic or theme.
Record a new intro and outro for a podcast, rip the audio and edit everything together for a new highly polished podcast episode.
Use A Successful Blog As The Script For A Video.
Have a blog post that has gotten some traction, or is on the verge of ranking on the first page of Google, create a video using the blog as the base of your script.
Embed the video at the top of the blog, and it’s guaranteed to make the time on the page go way up which is a key indicator for search engines.
I used this strategy to help some blog posts rank in the very first spot on google boasting a time on a page of 3 to 9 minutes when the standard for the first page results is around 2 and half minutes.
You can see my complete Google Analytics walk-through for more on measuring content performance.
Use Your Video Script As A Blog Post
One of the coolest things about scripting out your videos in the social first video marketing strategy is you now also have a blog post for your website too.
Since blogging is essential to build website traffic around keywords related to your business or brand why not script your video and write your blog at the same time.
This gives you an SEO-driven landing page that you can also send all your traffic to from social networks.
For example, the script from this video is long-form content and is over 2500 words.
Since, it was written to be spoken out loud it’s also on a 7th-grade reading level, ensuring that most people will be able to understand it and get some value from it.
Also, because the content is divided into 1-minute sub-topics, I have natural breaks within my content for subheaders which make the format of the blog super easy to read and navigate.
Chapter 6:
Social First Video Marketing Case Study and Tools
If you still don’t believe the social-first video marketing strategy is legit check out this creator.
He creates funny and insightful animal commentary videos on Tiktok that have millions of views.
His stuff isn’t really branded and his only link in his bio goes to his youtube channel Casual Geographic, probably because its the most simple way to make money from video,
Each Youtube video gets millions of views and is just a themed collection of his TikToks, 10 to 15 minutes long
What’s more, is that his YouTube videos are still in vertical mode.
Yes, he is publishing long-form vertical content on youtube with just his phone and it’s crushing.
Because, again, more and more people consume their content on their phones, and vertical video is best for this!
Marketing Tools Needed For The Social First Video Marketing Strategy
Descript (To add subtitles and do quick editing)
WeVideo or other Video Editing Software (To edit this video)
Tubebuddy (To find my Youtube Video Topic)
Squarespace (To build my website)
Clearscope (To write this blog post)
Canva (To create graphics for Youtube thumbnails and blog posts)
Vyond (To create video animations and gifs)
Screenflow (For highlighting screenshots and screen shares)
FAQs
What metrics do you measure to see if this strategy is successful?
First and foremost you want to count video views. You need to have a solid, in the thousands, amount of views to determine if your strategy is working in the first place.
Next, I would measure the conversion rate of the landing page you send your people to for your social videos. Also, in case that wasn't clear, you should be sending people to a landing page/blog on your own website and not just send people to the Youtube video itself.
Learn how I analyze my video data.
You gain valuable information about the people consuming your content when they go to your website compared to just going to Youtube.
You'll learn more about the demographics of the people interested in your content, and you'll be able to use the information gained by cookies on your site for video ads for Facebook videos or other platforms for paid advertising.
For Youtube, you should see what the click-through rate is for your content.
Here are some solid guidelines from Tim Queen.
Very Good – To make it into the top 20% videos need to have a click-through rate between 5.5% and 5.9%.
Good – Top 30% of videos require a click-through rate between 4.5% and 5.4%.
OK – The top 40% has a click-through rate between 4% and 4.4%
Bad – The bottom 60% of videos have a click-through rate of less than 3.9%
If your click-through rate is low in Youtube analytics it is probably a result of your thumbnail or video title. Give your video 2-3 months before changing it, because it takes about that long to work through Youtube's algorithm.
Additionally, you will want to measure the cost of your in-house video production or outsourced video production and the money you make from these video marketing efforts.
What types of video content does the Social First Video Marketing Strategy NOT work for?
This strategy works for top of your marketing funnel digital marketing videos. This is not for:
live streaming videos
explainer videos
Product videos or new product videos
Customer testimonial videos
Webinars
Live videos
Where can I learn more about your gear how you shoot videos?
I have a complete guide to video marketing that covers gear and more that I update frequently. It's worth checking out.