How to Use Videos for Twitter Marketing
When most people think of marketing on Twitter, they think about finding a cool way to express a thought in 280 characters. You have to be a creative wordsmith to consistently grab your audience’s attention in 280 characters.
But there’s a neat trick to avoid the 280 word limit —
Just use video for your Twitter marketing instead!
According to Twitter, videos do not count towards the character limit in a Tweet. Just say what you have to say and reach your audience.
Why use Twitter for video marketing?
When it comes to video marketing, most marketers and business owners only think about YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.
But here are amazing statistics about videos on Twitter:
- 45 percent of Twitter users prefer to watch more video content from celebrities. (Twitter).
- Over 80 percent of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter (Wordstream).
- Tweets with video garner ten times more retweets, likes and shares versus text only tweets (Twitter).
- Promoted Tweets with videos save more than 50 percent on cost per engagement (Twitter).
Just like Facebook and many other social media platforms, Twitter urges its users to rely on video for content.
Video is king when it comes to online content. According to Cisco, over 80 percent of all online traffic will be video. Twitter will be a big part of that growing trend.
Technical Specifications for Twitter Video
Keep the following in mind when exporting your video for Twitter:
- Minimum resolution: 32 x 32
- Maximum resolution: 1920 x 1200 (and 1200 x 1900)
- Aspect ratios: 1:2.39 – 2.39:1 range (inclusive)
- Maximum frame rate: 40 fps
- Maximum bitrate: 25 Mbps
- MP4 and MOV video formats only
- Videos up to 512MB
- Length of 2 minutes and 20 seconds or less in length
How Twitter shows your videos on their platform?
Regular Tweet
Any user can post a video with a normal Tweet. Just hit the icon for the media gallery:
It is also recommended to put some text to describe what the video is about. The character limit does apply. Add hashtags to the tweet to help users find the video. This also helps the Twitter AI to figure out how to best show your video to the right audience.
Promoted Video
To boost visibility on your video tweets, paid ads are available. The promoted video is the main way to boost your video visibility to Twitter users. It’s very similar to Facebook promoted videos.
You post normally with a Tweet with a video. Then you promote it with your ad account. The video auto plays when shown in a person’s timeline.
In-Stream Video Ads
Renowned and trusted brands that are members of Twitter’s Amplify program can upload video content to Twitter. Twitter then matches this content to targeted and pre-approved advertisements, based on various sets of criteria. This selection process ensures video ads are shown with relevant content.
These video advertisements have many similarities to YouTube ads. In-Stream ads can be shown as pre-roll ads or as mid-roll ads during a video.
Twitter has over 200+ content partners with a large following and high visibility. This ensures the pre-roll or mid-roll ads will have the potential to reach millions of users that engage with Twitter content daily.
What are the best video content for marketing on Twitter?
It’s important to understand the mindset of a user on Twitter. Most users are just scrolling through their feed and quickly selecting content that attracts their eye.
A Twitter feed is like a never ending stream of consciousness, where the user is taking in as much content as possible.
Your first job in marketing to a typical Twitter user is to make them stop scrolling.
Use succinct, catchy text which provides a quick summary of your video. Hash tags will help as well in gaining visibility. Once a user stops scrolling and decides to watch your video, then you’ll need a five to ten second hook to make them stay a minute or two for your video.
Every video, especially Twitter videos, should have a “hook” or interesting opening to keep a viewer watching. This is essential if you want viewers to continue watching your video. This is even more important on Twitter, when it’s so easy to just scroll down and find other content.
A hook can be a sound byte. It could be a cool, quick image or clip. It has to be interesting and somewhat relevant to the topic of the video.
Once you’ve got a Twitter user hooked, then it’s time to show them your content.
Branding Video
Every brand has a story. Every business has a history: how it got started, why it got started and who started it. This is a staple video that every business should have on their social media profiles and YouTube channels.
It’s a video of about two to three minutes to show the essence of what you’re business is all about and why the world should care.
Here’s our branding or personal statement video.
This is an excellent introduction video to attract new audiences on Twitter.
Responding to Tweets Video
This is an easy video to make. Anyone with a mobile device and shoot this video. It’s essentially a selfie video, where the user answers or responds to Tweets of direct messages of their followers.
Rather than be limited to Twitter’s character limit, you can respond with a lengthy video to respond to your followers.
Audience building in social media is all about engagement. You should respond to comments and comment on other user Tweets. Make it even more personal by using video to respond or comment on questions or content from other Twitter users.
Entertaining Videos
Videos are even more powerful when it comes to providing entertaining content. Text only content can only deliver humor or wit using only… text.
However, videos engages the users with visual as well as audio content. By using cinematic techniques and unique storytelling, you can create compelling and entertaining video content to impress your audience.
This will get more engagements, more views, more followers and eventually more business.
Quick Vlog Videos
One of the best things about video marketing on Twitter is anyone can do it. All you need is a mobile device, like a smartphone or a tablet.
Just like in YouTube, there is a market for Vlog style content on Twitter. You don’t even need fancy editing software or camera equipment. Point the camera at yourself and start recording!
Talk about what’s new about your business. What your business is going through. What you think about world events. Talk about sports.
Sometimes the best business content is talking about something unrelated to business. People want to follow authentic users who are just like them.
Your followers don’t just want you to keep pounding them about their widget or service that will redefine the world. They want to know what makes you tick. How you are as a person. What are your hobbies. What are your interests.
This is where Vlog videos shine. You can do videos about your typical day. Videos about what you’re doing outside of the office.
It’s a great way to diversify your social media content, and have something to talk about.
If your business is releasing a new product or service, you can build the hype around it with a teaser video. Quick montages of the product (without actually revealing it) or catchy sound bytes from the founder or developers would work well.
A great teaser video can help build excitement and anticipation, leading up to the release of the product or service.
Behind the Scenes
Like with Vlog style videos, users would want an inside look about you and your business. A quick tour or view of your business would be a way to do just that.
If you have a restaurant or a cafe, this is a good way to show users about how their food and beverages are made. Impress them with the effort and labor used to create the products they purchase every day.
Enhance the confidence your users have by making them more loyal to your brand.
Testimonial Videos
Testimonial videos are powerful videos to have for any business. These are personal video testimonies from existing or past clients about your product or service.
If a brand is not a household name, most users will be skeptical to try it out. This is why Yelp and Google reviews are so important. These are actual reviews from past customers.
You can Tweet out your Yelp page or Google My Business account. But a more powerful statement is to get a client or customer to do a quick video about your product or service.
Post this on Twitter and sticky it on your profile page. Now anyone searching you online can see these powerful testimonial videos. They’ll serve as social proof for your product or service, and increase the likelihood that a consumer will try out your brand.
Animated Videos
Animation is a great way to attract new audiences. A well-made animation video looks cool, and users will associate your business with the hip and trendy crowd.
Animated videos can be as simple as a Fiverr whiteboard video. But if you really want to stand out, it’s best to use a professional video production specialist. They can help with the scripting, storyboarding and actual post production.
Video marketing on Twitter for the win
With over 330 million users on Twitter, savvy video marketers should not neglect Twitter as a social media platform. Like with all social media platforms, videos are the best form of content for engagement and reaching new audiences.
With so many options for video on Twitter, there’s no reason why anyone should wait. It’s as easy as using a mobile device and doing a selfie video or tour of one’s place of business.
To stand out further from the crowd, contact us at 2Bridges for professional video marketing services. We offer the whole gamut when it comes to video production:
Whether it’s a personal branding video or an animated video, we can help you stand out on Twitter. Use video. Attract new audiences. Win market share with video marketing on Twitter.
