Moving Your Strategy from ‘Good to Great’

Authors: Social Media Coordinator Nate DuBois and Managing Partner Claire Riggs

In Jim Collins’ bestselling book Good to Great, he notes that “greatness is not a function of circumstances. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” 

Making conscious choices to move your social media from good to great requires that you stay abreast of the trends, and the biggest content shift for social media is the use of video. According to Sprout Social’s 2023 Content Benchmarks Report, “short-form video continues to reign supreme with two thirds of consumers (66%) finding it engaging, with static images coming in at a close second (61%). Social media is visual and marketers who use that to their advantage are primed to win.”

Winning with Social Media Videos

Winning in the social media space equates to achieving your marketing goals. We typically measure these through better engagement, increased reach, better brand recall and storytelling, and increased conversions. Let’s look at social media videos’ role in each of these areas.

1. Better Engagement

Vidyard 2022 Video in Benchmark Report notes that 66percent of consumers report short-form video to be the most engaging type of social media content in 2022, up from 50 percent in 2020. Keeping it short is key to experiencing this engagement as 58 percent of viewers will watch the entirety of a business’ video if it’s less than 60 seconds long.

2. Increased Reach

With 8 billion daily Facebook video views and 1.25 billion Facebook Watch users per month, the “video viewership on the site outperforms a lot of streaming platforms.” And, with 91% of users watching videos on Instagram weekly, this channel also supports the use of video to increase reach.

3. Better Brand Recall & Storytelling

According to Insivia, most users will retain 95 percent of a message watched on video as opposed to only 10 percent of a message read in text. As we shared in an earlier blog, there’s science behind why videos increase engagement and recall. It starts with the fact that we humans are attracted to movement. Movement is an invitation to engagement. If it tells a story, and the story is compelling and emotional, it gets shared with others. 

4. Increased Conversions

Videos create better customer experiences by showing the product in action, demonstrating the process, and delivering the emotional appeals that get the desired responses. Connecting emotionally through animation or other video forms lead to conversion. Consider that 81 percent of marketers credit video with helping them generate leads and 84 percent of people declare that they have been convinced to make a purchase as a result of video marketing efforts

Best Practices for Great Social Media Videos

Now that you’re convinced to make the conscious choice to move your social strategy from good to great, here are some disciplines to adopt to be successful.

Keep it Short

Knowing your social audience’s attention span hovers at less than 3 seconds , keeping video content short is best. Short-form content also gives creators more flexibility to condense the messages into a time frame that keeps the audience’s eye. No wonder YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok are so popular among users. 

In Instagram Reels in 2023: The Ultimate Guide for Businesses, Later’s Social Media Manager, Christine Colling notes that “since introducing Reels to our Instagram channel last year, we’ve seen our engagement grow by 280 percent.”

Shoot Vertically

Here’s a rule of thumb. The more real estate your video takes up, the more priority it gets from users. Why? According to Offeo, the reasons are many and start with how we use technology today. “Vertical videos on social media are quickly replacing horizontal ones as the preferred format due to the sharp rise in mobile content consumption over desktop.” 

Collaborate with Influencers 

We addressed the trust deficit in our traditional and digital media in an earlier blog. An Instagram Collab post, a feature that lets two users share the same post to their feed or Reels, may help increase your brand’s credibility. When done strategically, collabs with influencers or other businesses can help you build trust, expand your reach and drive user engagement. 

Comments Rule CTA Options

A review of the most effective calls to action (CTA) on Instagram Reels confirms that direct advertising (e.g., using logos and slogans) and indirect advertising (e.g. giving tips, showing competence, or associating positive feelings with your brand) negatively impacts reach. In contrast, Reels with an invitation to comment, watch a video, join an event, visit a webpage, or no call-to-action lead to higher interaction.

Let’s Go for Great! 

Jim Collins also notes in his book that “good is the enemy of great.” As the fight for users’ attention between brands rages on, make the conscious choice to invest in and employ the social media

disciplines that can take your brand from good to great. Create reels. Go live. Social video content done right disrupts the status quo and achieves success, one post at a time.