Who Are the Leaders of Social Media Video Marketing?

By Raflin Sarkisyan on March 18, 2019

 

There is a fine art to using videos on social media. To aid your own strategy, take a look at how some of the channel’s leaders go about their business.

To become the best, you've got to learn from the best. While social media video marketing remains a relatively new way for brands to distribute content and engage audiences, some companies have really taken the opportunity and run with it.

If you're new to social media video marketing, or have just started to develop your strategy, it's a smart idea to take inspiration from the leaders in the field. The companies we've listed below have all developed interesting and unique ways of promoting video content in ways which engage their followers and indeed grow the number of fans following them.

While you won't necessarily want to emulate everything they do, it's worth researching their strategy and seeing how you can learn from the most successful brands doing social video marketing in 2019.

BT Sport Football

While based in the United Kingdom, BT has a global reach thanks its award-winning coverage of soccer. Its current roster includes the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, The Bundesliga and Ligue 1, providing an endless stream of ideas for social media content.

BT’s international footprint is widened through the use of highlight videos uploaded to its Twitter account. Below, you’ll find a post that captures a stunning free kick from Manchester City winger Leroy Sane. However, there is so much to be said about the wizardry happening away from the field.

https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1098338549697515520

Within two seconds, BT has promoted eight sponsors via an embedded graphic. These same brands appear at the end of the clip, indicating the use of a template which is easy to apply.

We also have a message at the bottom - “Watch the Champions League on BT Sport” - which advertises its cable TV service to all the people accessing that content for free. The post received thousands of shares, likes and comments, proving a sizeable amount of engagement from such a small piece of footage.

The strategy is to give each viewer a taste of what to expect, and it’s executed with all the finesse of Sane’s 30-yard curler.

GoPro

The first prize for engaging a community heads to GoPro for its efforts in user-generated content.

The brand runs a series of initiatives throughout the year which encourage its users to send clips from their portable cameras in exchange for cash prizes and other rewards. GoPro also publishes a host of professionally edited content to its channels, documenting the exploits of world-famous skateboarders, snowboarders and other athletes. Still, as millions of people own a GoPro, it makes sense for them to share what they’ve been up to as well.

One of our recent favorites (and it’s a long list) is this exhilarating clip from skier Felix Matheron.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUcu8NnXxT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The best thing is that any organization with an audience (essentially, anyone with a social media account) is able to replicate this strategy. All it takes is a bit of thought into the kind of moments that people capture

In the case of a sports broadcaster, it might be a fan’s celebration, or their attempt at reenacting something they’ve seen on TV.

User-generated content will ensure that your channels are filled with unique footage while encouraging your audience to share their own stories.

NFL

Organizations that don’t tap into their content goldmines could be missing out on a ton of engagement.

The NFL is a great example of how a group with a sizeable array of different assets can bring everything together in a digestible format.

Take the example of this highlight reel covering the “Top Moves from 2018”.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1100395579849359361

The league has 17 million likes on Facebook and 24.3 million followers on Twitter. Videos like the above can be used for brand-building exercises to keep those figures rising.

On Instagram it’s a similar story, albeit with shorter clips (e.g. top five plays, as seen here) due to the platform’s enforcement of a 60-second limit on video length. In case you were wondering, HubSpot’s advice on the ideal length of a video, according to the channel it’s posted on, is:

  • Instagram - 30 seconds
  • Twitter - 45 seconds
  • Facebook - 1 minute
  • YouTube - 2 minutes

NHL

If you need a way of capturing the energy around a key moment or event, social media is the place to head for.

Take the example of the NHL, which clips footage from key games around the league whenever its teams take to the ice. The NFL is also effective at the same strategy of bringing the action to life through incident-based coverage.

Recently, the NHL covered Toronto Maple Leafs in their fixture against the Buffalo Sabres. Short highlights, including this clip of a goal from Buffalo’s Jack Eichel, attracted a huge amount of engagement from the league’s online audience.

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1100219448181641218

Our advice when leveraging this form of “moment marketing” would be to ensure that each clip is delivered as fast as possible. A moment is only relevant for so long, and most of its engagement will come straight after it occurred.

Pokemon

You don’t have to be its biggest fan to appreciate that Pokemon is a serious player in social media video marketing.

Every other post from the popular games franchise contains a video that invariably asks a question or encourages its audience to “tag a friend”. Pokemon really lends itself to the visual aspect of video content, and social media is the perfect place to drive engagement with fans.

Our example here ticks so many boxes for a post which encourages more than just a view. We can see that hundreds of people have responded to Pokemon’s requests for a tag of their friend, which brings it out to an entirely new audience.

https://twitter.com/Pokemon/status/1099760914130186250

Learning from the leaders

Let’s say you’re not a developer of video games chronicling the adventures of a fictional animal catcher. You’re a business, like a broadcaster or a B2C retailer, and you want to generate more success with your video content marketing efforts.

To help your cause, our top tips from the leaders of social media video marketing are:

  • Make everything quick to upload: Speed is the key to producing content based around events. To generate engagement, you need to capture your audience in the moment.
  • Tap into your community: User-generated content is a popular tactic for keeping your channels busy and your fans engaged. If you can, always ask for submissions from the web.
  • Look beyond the view: You don’t need to know who (or what) “Pikachu” is to replicate some of Pokemon’s winning video strategies. Encouraging people to share or comment on your post will enable you to access a whole new audience.
  • Cut things down to size: It’s natural to think that an hour-long broadcast won’t compute with your social media audience, so chop it up. Make small clips out of big productions and you’ll reap the rewards.

Connect your video with viewers, everywhere.