Are You Doing Enough to Get Your Videos Seen?

Small business owners have really caught on to the popularity of videos, whether they be short 1-minute snippets for five-minute how-to videos. In general, people consume the content in a video better than they do in any other medium. One study shows that the human brain has the ability to process visual content 60,000 times faster than it can text. Since video can be a bit more difficult to create than simple text, it’s important to get everything you can out of your video marketing efforts. Are you doing enough to get your videos seen?

Transcribing your video for better exposure

People consume information in different ways. There may be several reasons for this. One could simply be that they person better comprehends and retains information in one format over another, or that their ability to consume information is dependent upon access. You may have a fantastic how-to video but if the person is trying to get that information while at work or another place where video watching isn’t ideal, it’s important to provide the information in several formats. One of the best ways to do that is to provide a transcription of your video so that people can read what the content of the video is. YouTube allows you to put a full transcription of your video when you post it online. Even better, it will actually attempt to transcribe the video for you; the operative word being “attempt”. You’ll often find that while the YouTube platform does a fairly good job putting the audio of your video into text, it’s not perfect. To ensure you’re getting the most out of your video, be sure to go back and correct transcriptions on YouTube.

Choose the video sharing platform that’s best for you

Many people choose to post their videos on YouTube and that’s not a bad idea at all. YouTube has a HUGE following, and the interface is fairly easy to use. However, before you choose YouTube by default, be sure to do your homework. You may find there are other video platforms that better suit your needs to make sure you’re getting the most out of your videos. Each platform has pros and cons, so consider each carefully before committing to any one of them. A great article by Converkit covers the 8 best video hosting sites and how to choose the one that’s right for you.

Move beyond video hosting platforms for your videos

Finding a hosting platform for your videos is only the start. First, while you need to choose a platform, you also need to ensure you’re using that platform to its fullest extent, whether that’s optimizing your video channel or making sure each individual video is correctly optimized. Missing any steps in correctly optimizing your videos can hinder how effective it can be. Once established, you may even want to do a series of paid ads to boost the visibility of your video collection.

Sharing your videos in your onsite blog

Once you have your channel chosen, set up and properly optimized, it’s time to start getting those videos some visibility. One of the easiest ways to do this is to create a blog post and embed your video into the blog itself. There are two ways to do this, but most people opt to simply embed the video file into a blog post. For small business owners who use WordPress for their blogging platform, embedding a video into your WordPress blog is very simple! Once you create the post, be sure to share it on your social media channels for the best exposure.

Sharing your videos on your social media channels

You have the ability to share your videos directly on your social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Here are quick tips on how to do it for each platform.

Posting your videos on Facebook

When posting a video to Facebook it’s important to always directly upload your videos. When the video is uploading you’re going to add your title, a description post of your video, as well as tags or keywords you want the video to get found for. Then on the right-hand side you’ll see where you can choose your thumbnail of your video, add tracking tags and more.

Uploading your video to Instagram

Videos on Instagram can only be a minute or less (except for Instagram TV; more on that in a minute). Instagram is a mobile site, meaning you need to have the video downloaded onto your mobile phone or you need to have the video recorded on your phone. Regular Instagram posting does allow you to post a full 16:9 aspect ratio, you just have to be careful to make sure to press the small button on the lower left-hand corner to make the video full sized when you’re posting it. Watch the full video on how to post a video to Instagram to get all the details. Instagram TV (IGTV) is a social platform where videos can be shared and viewed and allows you to upload long form videos (up to one hour) and the videos won’t disappear after 24 hours.

Posting videos on LinkedIn

There are actually two ways that you can post videos on LinkedIn. There are three places to use video on LinkedIn:

• Your profile
• LinkedIn Publisher
• Updates

Ignite Visibility writes a great, easy to follow article on how to add videos for each LinkedIn option. Check it out and decide which is best for you. Updates might be an easy place to start, but also consider adding a more evergreen video to your profile.

Other ways to get your videos seen

You’re not done yet when it comes to sharing your video!  You can also share your videos:

• In your newsletters and email marketing efforts
• In your PowerPoint presentations
• As a link in your email signature line

There are several ways to get the most out of your videos. Make sure you’re doing enough to get your videos seen!