Does it feel like the amount of content you have to create is increasing while your budgets to make that content are shrinking? You’re not alone in this content paradox. It stretches across the marketing and media industries (from clients to agencies), leaving a path of destroyed budgets along the way.
With this constant demand for content, traditional production methods aren’t cutting it anymore—either because they’re too expensive, take too much time, or both. To help you make the most of your time and money, we’ve put together this list of tips to make each piece of content work as hard as possible.
1. Catch eyes, stop thumbs.
Color Explosion by soraphotography
When it comes to visual content, the more eye-catching, eye-popping, eye-opening, the better. We’ve put together this fun collection of colorful, social-media friendly clips to get you started. To look for content that fits with your brand, here’s a list of 7 terms we recommend including in your search:
- Loop, looped, looping, seamless loop
- Stop motion
- Motion graphics
- Animation
- Emoji, emoticon
- Background
- Alpha
2. They like to move it, move it.
Movement is important. According to Facebook, people gaze 5 times longer at video than static images on Facebook and Instagram. So trade in the static for the dynamic and keep your social media channels on the move.
3. Silence is golden.
Marching Band by RekindlePhoto
As this Digiday article points out, 85% of videos in social feeds are viewed with the sound off. So whatever you post, make sure it’s understandable without sound. That doesn’t mean you have to avoid sirens and whistles altogether—our minds can fill in those sounds. But if you absolutely, positively must use video of someone on the phone or having a face-to-face conversation, be sure to add subtitles to your content.
4. Think quantity AND quality.
Photoshop Timelapse by IdeasLab
These days, there’s no excuse for low resolution, especially with more and more devices evolving to use ultra high-resolution screens. So start with high quality video like HD, 4K, or the 5K videos in this collection. Here are some tips on optimizing for each platform. Even though some compression will occur when uploading the video to social media platforms, you’ll still come out more ahead than if you started with a lower resolution video.
5. Trim, trim, trim.
Using free editing suites, you can trim your clips to a reasonable length (and even add logos to make your videos ownable). 2060 Digital has put together these tips for length by platform. And loop. Always loop.
6. You’ve got the bang, what about the bucks?
Drawer Full of Dollars by ODesigns
If you’ll be using a large volume of stock videos, it’s important to negotiate. Reach out to sales@pond5.com or call 1-855-410-6789 for volume discounts or to customize a package based on your needs. The lower the usage, the lower the price. Which means more money for more clips and more posts to your feeds.