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You can make a horizontal video, vertical. But a vertical video will always be vertical.

Top 3 tips to help transform your video content to support your business growth.

Video is king trust us, we know, that’s why we’ve partnered with Vidyard! But if you didn’t already know this, the rise of TikTok, YouTube being the second biggest search engine in the world, and Instagram’s latest move towards ‘no longer being a photo-sharing app’ cements video as the medium of our social media future. 

With this in mind, we wanted to share 3 simple tips that can transform your video content to help you reach more viewers and support your business growth, from our in-house videographer Izzie Blane

Vertical or Horizontal?

A debate nearly as popular as love it or hate it, whether you should be filming your videos vertically or horizontally really depends on the platform and the message you want to communicate. 

1920x1080 is great for so many platforms - Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, LinkedIn. These staged videos with a static camera translate to your audience that you’re about to sit down and lay some thoughtful content on them. 

However, TikTok, Instagram and stories (on any platform) are better suited to the vertical 1080x1920 size. These videos are usually shorter and more informal and great for ‘showing your face’ and connecting with your community. As these videos are usually filmed on phones, be careful not to make viewers sea-sick with shaky-cam (unless you’re Paul Greengrass). 

Bottom line: you can always make a horizontal video, vertical. But a vertical video will always be vertical. 

Subtitles 

We highly recommend adding subtitles to your videos. Not only is this an accessibility issue, it actually helps get your message across.  85 per cent of Facebook video is watched without sound - this is a staggering percentage of your audience to be missing out on! Thankfully, Facebook and even Instagram stories now have closed captioning software which does the hard work for you. Just remember to read over them to make sure they’re accurate. 

If you're posting on other platforms and want to create subtitles, drop us a line! We have a few other tools we can recommend to you which can help with accurate captioning. 

Plan your videos 

Did you know that the majority of a film's production time is in pre-production? This is the planning element and easily the most underrated part. You don’t need a fully rehearsed script, but you should know which points you want to make.

According to our good friends at Vidyard, 47% of value in a video is delivered in the first 3 seconds so you need to know what you’re going to say and how you’re going to deliver that value. A 20-minute video is great, but if the hook is in the last 2 minutes, only 24% of viewers (on average) will hear it.

Video doesn’t have to be intimidating - it can actually be a fun way to grow your business by creating innovative content that gets your personality across. With software like Vidyard, this process is made even easier. 

If you are keen to grow your business then say hello@sm2communiate.co.uk. Our team of experts can help support and share their knowledge on making this medium work for you and your team.

We are a growth agency, we help your business grow.