Sales Strategy
The How’s And Why’s Of Using Video On Social Media | February 15, 2017 (0 comments)
Merrick, NY—If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth much more. More eyeballs on social media, at least.
According to social media experts, Gary Vaynerchuk among them, believe that video is THE strategy. “The single most important strategy in content marketing today is video. Whether it’s video on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Youtube, the content you need to be thinking about creating and marketing on social for your business is video. Period.”
You’ve likely noticed that there are more and more videos on Facebook, certainly more than you saw a few years ago. And you’ve probably heard of Facebook live, where one can shoot a video live for a Facebook audience to see. Video is everywhere.
Social media services group HootSuite agrees in this article. “Any brand that’s not creating video and promoting it on social media is missing out on a huge opportunity. The good news is you don’t have to be a big enterprise with a professional video team to take advantage. Even if you’re a small business owner with an iPhone, there’s a way to make video work for you.”
That last sentence is especially important – as a jeweler, it’s actually pretty darn easy for you to make interesting – and cost effective -- videos for your core audience of jewelry lovers. Here are three great examples:
Product videos are likely the easiest since you’ve got showcases of great looking jewelry that will sparkle nicely on video.
Behind the scenes videos can be fascinating to your customers as well – a short video showing your bench jeweler retipping prongs, for instance. Or your pearl stringer placing knots.
And don’t forget the people – a short video of your sales associates showing off their favorite pieces or perhaps a happy customer with a new piece of jewelry (with the customer’s permission, of course) can be fun to watch.
There’s also the short educational video, maybe a recap of the four Cs or facts about colored gemstones.
These are just a few types of videos to mix on social media. Likely you have plenty of additional ideas.
Let’s talk equipment. A later version iPhone (6 or later) or Android device (less than two years old) works well for this type of video and it’s easy to post online directly from your camera if you like.
Don’t forget these basic video tips:
- Make sure it’s in focus. If it’s not, reshoot it.
- Keep it short but with a point. If it’s a product video, move it slowly so that it sparkles and the viewer can actually see all the various angles.
- Use audio, but make sure it works without it as well – a short spoken recap of what you are showing is just fine and it also works OK if your audience is checking Facebook or Instagram at work and choose not to use audio.
- Learning how to use Apple’s iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or another good home video-editing program can be helpful if you need to cut a few frames out of your video without reshooting the entire thing.
If you are not using a later version phone or camera, it’s worth a few hundred dollars to upgrade for better video/audio quality. It’s a worthwhile expense, especially if video becomes a regular posting method, which is likely to happen once you get started.
Need more information on videos and the hows and why? This article from Sprout Social can give you additional background and insights.
Top image: Gabrielle Dolan