Reels, Shorts – different social media channels have different names for them. But they are all videos and videos are everywhere today.
Facebook for check-ins and quick posts, Instagram for photo updates, YouTube for videos, Twitter for bite-sized Tweets. This was the segregation in the social media world a few years ago. The line has disappeared now. So much so that, on Twitter, Tweets containing videos see 10 times better engagement rates than those without. So, videos are now ruling even the platform that was once text-focused.
All these trends have gotten marketers on their toes, hunting for creative video content for different social media channels. In the U.S., video ad spending is expected to reach 63.3 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2025. No wonder marketers are tiring themselves trying to enhance their video marketing strategies. And to make steady progress there, social listening might be the one secret ingredient you need.
You know the one small trick to get someone a gift they will appreciate? Listen to them. Remember the brands they mention or the topic they discuss with enthusiasm. Why are we telling you this? Because the situation of a brand trying to create video content that its target customers will appreciate is very much like the gift-giver looking for gift ideas to impress someone. You can make a big difference when you actually start listening to your customers.
Give customers what they like and they will like it. It’s as simple as that! But how do you know what they like?
Customers are always talking about their interests on social media. They are presenting direct or indirect cues about their problems. All it takes is to start looking for these discussions. So, your videos can highlight aspects of your brand that align with their interests. Or you can create videos that address their problems.
Social listening lets you better understand the demographics of people who are interested in your brand. Once you know the type of audience you should focus on, you can create videos that effectively communicate with them.
For the videos you create, what kind of reaction do you expect from your customers?
A superficial view of how effective your video has been will be based on the likes, shares, comments, and views. But how can you get a deeper understanding of what works with your customers? How can you plan content that actually incites these intended responses from them? That’s where social listening comes into the picture. And the following are a few benefits it brings to video marketing.
You want to try some new video trends for your brand but you do not know where to begin. You are either overwhelmed with the ideas out there or have no clue as to what your customers will like. Has this ever happened to you? You are not alone. Marketers are constantly looking for new ideas for video content. Not just any ideas but ideas that their customers will love.
Social listening gives you an endless supply of ideas. This makes it easier to deck up your content marketing plan for the days ahead.
In the words of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart:
“If you don’t listen to your customers, someone else will”.
Social listening can therefore be that one little extra step to take in order to stay ahead in the competition. One bad move and your customers walk straight to your competitor. This bad move can come in the form of poor video design or even a weak or vague message for your video.
When you listen to your customers, you also get cues from the video mistakes your competitors make or the type of content that customers truly enjoy. These can be valuable insights when you plan your video content.
Not all who are on Facebook actively use YouTube. Some avid YouTube users might not even be on Twitter. So, which social media platform should you focus on?
For general marketing, it benefits if you plan content across social media channels. In fact, there are many ways to repurpose your content and tweak them to suit a particular social media channel. But when it comes to videos, it is a different case altogether.
You need different video formats and specifications vary too. And if you plan to use trending audios for these videos, they might be different across these channels. Each such difference adds to your content creation effort. Unless you know where your target customers are you will be overburdening yourself. And all the extra effort might not bring the response when you are targeting the wrong channel.
But yes, you can repurpose video content too. Create one powerful vertical video and you are all set to rock Reels on Instagram and Facebook as well as Shorts on YouTube. All this begins with creating content that will interest your audience, your existing followers/subscribers, and viable leads too. And for this, you need social listening.
Your effort does not end with identifying the right channels to promote your video. You should also know the right video types that make an impact on your target customers. When you listen to your customers on social media, you know what kind of videos they interact with the most.
Explainer videos, simple character animations, FAQ videos, and testimonial videos are just a few types of marketing videos for brands.
Which among these types should you be focusing on? Customers look for demo videos when they want to know about your brand or a particular product. They might refer to FAQ videos when they are towards the end of their purchasing journey. Social listening also lets you identify customers in each stage of the marketing funnel and create videos to capture their attention.
Customers do not always tag brands when they have a negative review to share. But these are valuable sources of information for a brand. Listening to your customers lets you identify and make up for bad experiences.
A video that shows customers what problems others faced with your product or service and what measures you took to rectify these will show customers that you are actively listening to them. This strengthens your customer relationships.
Identify the keywords to watch and then monitor the posts that mention these keywords. Or narrow down your focus by actively examining the conversations that take place on the social media page of an influencer relevant to your business. Besides this, you can also look for industry news and or learn from what your competitors are doing.
If none of these ideas seem to help you enough, there are convenient tools for social listening. With these tools, you can instantly track what people say about your brand or the topic you want to monitor in order to create better videos.
There is a thin line between social listening and traditional social media monitoring. The built-in analytics tools on most social media channels will be enough for social media tracking. You can use them to check for mentions, tags, and other direct interactions. But what about the posts that mention your brand name partially, or discuss a product you offer, without tagging you? Social listening makes it possible to track them. To ensure that the video content you create and post actually matters to your audience and adds value to your brand, social listening is the secret ingredient in your marketing strategy.
