How to Leverage Short-Form Video in your 2023 Social Media Strategy

Introduction

Marketing is all about gaining attention and with the surge in short-form video usage on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and Facebook Reels, it’s more important than ever for businesses to have a strong presence on these platforms.

Short-form videos are some of the most popular forms of content shared on these apps, and creating and sharing them can be a great way to not only engage with potential customers but also drive profitable calls to action.

Introduction
Consistency is Key
Keep Up with Trends
Optimise for Search
Organise Your Information
Use Eye-catching Visuals
Use a Call-to-Action
Conclusion

Social Media Trends for 2023

Creating high-quality short-form videos is more accessible than ever.

With just a smartphone, some experimentation and a bit of time, anyone can produce engaging content on a regular basis.

While it might be more difficult to grow organically on social media in 2022 due to an overabundance of content, this doesn’t mean it’s too late to start posting.

The fact that there are more content creators than ever before raises the bar for quality and quantity, but it also means that there is a larger audience than ever before, giving you a great opportunity to reach potential customers.

Here are some tips that are commonly used by creators to achieve growth on short-form video platforms:

Consistency is Key

Being consistent is essential in achieving growth and creating potentially viral content. Regularly posting trains platform algorithms to push out your content more frequently and shows followers that you are a dependable creator. Determine a realistic posting schedule that works for you and stick to it.

Keep Up with Trends

Riding the wave of trends, especially trending audio, can be a quick and effortless way to produce content and reach new viewers. Use your free time to study content and understand the trends, and then apply them to your niche.

Optimise for Search

Short-form video platforms are increasingly functioning like search engines. Optimise your video’s titles, descriptions, and captions with relevant keywords and hashtags. This will help users find your content when searching for specific topics.

Now, let’s look at each of these points in more depth.

Consistency is Key

However, consistency can be challenging for many creators. Some of the reasons why people struggle with consistency include:

Lack of time or resources
Difficulty in coming up with new ideas
Difficulty in maintaining motivation
Difficulty in staying organized

Despite these challenges, there are ways to overcome them and stay consistent in your content creation. Here are a few tips to help you stay consistent:

Plan ahead: Set aside time each week or month to plan out your content and organize your ideas. This way, you’ll always have a backlog of ideas to work from and won’t be scrambling for something to post at the last minute.
Prioritize: If you’re struggling with time, prioritize the most important tasks and focus on those first. This could mean spending more time on creating higher-quality content or working on more engaging visuals.
Get organized: Use a calendar or a content planner to help you stay organized. This will help you keep track of your posting schedule and ensure that you’re meeting your goals.
Find inspiration: Look for inspiration from other creators in your niche. Study what works well for them and how they are able to maintain consistency.
Keep yourself motivated: Maintaining motivation can be difficult, especially if you’re not seeing immediate results. But remember, consistency is a key factor in achieving growth, so it’s important to stay motivated and keep pushing through. Remind yourself of your goals, and celebrate small wins along the way.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to overcome the challenges of consistency and maintain a consistent posting schedule that will help you achieve growth and success on your social media platforms.

Keep Up with Trends

Riding the wave of trends, especially trending audio, can be a quick and effortless way to produce content and reach new viewers. However, it’s important to remember that trends are not the only way to grow your audience. High-quality original content is just as important, if not more so.

To find trends, pay attention to the content that is being shared on the platforms you’re using. Scroll through your feed, check out popular hashtags, and take note of the types of content that are being shared most frequently. Additionally, many platforms also have a “Discover” or “Explore” page that highlights trending topics, hashtags, and creators. This is a great place to find out what’s popular.

Using trends in your content can be beneficial in several ways. For example:

Trends are popular for a reason, and by incorporating them into your content, you’re more likely to reach viewers who are interested in that specific topic.
By jumping on a trend quickly, you’ll have an advantage over other creators who haven’t yet adopted the trend.
Incorporating a trend into your content can make your content more relatable and increase its shareability.

However, it’s important to use them in a way that aligns with your brand and message. Using trending topic, hashtags and audio in a way that feels inauthentic to your brand will backfire on you.

Keep in mind that trends come and go, but building a loyal following and creating high-quality content will always be a worthwhile investment. The key to success is to strike a balance between following trends and creating original content that is true to your brand and message. This way, you’ll be able to reach new viewers while also building a strong, engaged following.

Optimise for Search

Short-form video platforms are increasingly functioning like search engines. Optimizing your video’s titles, descriptions, and captions with relevant keywords and hashtags can help users find your content when searching for specific topics.

This is why it’s important to have a strong SEO presence when it comes to video content. Not only will this help your videos show up more frequently in search results, but it will also help them get discovered by new viewers.

Here are a few tips and tricks to ensure that your videos get the best response when optimized for searching:

Use keywords and hashtags strategically: Research keywords and hashtags that are relevant to your video’s topic and include them in the title, description, and captions.
Make your title and description clear and concise: Make sure that your title and description clearly describe the content of the video. This will make it easier for users to understand what your video is about and why they should watch it.
Include a transcript: A transcript is a written record of the spoken words in your video. This can help your video rank better in search engines by providing them with more text to index and rank.
Make sure your video file is optimized for search engines: Use proper formatting for your video file name, such as including keywords in the file name, using proper video file extensions, and making sure your video files are properly formatted and compressed.

It’s important to note that optimizing your video’s metadata is just one aspect of video SEO, making sure your video is of high quality and engaging will be an important factor in it’s reach and engagement.

By following these tips, you can improve the discoverability of your video content, making it more likely to be found by users when they search for relevant keywords and topics. This can help drive more traffic to your videos and ultimately grow your social media presence and reach.

Use Eye-catching Visuals

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Incorporating visuals like images, charts, or other types of visual aids into your short-form video content can make your videos more compelling and easier to understand. Eye-catching visuals can also make your videos more shareable and increase engagement. Here are a few ways to incorporate visuals into your short-form video content:

Use screenshots or images to illustrate a point or add context to your video.
Use animation or motion graphics to make your video more visually interesting and engaging.
Use diagrams, charts, or infographics to make complex information easier to understand.
Use product images or on-location footage to showcase your products or services in an interesting and engaging way.
Using captioning and subtitles, adding text and graphic elements to the video that highlights important points, context or calls to action.

Using visuals in creative ways can also help you stand out from the crowd. It’s important to note that visuals alone can not make a good video, it has to be combined with good sound, script, and context.

For example, a cooking channel might use a combination of mouth-watering close-ups of food and clear diagrams of ingredients and techniques to make its video content more engaging. A fashion channel might use a mix of product shots, runway footage, and behind-the-scenes footage to give viewers a more complete picture of the brand.

Incorporating visuals like images, charts, or other types of visual aids into your short-form video content can be a great way to make your videos more compelling and easier to understand. Use visuals in creative ways and make sure to combine them with good sound, script, and context to achieve the best results.

Use A Clear Call-To-Action

A call to action (CTA) is a statement or button that encourages the viewer to take a specific action, such as visiting a website, making a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter.

Including a CTA in your short-form video content is crucial in converting viewers into customers.

A CTA can be as simple as saying “Visit our website for more information” or “Use the code ‘SOCIAL10’ for 10% off your first purchase.”

It should be clear, concise, and easy to follow. The goal is to make the next step for the viewer as clear and simple as possible.

Additionally, CTAs in your video content can be combined with other tactics, such as overlaying a clickable link or button over the video, creating a landing page with a form to fill in or creating an automated email campaign, this way the viewer will be directed to a specific page or receive an email with more information.

It is also important to note that CTAs work because they provide a sense of urgency, they create a sense of immediacy that prompts the viewer to take action right away.

They also create a sense of scarcity, making the viewer believe that the opportunity or the offer is limited, which increases the likelihood that they will take action.

In conclusion, a call to action is a crucial element in short-form video content, as it encourages viewers to take a specific action and convert them into customers.

It should be clear, concise, and easy to follow, be combined with other tactics and creates a sense of urgency and scarcity to increase the likelihood of conversion.

Conclusion

Short-form video is a powerful tool for businesses looking to increase their social media presence in 2023.

By following the tips outlined in this post, you can create high-quality content that resonates with your target audience and drives them to take action.

Remember to be consistent, stay on top of trends, optimise for search, organise your information, use eye-catching visuals, and conclude with a call to action in your videos.

With a little effort and creativity, you’ll be well on your way to growing your social media presence and reaching more potential customers.

And even with the constant change of social media algorithms and trends, you can stay ahead of the curve by staying consistent, creating interesting content, and constantly experimenting with new techniques.

It’s important to remember that the social media landscape is always evolving, but by using short-form videos to your advantage, your business can thrive in the online marketplace.

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How to Leverage Short-Form Videos to Boost Your Business’s Social Media Presence in 2023

Introduction

Contents