6 Types of Video Ideas to Supercharge Your Social Media

At its core, social media engagement is always a two-way street. Yes, part of your success will
depend on your ability to continue to put relevant, compelling content out into the world. But
that content also needs to invite participation from your users. If their relationship with your
brand is a passive one, you may get a lot of impressions on your content... but very few of those
people are going to be motivated to the point where they take that critical next step and make a
purchase.

This is why video content has always been a great way to supercharge your social media
engagement. According to Twitter, video tweets are 6x as likely to be retweeted as photos. Not
only are 75% of all video plays taking place on mobile devices, but about 92% of people who
watch a video on a smartphone will share it with someone else.

But at the same time, none of this will matter if you're not leveraging the right types of video
content in the first place. With that in mind, there are five key video formats that you'll definitely
want to explore to help you supercharge your engagement on social media and beyond.

1. Live Videos

Live videos are one of the most powerful and effective types of content on social media these
days. Not only will viewers generally watch a live video for approximately three times longer
than a pre-recorded one, but about 59% of people actually prefer watching live videos over live
TV.

Live videos work great on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn that already have their
own "live" video solutions built right in, and so long as it's compelling, they can be any length you
want - even an hour or more! For the cherry on top, most social media platforms notify your
followers when you go live, which can create a big spike in your engagement!

To get a good sense of just what you can do with the live format, check out this recording of a live
broadcast from video marketing coach Owen Video on his Facebook page where he discusses all
things video marketing

2. How-To Videos
According to another recent study, about 65% of people say they actively use online videos to
help them solve a problem. People actively want to broaden their horizons, and if your brand is
the one to provide them with that insight, you'll come out all the better for it.

Generally speaking, these videos are great on Facebook and Twitter and should be much shorter
than live videos. Think three to five minutes, or maybe slightly longer -- up to 10 minutes if you
really want to go into great detail on an important task. A great example of this type of videos
comes from Matt D'Avella. In this video, Matt talks to Thomas Frank, the Productivity Guru, on
how to be more productive

How-to videos are exceptionally good at keeping viewers engaged. How-to videos are also the
best format to boost your views on YouTube and other social media channels.

3. User-Generated Videos
If you really want to grow an engaged community on social media, you need to make people feel
like they're a part of something bigger. This is why user-generated content works tremendously
well on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites - because community
members can see and enjoy videos being created by other real community members, making
everyone involved feel like they're a genuine part of something unique and special.
Take GoPro's user-generated content campaign, for example:

Not only did this supercharge the brand's engagement on social media, but it also gave them
access to an endless array of short (one to two minute) videos that they didn't actually have to
create. The users did all of the hard work on their behalf AND it deepened their larger
relationship with the Fitness brand at the same time.

Even if you’re not looking to make more money in fitness online, there are still many ways you
can leverage user-generated video content. A great way to entice your followers to create
videos and submit them to you, is by creating a social media content.

Social media contests are simple and extremely effective at boosting your engagement. Your
contest can be anything, but it should be something that your followers are actually interested
in. You can then ask your followers to submit their videos for a chance to win an awesome offer.

4. Product Announcements

Product announcement videos are a great way to raise awareness ahead of an upcoming release,
but they're also a perfect chance to increase social media engagement. Consider the fact that
according to Marketing Land, about 62% of people say they are actually more interested in a
product after seeing a video about it in their Facebook Story.

Here’s a great example of this type of video content from Buffer, on Instagram:

For best results, keep your announcement video under one minute and focus on teasing the
excitement of the launch, not on "giving the entire game away,
" so to speak.

5. Company Culture Videos
One of the major reasons that brands often struggle when growing their online community is
because they don’t give consumers something to rally behind that goes deeper than a logo or a
set of products.

People don't really engage with inanimate objects on social media - they want to feel a real,
human connection to a brand. Company culture videos are your perfect opportunity to do
exactly that, in a format that works great on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and even more
business-centric social media sites like LinkedIn.

These videos can take any shape you need them to - from short, Øve-minute interviews with key
employees to a "birds-eye view" of your daily operations and anything in between.
The key value you're offering with these videos is a sense of perspective - people should walk
away with a better understanding of what your brand does and who you are. It can be silly or
informative or both at the same time.

Take the short videos that Vidyard always does in their monthly "Meet Vidyard" series, as an
example:

They're never more than two or three minutes in length - but they also give people a chance to
talk about their favorite part of their job, in a way that is relatable and friendly.

This type of video content tends to generate high levels of engagement on social media, in part
because it gives people a sense of your organization’s values, but also because your target
audience gets to understand why your company is different.

6. Behind the Scenes Videos
Similar to the company culture videos, BTS videos take your followers behind-the-scenes, and
show a different look at your brand and business. People love these types of videos.
In this video, you can share your exclusive insight into a process, or a project, that your followers
would be interested in. BTS videos are often less polished than your traditional online videos
and incorporate lots of raw footage.

Here’s a great example of a BTS video from ConvertKit, an email marketing company:

Wrapping this up...
The types of video content listed here are only a few ideas: the only limit is your imagination.,
However, of all the types of videos that you can use to boost your engagement, these have
proven time and time again to be among the most effective types to help achieve your
engagement goals.

Keep in mind that you should never rely too heavily on one particular format. Switch things up
and focus on creating varied, high quality, relevant and engaging content for your audience.
I hope this guide to the different types of engaging videos for social media inspires you to build
an engaged online community around your business. If you have any questions, leave them in the
comments!