The Best Social Media Platforms For Your Video Campaign

If you're thinking about developing a video campaign to use on the social media, you're definitely on the right track, because there is absolutely nothing hotter at the moment than video content. As an example of just how prevalent social media video content is, it is known that more than 45% of people on the Internet watch at least an hour of YouTube or Facebook videos every week, and that 85% of all Americans watch online videos. In addition, 92% of mobile video watchers will share a favorite video with their contacts.If you think that this kind of video watching is limited to personal or recreational observation, there are some equally compelling statistics which support the business popularity of videos. More than 85% of all people who watch a product video will want to purchase that product, and well above 50% of all consumers who watch product videos, say that it makes them much more confident about their online purchases.Now that you're convinced about the value of video marketing, the question becomes which social media platform is best for mounting your next video campaign? You can literally choose from a whole catalog of platforms, including Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest – so which of these platforms is right for your next video campaign?

Video exposure without advertising

You might want to try using unpaid social media advertising if your budget is fairly limited, and if you really need to save the money. However, case studies of failures and successes of video campaigns on the social media show that advertising gives you a much better chance of success than does unpaid video exposure. To convince yourself, just gather the statistics of how many potential customers are actually reached by unpaid social video exposure, and compare that to the many millions of potential customers who are actually out there.Then think about how often you need to reach your clients in order for them to remember your company and your products. While it's possible that you might hit the jackpot with a very clever video marketing campaign that sticks in the mind of all your targeted audience, chances are that's not really going to happen. In the next section, we'll discuss why it is that advertising is a much better approach to take with your video campaign than unpaid video exposure.

Why paid advertising is best for your video campaign

Targeting features used by ad networks are much more specific than using unpaid video exposure, and they can virtually guarantee that your video content will reach targeted customers. This is true whether your target audience is people outside your brand's ordinary connections, people who are only on social media occasionally, or even a huge number of B2B targets. Your reach will be greatly expanded by paid advertising, even if you use a small-spend budget to support your video campaign. When you compare this to the number of people you actually reach through the unpaid approach, you'll be amazed.Another reason that paid advertising is much more effective than simple video exposure, is that you'll get tremendous traffic and sales from your video ads, you'll also be able to review your video ads to see which ones resonate best with your target audience, and which ones need to be tweaked to be more in line with your audience's needs and desires. You will be sure of which videos are helping to achieve your business objectives. Now that we've determined paid advertising is your best bet for reaching a large audience, it remains to be seen how much you should spend, and which platforms are best for using paid advertising.

Video performance and cost on the social media

In terms of how much you should spend on your paid social media platform, it's good to keep in mind that there will be a different audience for each of the social media platforms, and you should only use those platforms where your target audience is known to spend time. For a 10-second video to be shown on Facebook, it would only cost you $.03 per display, and on Instagram that would be $.04 per display in a feed, with the cost rising to $.30 if the video were embedded in a story.The same 10-second video would cost you $.10 per display on Twitter, and somewhere between $.75 and a $1.25 on LinkedIn, so before choosing which social media platforms to use, you should negotiate the most favorable viewing rate, so as to get the most bang for your buck.

Who watches each platform?

In order to make the most intelligent choice for which social media to advertise on, the following statistics should help you with your decision. Pinterest has a much higher percentage of females in its audience than males, if that matters to your business. Twitter and LinkedIn have a much higher percentage of college graduates than Instagram or Facebook, and the gender breakdown is approximately equal. YouTube has the highest number of users, but only ranks fifth in the frequency of being used.On the other hand, Facebook has the second highest number of total users, but is used more than any other social media platform. There are more people in the age group between 18 and 29 on Facebook than on any other social medium, although Instagram has a younger audience than Facebook. Snapchat actually has the youngest audience, and ranks second in being a highly used platform.LinkedIn has the biggest audience of business professionals and is much better at B2B targeting, but users tend to spend much less time on the platform than on other social media platforms. It has the highest proportion of college graduates, and the biggest income factor of any of the social media platforms

Social media audiences

To further assist your decision-making relative to which platforms to use, the following audience information is provided. Pinterest tends to reach women who enjoy cosmetics, do-it-yourself projects, and crafting products. Instagram is for a younger, hipper audience, so it's a good source for Internet traffic, prospects, and driving sales. Facebook is best for website traffic, as well as leads and sales from video ads.Snapchat is new and very affordable, but because of its relative novelty, it is an unproven commodity as yet. LinkedIn reaches primarily the upscale intelligent business personnel, as well as corporate decision-makers, and although it's very high-quality, that quality comes at a price. Twitter audiences are generally smart and geeky people, who generally prefer books rather than movies or television. YouTube is probably your best bet for using long video in your campaigns, with in-depth content, although it's not as good as the other platforms for driving website traffic.