15/06/2018
Thinking about creating video content for your website and social media? Do you know how long the videos you’re creating should be? Find out right here!
We keep banging on about social media and video lately… (don’t hate). It’s only because it’s an essential part of making up your business’ online presence. Annoyingly, no one reads blogs anymore – and you’ll only find that out if you read this blog (ironically). With more and more content moving towards video, creating content for your website and social media pages is key to being one step ahead of your competition.
Not only have we done a blog on Live Streaming, but now we’re doing another one on video content! We’ll try to keep it brief, so you read it all… We fully understand the irony of emphasising the need for video content in a written blog, but hey ho.
Your social media and website requires different content. Take written for example. Whilst a long blog is great on your website, a long social media post is not. And the same goes for video too! You need to make the video for the right platform. Whether that be for social media or for your website, each video must be tailormade with your audience and platform in mind.
So, without further ado, let’s get into it. This is VIDEO and how long they should be.
Like we’ve said, creating content for different platforms differs, because the audience on your website and social media are different. Note that it’s the same ‘audience’ but they’re not there for the same purposes. See your website is for people that have found you and are fully interested in your services/products. Whereas on social media, they’re just scrolling through, killing time and watching whatever takes their fancy. So, social and website videos need to be different – and fit for different purposes.
Like we’ve said, your social video should fit the attention span of the average social media user. And whilst that isn’t long in the current age we live in. The average human attention span now lasts less than that of a goldfish… So, it’s essential to grip your audience in the first 5 seconds in order to maximise views on the video.
But different social platforms have ideal time lengths. Research from Socially Sorted found that the best performing videos on Facebook where around 24-90seconds (on average). Different social platforms have different time constraints, and different lengths that are ideal for maximum engagement too. We’ve got a list of both, below:
For social media video, it’s best to keep them short and sweet (aiming for around the minute mark). This helps ensure that viewers aren’t clicking off half way through and are watching the video. Save the longer videos for your website, which leads nicely to…
Website videos are a little different. We’ve said that someone on your website is probably more likely to be interested in your services/products – as they’ve found your website. They might scroll over to the video section to see what kind of stuff you have on there. This is where your longer form video content should take over. Company explainers, product reviews and more can feature on this part of your site. The general consensus is that if people want what your video has to offer, they’ll watch until the end. They’re there to learn something, which they can easily achieve through watching the video. Your title needs to grab them and make them want to click the play button. If they want the info, they’ll watch – it’s fairly simple. Videos attached to blogs can be useful too.
From an SEO perspective, blogs are essential forms of content, but if you want them to stand a better chance of being read, attach video to them. Create a winning blog and pair it with a video on the same topic. This means that the readers can read, and the watchers can watch – content for all! It’s a great way to have crawlable content for search engine robots but also have video that can provide information for those that don’t fancy a long read.
The length of website videos varies, because of the content in them. The more information you have, naturally, the longer they will be. You want to make them long enough that viewers will watch and learn something, but not so long that they get bored. So, ideally, make them between 3-5minutes. Although there is a case of ‘if they want to learn they’ll watch the video, no matter the length’, 3-5 minutes is optimum time. If you can’t say all you need in 5 minutes, split the video into parts. Remember, website video is dependent on the content – but they can be longer than social media ones.
Ah, YouTube is an entirely different platform in itself. Yes, it is a social network, but one specifically designed for posting video content. Therefore, your videos can be any length, they can be entertaining (like social ones) or informative (like your website ones), it really doesn’t matter on a platform specifically designed for the publication of video content.
Get creating your video content. You need to make content that matches your brand and engages your following. Need a hand? You’re in the right place. We specialise in marketing video production – specifically for websites and social too. Have an idea, but not the equipment? Or maybe no idea AND no equipment! Don’t stress, we’re here to help. Give us a call or drop us a line. We can help you with your video needs and push you ahead of your competition.
