Video can generate business—unquestionably
But to make it a smart investment, it has to not only be compelling, it has to reach the right people.
And that requires a distribution plan.
Too often we see organizations invest in videos, and then miss the huge opportunity they have to connect with their audience by failing to get it in front of them.
Don’t let this happen to you! To get the most from your video investment, follow these basic steps to get your video in front of more people.
Rule of Thumb
In order to maximize brand exposure and your video’s reach, it’s important to upload your video file only to your organization’s social media feeds.
We often see a video uploaded to multiple organization’s social media pages, which reduces exposure for the organization that paid to produce the video.
If others want to share your video, invite them to share it from your page to theirs. This maximizes brand exposure and keeps all engagement isolated to your brand’s original post, no matter how many times it’s shared.
The more engagement your post has, the more Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms will recognize it as quality content and show it to more people. Remember—it’s better to have 1,000 views of a single video post than 100 views from 10 posts of your video on different channels.
Getting Your Video Seen on Facebook
Don’t share the link—upload the actual video instead!
When sharing your video on Facebook, make sure to upload the actual video file to your page, rather than just posting a link. Data shows that Facebook native videos had on average a 477.76% higher share rate compared to posts with YouTube links.
The idea here is to keep people on your Facebook page and engaged with your video for as long as possible.
Invite people to share your video on Facebook
Once the video’s uploaded, reach out to people or organizations that might have a connection to the video and invite them to share your post to their feeds on Facebook. The goal here is to direct all traffic back to your organization’s post, which signals to Facebook that your post is popular, prompting their algorithm to show it to more people and increase your posts’ overall reach.
Pin it
Once you’ve shared the video to your page, click on the three dots in the upper right of the post and click on “Pin to top of the page.” Now any visitors to your page will see your new video first—rather than having it disappear into your feed.
Share it with other Facebook pages
Think a specific audience would connect with your video? Take some time to research groups on Facebook in that audience. Once you’ve identified some, show them the video, and ask if they’d be open to sharing your post to their page.
Some pages have thousands of followers, so if even just one page were to share your post, that could generate a significant amount of exposure and engagement. A win for you and the page that shared your post.
Upload a thumbnail cover photo
A well-designed video thumbnail cover photo is crucial for attracting viewers. Here are a few reasons why it's so effective:
Instant Information: A good thumbnail can quickly convey the subject of the video, helping viewers decide if they're interested in watching it.
Visual Appeal: An eye-catching image or design can grab attention as viewers scroll through a list of videos.
Branding: Consistent use of a certain style, color scheme, or logo in your thumbnails can help build your brand recognition.
Emotion and Curiosity: Thumbnails that evoke emotion or curiosity can increase the likelihood of someone clicking on your video.
Upload closed captions
This helps ensure that your video message can be heard with the sound off, for those who may want that while viewing in public spaces. We generally provide these with videos we produce, but you have to upload them when you post your video.
Facebook Advertising
Facebook offers an impressive and affordable suite of advertising tools you can use to help your video get seen by the people most likely to want to see it.
A good rule of thumb is to do what you can to maximize organic reach on your video prior to promoting your video as an ad. Once you’ve tried all the tips above, you should have garnered substantial organic traffic, which means it’s time to head over to Facebook Ads Manager and set up an ad campaign.
Using the original video post as the ad, specify your ad objective, location, duration, budget, and audience characteristics then monitor the results—tweaking the campaign so the most successful ads are promoted more.
Getting Your Video Seen on Instagram
My feed
Instagram allows up to 15-minute videos to be uploaded directly. If your video is longer, you’ll have to create a mini teaser that’s under one minute.
If you go the teaser route, be sure to include a link to the full video in your bio and include a call-to-action in your caption to drive traffic to that link. Don’t add the link in the caption. Users can’t click it or copy and paste it from there.
The power of hashtags
Before you post, spend some time researching hashtags relevant to your video. This will make your video discoverable by audiences other than those who follow your page. Aim to find 15-20 hashtags with traffic within the 1,000-500,000 range.
Anything lower than 1,000 means not many people will see your video, anything over 500,000 will likely bury your video under a mass of other content tagged with that hashtag already.
Once you’ve got your hashtag list, copy and paste that into the comment section underneath your post. You can see how many people found your post via your hashtags by checking out the “Insights” tab on your Instagram post.
Leveraging IG Stories
Once you’ve published your video to your feed, go ahead and share it to your IG Story, too. Reach out to people that might connect with your video and invite them to share your post to their IG Story as well.
If they do, repost their Story to your Story. They share your post to their Story, giving you exposure, and you share their Story to your Story, giving their brand exposure—which makes it a win for everyone involved.
Getting Your Video Seen on Twitter
Less is more memorable
Because of the nature of scrolling behavior, you have less time to grab attention on Twitter. Although you can upload a video up to 2:20 long, we recommend creating a mini teaser between 15-30 seconds and including the link to the full video in your caption.
If you run out of characters in your caption, just add the link to your bio and include a call-to-action to drive viewers to that link.
Add subtitles
Twitter’s default setting is to mute videos on user’s feeds so, if there’s dialogue in your video, be sure to add captions before uploading. Plus, videos with subtitles are 11% more likely to be viewed and generate 28% higher completion rates, so take advantage of that.
Pin it
Just like Facebook, Twitter offers the option of pinning a post to the top of your feed to ensure that’s the first thing visitors to your page will see.
Take advantage of that whenever you share a new project by tapping on the three dots in the upper right of your tweet and then tapping “Pin to your profile.”
Bonus Tips
Make it prominent on your website
When people want to know more about a company, their website is one of the first places they’ll look. That’s why it’s important to feature your new video prominently on your website. Since video is one of the most powerful methods of communication, be sure you don’t bury it as a link in copy or several clicks away from the home page.
Ideally, your new video will be the first thing viewers see when they visit your website.
Leverage Email Lists
Once you’ve posted the video on your website and social media channels, send out an email to the people involved in the project or anyone else you think might connect with it.
Include a compelling thumbnail image and a link to the video on your website and invite them to share the post on their social media channels by including links to each of the posts on your channels; Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.