How To
Ultimate Guide to creating Facebook Videos
Video is a great way to drive engagement. In this guide we show you the best tips to get the most out of your production efforts.
Social Media Video Stats
Before we begin, let’s first look at why video is the right choice.
You should already know that video drives more engagement, you probably watch more video than you realise. By 2019, 80% of all internet traffic will be video.
Producing your own video content may appear daunting, but with a few tricks up your sleeve you will be able to start tapping into video to give your marketing efforts a real boost.
Underlining this, the team from depositphotos have put together this new infographic of key video stats for 2018.
Among the key data points:
- 90% of consumers say video can help them make buying decisions
- Mentioning the word ‘video’ in your email subject line increases open rates by 19%
- Video on landing pages can increase conversions by up to 80%
The top tips for great social media video
1. Use Subtitles (captions)
85% of video on Facebook is watched with the sound off. This means that you pretty much have to use subtitles. Luckily, Facebook have a great tool for this.
Click here to read the how to guide from Facebook or follow along our steps below.
It is quite easy;
- Play the uploaded video by clicking on it, then pause it.
- Now click the three dots at top right, to show the menu.
- Click Edit Post.
- Click Captions
- Click on Generate and wait
Now the important bit to do BEFORE you save the video.
6. After the captions have been autogenerated, you must listen to each snippet of video and confirm the captions are correct.
The automation is probably about 90% accurate so be sure to do this final step.
7. Click save to finish
2. Use a handheld gimbal
Invest one (or two) hundred dollars on a good smartphone gimbal. Nothing is worse than watching shaky video and is a quick turn off for your users. You will be able to make very professional videos with ease. They are great for walk-n-talk videos or capturing moving targets. But they can suffer from up and down movements, so see the video below to see what the solution is. Then checkout a great offer on the solution below the video.
SPECIAL OFFER
This is Z-axis vertical stabiliser is a great add-on to your video kit. This 3D printed one is available as a kit in our store. It fits most gimbals on the market and is normally $49.95 but until December 24th 2018 they are just $34.95 each including shipping Australia wide. Includes a 10% donation to the creator.
Note: This doesn’t include the Gimbal, which retail for $90-$250.
Snag this great offer as a present to yourself!
3. Use a body or quality desk microphone
If you are shooting on the move, or want to not have an ugly mic in the shot, then a body mic is what you need. These are not that expensive.
The AUDIO-TECHNICA OMINIDIRECTION
6. Use good Lighting
Invest about a hundred dollars on good LED lighting. Even in daylight lighting backfills shadows making for a better, clearer shot.
5. Learn to edit video
Learning the basics is all you will need to prepare your videos for publication.
For Windows users, you should probably consider using Lightworks.
For MAC users, the best free option is iMovie, or Lightworks.
I highly recommened you checkout Lightworks. Their free version is pretty darn good as is the Pro paid version. Checkout the video below about Lightworks and here for the tutorials.
6. Practice your speech
There’s nothing worse than hearing the dreaded, ‘ummm’ in a video is there? The only way to avoid this is to practice what you are going to say first. Use cue cards as prompts, and if you feel the need to say ‘aahhhhmmm’ then look at the cue cards instead. Complete one section from the cue cards at a time.
Speak normally, as if you’re talking directly to one of your personas. Imagine they are watching live and present them your information in a casual manner. Don’t try to act, just be yourself. It’s often more endearing.
7. Embed the video from Facebook onto your website
Hosting your videos on Facebook doesn’t mean they can only be played on your Facebook page.
To share things from Facebook on your website, you can embed a Public post or video. When you embed a post that contains a video, the message that was posted with the video will be included. When you embed a video, only the video player will be included.
- Go to the video you want to embed
- Click
in the top right of the post and select Embed - Copy and paste the code that appears and add it to your own website or web page (use a Code Module in Divi)
If you embed a video and the audience of the video changes from Public, a message saying the embedded video is no longer available will appear on the website.
8. Get Your Basics right
Shooting video isn’t that hard. But make sure you get the basic cameraperson stuff right.
- Ensure you have the right amount of headroom in the shot. Don’t cramp the head into a shot or leave too much and make you look like an elf.
- Steady camera. We’ve already covered gimbals, but ensure smooth motion and avoid jerky, sudden movements
- Keep the subject in the centre of the frame
- Try not to do too many edits. You want a flowing video. If you can do it in one take, awesome.
- If you need to zoom, do it slowly.
- Consider using a lead-in bumper, from someone like Video Bumper Factory. The guy who runs it is called Mate, tell him Brad sent you.
- If you don’t want to get in front of the camera, then consider doing voice overs of slide decks & presentations.
Happy Shooting!
About the Author: Brad Jeffery
Chief Bottler - BottledCode
Brad is the Founder of BottledCode. He is also the Founder of IdeasKicker.com and is the inventor of the term Crowd Vetting. In 2005 he co-founded RealXstream.com, a video streaming service for the extreme sports industry and in 2014 was a senior tech lead on the largest FinTech project in the Southern Hemisphere. He also spends his time running multiple e-commerce sites as well as the owner of Made in the Gong, a makerspace. Over the last 20 years he has built hundreds of websites, apps, middleware, plugins and services and has a passion for marketing & developing automated business processes through software.