By Christian Zilles 
Video is taking over the web, so it’s perhaps no surprise that video is completely re-shaping the face of social media. As a new eMarketer report points out, video is now center stage on every major social media platform. Views are up, engagement is up, and yes, ads are up. In fact, eMarketer predicts that social video ad spending will grow 44 percent between now and 2021. That’s a big number, but what does that mean for your digital marketing strategy?
Add video content to your social platforms ASAP
If you’ve been getting by with just text updates and images, it’s time to look into adding video. At one time, the only social platform for video was YouTube, but Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and even Twitter are rapidly catching up. According to the eMarketer report, these four social media platforms now get more video views than mainstream media outlets like CNN, Fox, BBC or MSNBC. That’s pretty staggering if you think about it. (It also means that running ads on a news site like CNN is not nearly as effective as running ads on Facebook)
The importance of adding video content to your social platforms is even higher if you are trying to reach the Millennial or Gen Z audience. These young Internet users are consuming more than half (54%) of their daily video content from right inside the social media apps. Thus, you can no longer expect that young Internet users will be surfing on over to your business website and watching your video content. If your video content is not within Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter, then you are losing out on this potential audience.
If you are going to spend money on online ads, spend on social video ads
Not every small business has an online video advertising budget, but if you do have some funds earmarked for this purpose, it’s certainly worth exploring the different ad formats on the major social media platforms. According to eMarketer, social video ad spending will account for 30.4 percent of total video ad spending by 2021. Most of the total spending (estimated to be close to $15 billion) will be headed to Facebook, of course, but even Twitter – Twitter! – is emerging as a social video ad giant. In fact, eMarketer predicts that total U.S. video ad revenues at Twitter will reach $1 billion by 2021. That’s even more than eMarketer is predicting for Snapchat ($727.4 million).
Align social video with different business objectives
Remember when social video was all about posting viral videos? Well, companies are becoming much more sophisticated about how they are using social video to achieve specific business objectives. For example, eMarketer specifically cites the ability of videos consumed across social media to drive purchasing activity. At the very least, you can use this social video to amplify your overall message.
Final thoughts
Going forward, it looks like video is going to become a bigger and bigger trend within social media. It’s time to start thinking about the biggest social media platforms as social video platforms, where people are consuming video content at the same time as they are hanging out with their friends and family. That way of thinking should influence the type of content you are creating. By 2021, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are going to look very different than they do now. So make the move to social video now.
SME Paid Under
Digital Editor