Most of the time, it takes time and planning and make a video.

You have to think about what you want to say, where to say it, how to get the sound and framing right, and how to edit it.

Mostly, you can do that within an hour or so when using your smartphone, and the creative process is an enjoyable one too!

Especially when it turns out the way you want it to.

So now you have a lovely video on your hands. What do you do with it?

Well, share it of course. As far and wide as you wish to – and the right sharing in the right place at the right time is essential to its success.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook optimises posts with videos in them. That means that if you put up an organic post (without an ad) with a video in it, it’ll be placed higher and more prominently on a newsfeed than a post with just text, or even with a photo.

Facebook keeps changing its algorithms, so this may change – but up to this time of writing in later 2019, it is the case that Facebook wants you to post video – because video works!

They encourage Facebook Live, which they can share afterwards too.

And of course, they also help you with doing subtitles, because they know that so many people watch videos with the sound down on their phones.

Instagram also favours video, and of course we know that users are far more likely to watch videos than static photos… there is also Instagram Live.

Twitter likes short videos – under 30 seconds or so can really be effective. We often pin a short video in the Pinned Tweet section of our account, but we also share our videos on a number of occasions – we always get more likes and clicks when we post a video over a conventional post.

LinkedIn – here you see fewer videos, but again we get great engagement when we post short videos. We always keep them under a minute and we put lots of text on them, as we know that text keeps viewers watching, creates movement, makes the video more interesting and gives viewers vital information, even if they watch with the sound down.

YouTube – here you are working with the second largest search engine on the internet, after Google, and owned by Google.

A lot of people I know – me included – don’t put YouTube in the same category as the other channels above, because it is less about social media, and more about building up a channel of good content.

But it can often be the most important place to put your video especially if you obey the search rules of YouTube – use the description box to give as much information as possible, use your keywords well, be sure to add those necessary tags so people can find you.

People think you have to be doing very regular content for YouTube, but that’s if you don’t have thousands of subscribers, it’s a waste of time.

Not true.

Of course, regular content does matter. Every week would be great but if you can’t manage that, then once a month isn’t wrong.

Creating an editorial strategy and putting a production in plan in place for YouTube and your social media channels is important. That’s for another blog.

Good luck with the videos!
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