Life may be full of surprises, but it should come as no surprise that social media requires the most effective scheduling to maximize your reach and engagement. Indeed, the only surprise from a marketing perspective should be the look of surprise and delight on your audience’s faces when viewing your amazing social media posts delivered right on cue.
Yes- social media success is all about creating those ‘wow’ moments for your audience – and so proper scheduling is what delivers the message… at just the right time. Indeed, proper social media content scheduling – especially video- is the most cost-effective and powerful way to market your business. Some may say it takes too much time or effort, but we’ll show you why by using some cutting edge platforms, that’s just not the case.
Using social media scheduling is basically the answer to managing your time more efficiently and tailoring your campaigns so that they get the message across in the most timely and suitable fashion. When planning your posts and video content, scheduling makes it easy to plan your day and all your other tasks. For example, proper scheduling in advance allows you to get on with your day, while strategically scheduling your posts to be published at the best times. This helps to optimize your brand’s position in the crowded social media universe.
When we drill down, you’ll find that there are certain times of day and days of the week that are ‘prime time’ for social media in different channels. These times and days are established by analyzing when most users are online and when the engagement rates are at their peak on the different channels:
Hootsuite is an example of just such a social media scheduling platform that allows you to schedule your content ahead of time. Hootsuite offers you tools to curate your posts, send out bulk messages, and time the publishing to go off when you want. Planning a drip campaign for a big promotion that starts in a week? You can schedule it now and plan to perfection every build-up post that leads to the promo launch.
Another very popular and easy scheduling platform is Buffer. Same with Hootsuite, they both have great and straightforward scheduling features. Buffer has a great Chrome extension which allows the user to instantly link the page with the scheduling platform. Through user stats, the platform also generates suggestions for when it is the strongest time for you to post!
Although traditional text and image-based content marketing remain important for digital marketing campaigns, the trend towards using video over text is growing more and more. A staggering 59% of users would choose video over text when interested in a product.
Why videos? Videos are cool. Videos are buzzing. Videos are viral. With videos, your brand’s key messages can be easily communicated, and seamlessly woven into your video. Another perk is that when done right, videos can be fast to create and easy to distribute.
So, videos are non-negotiable in today’s fast-paced media world. It’s ALL about videos. From Instagram, over to Snapchat, to YouTube, people love videos. More and more platforms are making use of videos. Videos are becoming an integral part in day-to-day communication – not only between product and consumer but also within families and friendships. Videos are so popular because they easily generate proximity between customer and company. They can also help create a feeling of fear of missing out (#FOMO) and to build more trusting relationships. What really counts are the first ten seconds of your video. Statistics have shown that creating a catchy introduction to your video is pivotal in keeping your viewer on the hook and to create sales conversions.
So using video content is the most catchy and powerful way of advertising your product. More and more businesses opt for using video content marketing because of their outstanding return on investment (ROI) and levels of engagement that dwarf those of plain text or even images.
Videos are branded content that can be marketed to perfectly match your product. An astounding sixty-four percent (64%) of consumers make a product purchase after watching branded social videos (via Tubular Insights). A great example is Hootsuite’s own branded film which is their own spin on the popular culture ‘Game Of Thrones’ series opening sequence. It’s gained over 1 million views and this kind of video can be widely shared on social media and scheduled in advance for publishing to coincide with a Game Of Thrones series start date to maximize online engagement.
Video marketing is a fresh perspective on alternative online media, which attracts more viewers and creates more awareness for your product. Businesses that use video marketing as part of their campaigns are reporting steady revenue growth of 49%. So using video content is not only a viable option, but should really be part of your daily content scheduling. (That is, unless you live in the virtual stone-age and want to keep it that way!) So never underestimate the huge value in investing in video content production because social videos attract more eyes to your business. Video gets 12%+ more shares than other content according to SeeSpotRunMedia. Another factor in the rise of video is that Google bought YouTube so video now ranks higher in search engine optimization. 83% of businesses that use video marketing are reporting good ROI (return on investment).
An innovative intro maker company that helps social media marketers make epic and catchy intros is called Renderforest. Not only is the website really user-friendly, but also their designs are state of the art and trending:
It is also becoming increasingly affordable and easy to make videos by yourself. Using Renderforest’s intuitive online video-creation platform is quick and easy so you’ll be making your own catchy promo videos in no time. Their videos can even be instantly published to social media in the correct format.
What is also really important for success in social video marketing is the topic and content of your videos- it’s got to really appeal. So do some research to decide what you want to bring across in a short video and create it! With Renderforest you can create unlimited branded videos from their handy selection of 100’s of templates to cover different topics. Check out their video editing pages here: https://renderforest.com/online-video-editor
So, now you can start creating powerful stories that boost and build your brand using Renderforest. There’s nothing better than a well-timed social media video popping up on your social feed for you to like and share. After all, that’s how posts go viral! Kelly Roland might as well have been talking about social media scheduling when she said: “Timing is everything”.
Bio: Roman Daneghyan is Chief Marketing Officer at Renderforest, specializing in social media marketing, content marketing, and SEO.