What should social media video look like and can video production companies do it for me?

For most businesses social media marketing is something they would prefer to pass on to somebody else so social media video should be done by video production companies right?

It is not difficult to find statistics related to video and the impact that is has on the internet as well as its appeal to social media marketers. In the past it was good enough to post a single image like an info graphic or simply a pretty message like a quote of the day. While those days are not completely over they are close to it. Video has taken over due to it's attractiveness to the viewer. The problem is that video is way more difficult and way more expensive than a simple image. This is both a good and a bad thing. While many just see the cost and difficulty, others who are more advanced in things like SEO, see a way to stand out in their marketing. Video productions have certainly exploded across the web, and social media, but are still in the minority. That means that although there are more costs involved, now is the time to be ahead of the pack. There will come a time when it is expected to have video and the additional cost will not give your company any benefit over the competition. It will simply be required that you have a video included in your social media just to not be left behind.

So if your marketing budget is limited and you have been stuck on the path of low return on investment when it comes to social media engagement, what is the answer?
Some have turned to making short selfie style videos using their phones as a video camera. While this is not necessarily bad, it does have some problems. The first is that you have to put in the effort on a constant basis. Most small businesses cant be bothered to even post a message everyday, never mind a video production. With social media in general most small businesses have opted to use a social media management company at an affordable cost to keep them up to date with social media interaction. So the answer can be very much the same but using video. The problem is that many, if not most, social media management companies don't have the slightest idea about video. There are some rare examples of marketing companies who have this in the bag. One of those is a company called webspresso , who provide cost effective video for social media marketing in the same way you would have your normal  social media management handled.

So the big question is what does social media video look like?
Is it a full video production? Is it an info graphic sort of a thing? Is it expensive? How can I get video in my social media campaign and go back to focusing on my business?
The answer is pretty amazing.What social media video is, is a short attractive, cost effective way of getting a message across. In the same way that a picture was used to put a message across and keep you interacting with your client base, so social media videos are now doing the same.

So who is actually doing this video stuff? These are small creations by video production companies. They are wonderful little "finger food" style video productions put together by video production companies in Johannesburg and around the world. They are very short, very attractive, highly effective tools, which will soon completely replace info graphics and image posts.

Here is an example of a social media video put together using one of the fantastic templates created by video production companies as opposed to graphic designers.

There many types and varieties of videos that can be used for social media video productions. They can be as simple as logo animations to very short adverts like those you would see on TV.
Here is an example of a TV style advert which is also a template style but has a broadcast feel to it.

These little gems are the answer to most social media marketers woes. To find out more or to have some video clips made for your business contact one of the best video production companies in Johannesburg: Absolutely AV Video Productions. Call: +27 11 462 7816 or go to https://www.abav.co.za.

Video Content For Social Media.

Video being used for social media is not seen in the way that video productions were originally seen. They are however as important as the full blown corporate video production Johannesburg companies provide . Some might say that they are now the most important. The video used though is on a much smaller scale and more of a throw away type of product. Because social media moves so quickly, and the content disposed of so quickly, it can become a very expensive exercise for most small businesses to keep up.
The over-cooking of small videos for social media can be an overkill. It is important to maintain quality but there are ways to reduce the cost of video for social media. There are some important ideas to keep in mind when deciding on the video content but there are no hard and fast rules as the use of video for social media as it is so new and ever-changing. Sticking to hard and fast rules would be a bad idea.
Although the playing field may change wildly and quickly, human behaviour remains the same in most cases. People's attention spans are low to say the least and the flood of information has numbed most people to marketing and advertising. So the idea is to grab their attention and get the message across quickly and memorably in the least irritating way. Worst case scenario you want it not to be an expensive exercise.

Online marketing should really be a much more affordable and effective way of marketing than traditional broadcast media. This means that if a company's online marketing budget begins to look like a broadcast budget, the company would have to rethink their marketing strategy.
Sometimes the content that is to be used is to be as throw away as possible to make sure the campaign can be ongoing. Having one amazing piece of content every blue moon is less effective than reasonably good content on a consistent basis. This type of content is not widely available at good prices because the ones who hold the keys to the equipment and skills to create the content are the same people who provide the high quality, high priced, video content for broadcast and corporate video marketing. They don't want to be seen as companies who create low quality throw away media.

There, however, is a rising market of video production companies in Johannesburg and around the world who are seeing the growth of a huge market for short, low cost, medium quality content. The important part is that it must be video content. Although images and text do play their part, the rise of video content is staggering. Video has all but over taken all other forms of content for social media, however most of it is low quality DIY nonsense. The video production companies who take up the challenge of creating the highly sought after video content will be part of one of the greatest digital media gold rushes ever seen.

To understand what this content is we have to look at people's behaviour. Firstly it must be eye catching to grab people's attention over other less attractive content. It must get the message across quickly because people lose interest very quickly. It must be memorable enough for people to want to share it and it must not look cheap even though it is. Most people are very judgemental when it comes to poor quality marketing. It's for this reason that the quick and cheap route is a tricky one.

The most popular form of social media content was info graphics.They held the lions share of the desirable content landscape for a long while. Short videos have however started to challenge info graphics for the title of "King of social media content". Info graphics are not cheap so the leap to short video is not that far.

The difference though is the source of the content. Most info graphics are put together by graphic designers, while social media video content is mostly put together by corporate video production companies and by a new bread of content providers.Video production companies Pretoria based or around the country can provide the same content as online providers with a local connection. While most types of content can be bought online, sometimes the sense of disconnect with unknown providers overseas can feel awkward. Local providers can often be just a phone call way to communicate about any issues with your content. Also payment and invoices are a lot easier because most online services work in dollars and not local currencies. The invoices are often also not valid for local tax purposes. Corporate video production companies Johannesburg based may be slightly more expensive but because the services are tax deductible and the communication is often better, the extra expense may not be that problematic.

For most small businesses a price range of a few tens of dollars or few hundred Rand per piece of content is about as big as the budget will go. There is a type of content that is fairly affordable but has a sense of quality to it. This type of content is based on basic templates that can be customised to suite each message for each company. The four important parts to any content are attractive, informative, memorable and sharable. This can be easily achieved with a short animated video adapted to have text suitable for the company message.
The formats can vary from 1080P HD to portrait and even square format. The reason is that most social media is consumed on mobile devices. The aspect ratio on PC is good for HD and many mobile devices, if turned on their side can also use the same aspect ratio, but most people hold their phones upright which means a portrait format is better. The format the can work on both portrait and landscape is the square format of equal height and length. While full marketing videos are best kept to the 16 by 9 aspect ratio of 1080p HD, social media is consumed in too much of an unpredictable manner so the square, or 1 by 1, ratio can be more useful.
The square aspect ratio is not as attractive but is highly shareable and easily consumed. These can sometimes be more important. When going through a list of video production companies in Johannesburg, make sure the company can provide a range of services for online marketing.

The variations on the content include simple typography, which is words floating around the screen, animated characters either as actual animation or as white board type of characters.Then there is the logo animation which basically turns a standard logo into an animated logo. The animated logo does not work well on its own but as part of other content. One of the most popular types is using a combination of typography, visual graphics with photographs and ending with a logo animation. This combined with music and even a voice over can be spectacular. They can be more expensive though so having it without music and voice will cut costs and a lot of social media is consumed using mobile devices with the sound off. So it will not have much of an impact to remove the audio all together.

Here are some examples of social media content :

Animated Logo:

Character animation:

Typography:

Graphics with photos and
video and animated logo: