When you create a video, you are trying to get people to hear and see your story. But with the many different platforms out there attention is diverted away from the initial post. However, your video is just one piece of content that can be used in different ways on different platforms. Here are three things that you can do to extend the life of that video so it isn’t completely lost in the shuffle.
- Thumbnails/Stills. You really should have a dynamic still that helps represent what your video is about. So, take a still and add graphics to it, and use that to illustrate the story of the video. We like to use a program like Canva or Pixelmator to create our
video thumbnails. YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo all recommend and have options to upload thumbnails. The biggest thing with this, is it’s also a picture so you can make it a stand alone Facebook post, tweet or Instagram post as well.
2. Teasers. With video grabbing more and more attention, length of the video becomes more crucial. I wrote about length of video in my post last week. Not only that there are some social media platforms that have limitations on the length as it is. For instance, Twitter and Instagram have 60 second limitations and the Facebook ad platform has limitations on time as well. In this scenario, if your video is slightly longer than the time limitations of the platform, than creating a “teaser” or “trailer” of the main video with a link to it, would be helpful. We use those terms that apply to shorter clips of films that you see to get you interested in it. The same philosophy applies here. It’s just trying to stimulate interest in the longer content. You can also make several and publish o
n the various platforms I just mentioned.
3. GIFS. This is one we have fun with. GIFS are big, visually interesting and very popular. So, similar to thumbnails, you can take a section of your video and publish it to GIF friendly accounts. For instance, Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr. We like to use GIF Brewery to create our GIFS, and we use GIPHY to host them. Like I mentioned they are really eye-catching and popular to use in messaging apps as well.
These three ways we use regularly for our clients and for our own promotion of the work we do. They will definitely help you promote and bring attention to the video you worked so hard to create and your very important story won’t get lost in the shuffle.
Paul J Schmidt is owner/production director of UnoDeuce Multimedia, a full service video production company based in Lansing, Michigan that specializes in creative visual storytelling for small businesses and non-profit organizations. You can connect with them at www.unodeuce.com
