Making Your Video Work for Facebook & YouTube 

Producing the highest engaging content often comes down to the medium you use. While high-quality images do well on most social platforms, the level of engagement for video content is significantly greater. Plus, with over 500 million daily viewers on YouTube, leveraging video as part of any marketing campaign has become a must for all brands. 

However, the question soon becomes, is it better to post the same video content across different platforms, or tailor your video content for each platform. 

With social media algorithms, penalizing or shadow blocking content that is shared across platforms, investing the time and creative energy into producing different video content is best. Here’s a general guideline that can be useful to both leverage your existing content to create truly unique videos for audiences on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Edit the video for the channel 

Starting with the basics of video dimensions is important to consider when creating videos for various social media platforms. For example, recording videos horizontally is preferred for both Facebook and YouTube, whereas vertical or square videos work best on Instagram both on the timeline and for IGTV. 

The key here will be in understanding what platforms may have the highest video engagement and being sure the content is filmed and edited in a way that will look best on those platforms. 

Consider time constraints 

While shorter videos are best on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook both favor videos three or more minutes long, that will keep users on their platforms for longer. You could very easily create a long form video for YouTube and take sections of it to make a shorter version for Instagram. 

Likewise, editing the same video in different ways can give each video you create a new look and feel, without having to start over from scratch. 

Shoot from different angles 

Having a variety of angles for each video gives you more raw footage to work from and to use. In this way, you could cut between angles to edit your video and create several different versions that could be leveraged across all of your platforms. Adding in b-roll segments and using voiceover can also be highly effective ways to generate different takes of the same content. 

The key will also be in knowing how to best showcase your products and services. In some cases, having video testimonials may work to generate social proof. However, for products, videos are a great way to show your product in action and get them to move past their objections to buy.  

Leveraging free video editing software can be cost-effective to give you more options to create videos that are both engaging and suitable for a wide range of platforms and audiences. If you’re not sure where to start with your video marketing campaign, let’s connect. I have a host of innovative strategies that have worked to increase brand awareness, engagement, and customer acquisition.