Pop quiz: How well are videos performing on your school’s social media channels? Have you checked your analytics lately?
Many school communicators have noticed that video views and engagement are dropping! If you’re in that boat – or if you want to avoid seeing your stats decrease – today’s blog is for you.
I recently co-presented a webinar with my friend Jake Sturgis, Founder and CEO of Captivate Media + Consulting, all about social media videos! We discussed how to leverage video content and break through the algorithm to get more reach and engagement, and we even covered some tools for easy video editing.
You can watch this whole webinar on-demand (for free) right here. Today’s blog provides an overview of our key points, but for a ton of examples and a live walk-through of some simple video editing tools, you’ll want to watch that webinar!!
Social Media Video Data
When presented with a wide range of opinions about school marketing, the best place to go is back to the data. Jake and I did extensive research for our webinar and came up with a couple of key data points for you to consider as you create videos for your school’s channels!
How to Amplify Your Reach
The #1 tip for getting your videos seen by more people is to encourage your audience to share your content. Make sure you put this call to action near the beginning of your caption.
Write something like “Help us spread the word about…” or “Please share this video…” or “Who else needs to see this…” to nudge people to hit that share button.
Why shares? Well, one share can significantly amplify your reach!! In fact, one share on Instagram leads to 400 additional video views.
Data also shows that videos that are raw and imperfect actually perform a lot better than perfectly polished productions. Since the pandemic, we’re all more accustomed to authentic videos and are drawn to that type of content. This should take the weight off your shoulders a bit – you don’t have to be a video pro to get a lot of traction!
The best time of day that you should post your social media videos is going to vary, based on your audience and platforms. Test different days/times to see what garners the best results from your audience! Some schools do well with a 6:00 a.m. timeslot and others see the best video results when they post in the evenings.
Video Metrics: Five Ways to Measure Success
- Conversion rate (are they taking the action you want them to take?)
- Engagement rate (likes, shares, comments)
- Traffic to the page where the video is embedded
- Play rate (how much of the video your audience is watching)
- Total video plays
How Long Should a Social Media Video Be?
Now, this is the magic question! I wish there was a simple, clear-cut answer to the ideal length of a social media video, but I have to be honest… it depends.
A good rule of thumb is to have your video long enough to cover what it should but short enough to keep people’s attention. On most social media platforms, the sweet spot is 5-60 seconds. YouTube is the only exception – the best-performing videos are 20-30+ minutes long.
Keep in mind that YouTube is where people go to be informed, entertained, and to stream their favorite shows or podcasts. Do you have bingeable long-form content? YouTube is a great place to put it! Most people aren’t in a mindset on Facebook or Instagram to watch looooong videos.
If you have great content to share on Facebook and Instagram, think about how you can deliver it in bite-sized chunks. Remember that rule of thumb – 5-60 seconds – and try to keep your content within that range.
Here’s one more data point that’s going to be hard to swallow…
Most people don’t watch videos to the end. They’re only watching a third to half of your video! So make sure you’re delivering your most critical information and call-to-action in the first third of your video.
Social Media Video Checklist
When you watch the on-demand webinar, you’ll also gain access to a free PDF checklist for optimizing your video projects!
To access the checklist, you first need to download the slide deck at the beginning or end of the webinar video. Then, the checklist can be found on slide 24!
Here are the first three questions you need to answer, before you begin a new video project:
- What are you trying to communicate?
- Who is your audience?
- Where are you distributing your video? (#2 influences #3!)
Optimize for the Algorithm vs. Optimize for the Audience
The old strategy was to optimize for social media algorithms. Today, the algorithms are so smart that we need to optimize for the audience. In other words, we need to make sure the right people are seeing your video content.
How can you make sure your audience sees it?
Well, go back to that video checklist! You need to make sure your videos make sense for the platforms you’re posting on. You’re not going to reach high schoolers on Facebook, and you’re not going to reach Boomers on Instagram. This means you might need to produce different versions of the same video for each platform.
Tips for Grabbing Attention with Social Media Videos
Use a Scroll-Stopping Video Thumbnail
Put yourself in the shoes of your audience for a moment. If you were scrolling social media, would YOU stop scrolling based on the still frame of your page’s videos?
Your thumbnail should never be an afterthought! You need to grab attention with an interesting angle, an unexpected setting, a person displaying an emotion, and/or text on screen.
Grab Attention in 3 Seconds
You have three seconds to grab attention before people scroll away. Use audio, visuals, text, or a promise – hook them so they want to stay to the end!
Hop on Trends
Keep an eye on Instagram Reels trends and adapt them for your school. Follow other school accounts that are doing a good job at Reels, and “admire and acquire” their ideas by making them your own!
Resources to Improve Your Videos This School Year
Jake and I talked more about social media video best practices on my podcast, “Mastering Social Media for Schools.” You can catch our conversation here:
We also recently welcomed Brendan Schneider, Director of Advancement at Sewickley Academy, as a guest blogger for #SocialSchool4EDU. He provided 10 video marketing ideas for you to consider for your school; take a look:
But if you’re still feeling overwhelmed, I want to help.
I’ve built a support system to help school communicators and social media managers like you! I know you want to do the very best for your school, but you have many competing priorities.
Let me help you make one part of your job easier through my Social Media Membership Program. You deserve to have the training and tools to maximize your school’s use of social media!
