I’ve had the good fortune to work on hundreds of content plans for all types of businesses, and they typically look something like this: A few platforms/channels; a few different content categories (sometimes called themes or buckets); and a mix of images, text, and video content to feed it all.
It’s finally time to throw those plans out the window.
We’ve known for a while that video is the preferred format of most social media platforms, but as of this week it’s no longer just preferred – it’s now the primary content for the vast majority of social media users.
Why? I’ve got three reasons for you:
- In a massive study of brand performance, Emplifi found that overall engagement on Instagram is down by about 25% this year, and brands using Reels were the only ones who were maintaining or growing their accounts. They also looked at account growth, and TikTok was the only place that brands are reliably growing their follower counts.
- Instagram is publicly testing a new user interface that will look a lot more like TikTok, where Reels will be the first thing people see when they log in, similar to TikTok’s FYP. They’re clearly reacting to what people are engaging with, and this shift would further entrench video as the dominant way that 3 billion people use Instagram.
- Apple is even getting deeper into video, as they introduce a video feed to their Podcasts app. This follows a tidal wave of podcast viewers switching to YouTube or Spotify’s video feature to not just listen, but watch their favourite shows.
So What?
I know video can feel like a lot to take on, but our jobs as business leaders and marketers is not to fight against what’s happening, it’s to recognize where the attention is and find ways to take advantage of those opportunities.
The good news is that brand video content doesn’t have to require professional cameras and sets. To give a personal example, we recently launched a YouTube channel for our tourism training platform, eLearningU. We’ve experimented with all sorts of different formats, including high-production videos, yet the two videos that have shot above 10K and 20K views so far were simple 30-second breakdowns I shot on my phone (here’s one).
Whatever the style or type of video you choose to create, one thing is clear: Brands that fail to embrace video right now are fighting for a tiny portion of the available attention, and severely limiting the potential for their message to reach new audiences.
